Now, Stardock should get credit for being honest and upfront. Also, I understand you guys are a business. I'm not talking about Securom necessarily here, but the truly excessive DRM like AC2/SH5.
I think it might be a good business move to not have games like AC2 on Impulse at all.
I'd say Impulse game customers tend to fall into 3 categories (not exclusive)
a) Stardock fans
anti-drm zealots
c) People who want the sales and tend to be price sensitive
I can't see any of those groups buying it. You guys yanking AC2 might hurt your relations with Ubi , but they're name is being dragged into the mud, and you'd get some good publicity for "making a stand against stupidity"
Now, you shouldn't do this on everything, but I think in a case like this, you could make some cheap points, which may lead to profits down the road, and I can't see AC2 making you guys too much money as is.
Yes.
Not everybody is bothered by the DRM. For those people, there's no reason why it can't be there. For everybody else, Impulse warns you before you buy just what you're getting into, and you can make that decision.
At the end of the day Impulse is just a store.
The constant-connection requirement is counter-productive and annoying but since I play MMORPGs it's really not that big a deal to me and I would buy a game that had it if there was one I wanted. I don't want stores deciding which games I want or don't want on my behalf. And frankly, I'm guessing Impulse needs Ubi as much or more than Ubi needs Impulse at this point in their life-cycles.
QFT
So long as impulse is clear about what DRM is used I'd much rather they did sell such games - at least then you can buy it if you want, and most importantly you know what you're buying. If they stopped selling games with heavy DRM then it'd be much harder to find out what DRM a game featured for example (you'd be reliant on forum posts etc. which aren't as reliable since DRM schemes can change/be uncertain prior to release).
If they're upfront about it, I don't see the problem. They shouldn't be denied income simply because Ubisoft went crazy.
I agree. As long as I'm informed, they can do whatever crazy BS they want. I wouldn't want Impulse to drop Ubi or make them mad by dropping select games. Ubi could change their mind about DRM in the future and then decide to pull games from distributors that rebuffed them.
To me the Ubisoft DRM solution is better than what they've had before, because it makes it more likely PC releases will get DLC (BIG problem with Ubisoft on several games) and support future OSes (a problem Ubisoft used to have anyway.)
I don't care if Impulse carries them or not, personally. If I wanted AC2 (I already have the 360 version) I'd find somewhere to buy it. If I was denied on Impulse I'd go somewhere else. Stardock shouldn't turn this into a religion because they'd lose publishers and customers.
Yeah, dropping games with strict DRM would hurt Stardock more than the companies who are actually responsible for that DRM in the first place. They can always turn around and give it to steam, which clearly has no issues with DRM in its products.
I don't see a problem with Stardock selling draconian DRM games if they are (and have been) up front about it. The market/free enterprise system will make it clear to the publishers - ie: EA as of late. Some companies are slow on the DRM bandwagon and even slower to wake up.
We hold the power folks - I don't buy games that require a constant internet connection and logging in, or has a limited # of installs without a revoke tool. I don't care how AAA a title is. Perhaps at my age peer pressure is no concern to me. I always make sure I send an email off to the company letting them know they lost a sale as well.
The publishers IMO think that alot of gamers have a short attention span, so concerns about down servers in the future doesn't matter. They want you to buy the next game, not playing the old one into the next 10 years. They start treating their products as less disposable like kleenex and making games with staying power (like Stardock published and/or developed titles), and all this "cloud" DRM stuff will go away on it's own.
Great point about market forces, unfortunately I think many publishers are delusional. If games fail to sell due punitive DRM practices they tend to absolve themselves of reponsiblity. Instead they blame the pirates or something outside their control rather than blame themselves for their poorly designed game that was half broken upon release as the culprit of poor sales. Gamers will flock to well made fun games regardless of the few jerks who pirate games. There will always be a few bad apples that spoil the lot.
Agreed. The best way to get people to buy your product is to make your product be worth what people would pay to buy it.
I found it most ironic that Ubisoft decided to raise their prices for PC games while screwing PC gamers all in one go.
It's like saying, honest buyers? Piss off.
It is as if Ubisoft it setting themselves up for failure so that they can said "Well we tried to the PC market but the teaming masses of souless pirates stole any incentive for us to make anymore PC games. We are now a console exclusive publisher no more PC games". Either that or Ubi's management is truely that stupid.
5 years of bad choices. I'm not unwilling to believe they could improve, but I really really doubt it.
It's probably the former. With the newest Prince of Persia, they released it with no DRM whatsoever but their PR statement alongside it can be summed up as "gee, now you can pirate it, you dirty pirates", so while I was fairly happy that my beloved franchise wouldn't be killed by idiotic DRM schemes, I was afraid they were throwing it merely as an excuse to push something far worse in the future. Then AC2 came.
I know, "don't blame on malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity", but this just reeks of malice to me.
They probably figure if EA can get away with it, so can they. Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten that nobody likes EA either.
EA has done it with one game, and hasn't stated any plans to do it in the future. I find it extremely unlikely that they will. With Ubisoft I wouldn't be surprised to see several more games do it.
Well most new schemes start with one game. EA could go either way. Ubisoft has invested too much to pull out now. They're a lost cause. So whose surprised that Settlers 7 has DRM problems too... 3 for 3 Ubisoft, go paying consumers!
When even EAs lead people are bitching loudly and publicly about it though...
Yeah, we'll see.
People or just Jeff Green? Because even as he said the DRM blows, he tells people to go out and buy the game with this crappy DRM he couldn't even get to work with his connection.
OK, person, true. But it's still bitching.
Personally, even though I don't hate C&C4 I'm not really sure it was worth buying either at this point. *shrug* I'll have to give it a few more rounds.
Oh i am not saying he's nothing to sneeze at, just well, EA is pretty big and it seems unlikely even his failed DRM experience would get that gorilla to move.
I'd just think we'd have more warning if they were planning to take it to their entire collection. EA is usually pretty up front about things.
I think I've ranted about Ubisoft enough for a few years. Just thinking about them gives me a headache.
Hey EA removed extra annoying DRM from the Sims 3, and Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 (both of which i just picked up on deep discount from EA store as physical copies) so I was very pleased with them in general, but their download store is still crap and their DLC did not go smoothly at release so I think that might be lost eventually but in general I was just about to take them off my shit list when they reminded me that they are still monkeying around with DRM. They are never going to eleminate piracy, but giving ongoing updates and dlc reasons to register can certain encourage those already paying to keep paying.
I dont think drm cut sales on CnC 4 anyway.. Its been on Gamestops top 5 best sellers list for 3 or 4 months(unfortunately for those who bought it) . mIts fine for impulse to have drm titles but should give a nice warning that the game has it so we are informed. Unfortunately for me I didnt know supcom 2 had this until too late.
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