Devil’s Advocate: Does Ubisoft have a point?

Ubisoft has managed to raise the ire of many a PC gamer in recent days, with I Am Alive developer, Stanislas Mettra, saying that releasing his game on the PC platform wasn’t “worth it” due to high levels of piracy and general disinterest.

Even though he’s quickly back-tracked on his comments and clarified Ubisoft’s position on the matter – this hasn’t stopped yet another Ubisoft game from getting the PC chop – Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

When you look at the VG Chartz sales figures below (which are calculated estimates) for some of Ubisoft’s titles…they may have a point.

Note that the following figures exclude digital distribution sales (Valve don’t release Steam sales figures) and are only as accurate as you trust VG Chartz to be – which is another matter altogether – so they’re purely a reference point.

Far Cry 2

PS3 – 1,165,666
360 – 1,519,888
PC – 472,455

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

PS3 – 3,730,671
360 – 4,005,758
PC – 143,635

Driver: San Francisco

PS3 – 259,499
360 – 202,580
PC – 6,599

Shaun White Skateboarding

PS3 – 47,795
360 – 67,093
PC – 14,127

I think you’re starting to see the trend here

Of course, it’s never quite as simple as the figures show. The “PC is for piracy” argument is by no means a new one – and many developers have slammed the PC platform for the high rate of video game piracy in the past. Bethesda’s Pete Hines was also recently quoted saying that “PC is a headache”, and touts piracy as a big issue.

Ubisoft in particular have been pretty aggressive in their bid to combat piracy through introducing DRM into their recent titles in the form of uPlay. This is a move which the MD of digital distribution service Good Old Games (known for selling DRM free games) says is going to harm sales in the long run – and that point may well have been proven in this case.

This particular DRM from Ubisoft is a nasty piece of work – effectively punishing gamers who legitimately try to play the games that use it.

The DRM prevents games from being fully installed onto your PC, keeping progression data on Ubisoft servers. As you play, the DRM constantly communicates with the servers and downloads the data as you progress.

No internet, no game.

The DRM was widely criticised by gamers and many people pirated the games that implemented it – partly out of protest, but mostly because the pirated games were easier to play – which had an obvious negative impact on Ubisoft’s sales, and probably spurned the position they take now.

So what’s the real issue? Are Ubisoft failing to see the irony of their anti-piracy techniques causing more piracy – and are instead choosing to interpret their sales as PC gamer disinterest?

Or, is it perhaps true? Are PC numbers dwindling in comparison to its console brethren because the platform is just so much more open to piracy?

Looking at the recent figures for the 3 biggest releases in as many weeks, things aren’t as peachy on the PC front as one might expect.

Skyrim

PS3 – 969,454
360 – 1,997,215
PC – 555,554

Battlefield 3

PS3 – 2,418,421
360 – 3,332,395
PC – 716,269

Modern Warfare 3

PS3 – 4,700,174
360 – 6,677,257
PC – 369,155

On the other hand, there are cases where PC wins over the consoles in sales, too – according to Valve, in a rare moment of slipping a vague but valuable bit of sales information Gamasutra’s way, Portal 2 had sold much better on PC than it had on consoles.

If you’re worried that Ubi may be onto something, or that consoles are ruining everything – then check out this neat infographic from Ignite Game Technologies, which heralds the rise of PC gaming. Again, that is.