Ubisoft: PC piracy cannibalising console sales

via Games Industry


Ubisoft Shanghai's creative director Michael de Plater has said that piracy is killing the PC gaming market.

The reason the studio's latest title, Tom Clancy's EndWar, isn't being released for the PC on the same day as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions is because users will steal the pirated PC copy, rather than pay for a console version, according to de Plater.

"To be honest, if PC wasn't pirated to hell and back, there'd probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two," he told VG247.

"But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you're doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy's basically killing PC."

"You know, the level of piracy that you get with the PC just cannibalises the others, because people just steal that version," he said.

how can they complain about piracy then release it on the 360. its no better than a PC it doesnt need any extra hardware all you need is to flash the disc drive.

as far as I know the PS3 is the only system you cant play pirate games on so this is a realy poor reason for delayed PC releases.

still far easier to pirate pc games that 360, + most don't want to risk losing live.

Nah, it's a lot easier to pirate the PC version of a game than to download an ISO, flash the 360's BIOS, and then if you're found out, lose live.