UbiSoft must really hate PC gamers. A lot.

[Dr. Ivo Robotnik]

I came across a couple of lovely articles from several different websites. It looks like UbiSoft really hates our money, and uses any excuse to get us to stop giving them our money.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/23/gh...soft-producer/

In this little gem, essentially 95% of us are calmly called pirates, because they KNOW we're all a bunch of evil, game-stealing miserable bastards. It's also felt necessary to point out that XBox gamers deserve "60 euros of super-hollywood content", whereas PC gamers... well... 'we're adapting our model to the demand'

*coughWETHINKYOUALLSUCKcough*

I thought by this point "ye gods UbiSoft, how thick can you be? Here's to hoping it's just one stupid higher-up in the company, and he'll be reprimanded for saying things so stupid in an official interview."

Then I moved on to this piece of brilliance:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/24/ub...-not-worth-it/

...different higher-up, same whining about all of us being pirates, and apparently we're flat-out bitching now?

Am I the only one who is infuriated by this? UbiSoft does it's absolute utmost to screw over it's players with shockingly draconian DRM, unfinished game releases (like Heroes of Might and Magic VI - I'll get to that), and other such bullshit, and now they have the sheer gall to call us bitchy pirates!?

I'll say here and now that I am not buying a UbiSoft product anymore until either these two morons have been summarily fired, or UbiSoft changes this appalling excuse for customer service and representation. I'll not tell others to stop buying UbiSoft's products, but I wanted to put this out there regardless, because I'm sort of incensed by this kind of atrocious moronicism.

However, you might now be thinking "hang on, that sounds like a conclusion. Where's that Heroes VI bit we all so expectantly awaited?" *shameless ego-inflation*. Well, that's coming up now, mostly because I'm slightly incoherent today, so take the conclusion above as repeated after this upcoming rant, won't you?

Heroes VI is the other reason I'm so disgusted by UbiSoft. Why? It's the single most bug-riddled mess I have ever had the misfortune to come across. It doesn't feel like I bought a game that was ready for release, it feels like I bought a game that was nearing the end of alpha testing, maybe just about to start the beta phase. The bug-list (CURRENT BUGS) is about as long as my bloody MA-thesis, several of which are actual game-breaking bugs, and several of which were actually known since the very start of the beta phase. Getting annoyed with the bugs (that aren't even hard to find or reproduce. Things just flat out don't WORK), I decided to check the official forums and the fanforums. I don't know why I was surprised at the utter lack of customer service, but there is literally not a word posted by any of the so-called 'community developers', whatever the hell that means. Essentially, the game was developed by Black Hole Entertainment and published by UbiSoft. It turns out that us giving BHE some flak about never posting anything about status updates on the - much awaited - patch 1.2 was undeserved. UbiSoft flat out doesn't ALLOW Black Hole to post on the official forums. It's left up to our 'community developer' to tell us about what Black Hole is up to, because he or she is the only one in contact with BHE. She hasn't posted since 8 november, and that was only to post a few standard forum stickies. Of the 5 regular moderators the forum has, there's only one active one. So I get more and more annoyed, and I suddenly see "Survey on Heroes VI, help improve the game!"

Hell yes, I think, and move to click the link. "Now, let's seee... language: UK English" *next* "Country... blast, the Netherlands isn't in here. Other." *next* "We're sorry, you are not part of the focus group for this survey. Have a nice day!"

...

...

...

WHAT!?

After all the dicking around, you release a survey to ask us what we want to see in this bloody game and then tell me "sorry, you're from the wrong country, now bugger off"!? Someone posted a list of the questions as well. One they had the sheer gall to ask: "How much would you be willing to pay for additional content such as new dynasty weapons (Ed: In-game artefacts, move on) or DLC?"

How about nothing at all until you finally provide some acceptable service? I understand that they don't want to get involved into forum-flame wars, but even a status update would've been nice.

So yeah. Atrocious release, followed by dickish surveys, followed by two higher-ups in the company essentially calling us bitchy pirates. No, I don't want either of the two games from the articles posted at the start, but my issue isn't with the games, it's with the appalling attitude they have.

THAT'S the actual conclusion guys, don't worry, there's only a small PS coming along.

PS: For those of you interested in some amusement, here's the link to the current (not entirely up to date) buglist on the official forums: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...8/m/3141070459.

PPS: I just realised I wrote an entire rant on UbiSoft and didn't even have to mention the atrocious DRM more than in passing. I'll keep it that way, otherwise the length of this post will surpass several of my uni essays.

[Supreme Warrior]

Well....Ubisoft makes awful products to begin with, and when they attempted (half assed I might add) a localization of Lunar Dragon Song, they Botched that up with a nice US exclusive fatal bug.

They can take their Pompous attitude and promptly shove it where the sun dont shine.

[Darklinky]

VERY VERY interesting.

Have you joined the secret santa?

Better post and tell em not to send you anything by UBI. LOL.

But seriously yeah, its bloody atrocious that they can come out and say that, about us PC gamers (not that i play ALOT of p.c).

Yes i will agree i occasionally download a pc game, but im more of a console gamer. Not to say i dont play stuff on the pc (skyrim, portal2, some dungeon crawlers) but i maybe download 2-3 pc games a YEAR and then if i really like it (i.e Skyrim) i buy it anyway.

Yes i download ALOT of Wii and Ps2 but that dont mean im a MEGA pirate and for them to say that about us is TERRIBLE.

[Dr. Ivo Robotnik]

VERY VERY interesting.

Have you joined the secret santa?

Better post and tell em not to send you anything by UBI. LOL.

But seriously yeah, its bloody atrocious that they can come out and say that, about us PC gamers (not that i play ALOT of p.c).

Yes i will agree i occasionally download a pc game, but im more of a console gamer. Not to say i dont play stuff on the pc (skyrim, portal2, some dungeon crawlers) but i maybe download 2-3 pc games a YEAR and then if i really like it (i.e Skyrim) i buy it anyway.

Yes i download ALOT of Wii and Ps2 but that dont mean im a MEGA pirate and for them to say that about us is TERRIBLE.

Can't really afford it anyway, so I had to stay out of the Secret Santa regardless

I'm personally not in favour of piracy, but I download games at times as well. Often it's due to a lack of money and I will purchase the game if it's worth it afterwards. Of course, it's also when producers decide to implement measures so unfair that a game becomes nigh-unplayable due to it. See UbiSoft's always-online bullshit for example.

[Kouen Hasuki]

Some people I Hear want to bring a class action law suit against Ubisoft for there remarks

I For one would support it >.< I Did post something on the steam forum regarding it ill paste it here:

The title should read "No Future Soldier on PC because of laziness from Ubifail"

They Fail like most to look at the sales figures of Digi Distro as well as Retail

They have riddled there games with so many bugs (See Latest Heroes of might & Magic forum for good example) or ported games so poorly its unplayable (See anything they released on PC the past few years)

Then they wonder why no one is buying there PC games... its kinda funny to me really... well I never liked much coming out from them anyways So this is not a huge loss in fact the only reason im in this section is becuase of *Shock Horror* a bug I was looking for a fix (GRAW 1 Comm Command issue). I Wouldn't buy one of there games full price and I have to triple check there titles for that dreaded DRM.

My Personal Opinion: This is NO loss to the PC Community considering its a case of pick between Bug Riddled mess, Poor port that does not work correctly, DRM'd to hell and back or Nothing. I Prefer Nothing

[Englebert3rd]

Yeah, talked with Kouen about it. Very stupid move, but I suspect that Ubisoft (once, but very once, a great company) don't want to have anything to do with PC gaming anymore. Probably because of the costs, but the piracy isn't one of them reasons. It's an obvious scapegoat, and to be honest they want to cut with the porting + extra DVDs. Their ports have been lazy time after time, and to be honest and much obviously their DRM sucks. I haven't played recently any Ubisoft game, maybe subconciously, but surely now they are making me doubt.

[Dr. Ivo Robotnik]

Yeah, talked with Kouen about it. Very stupid move, but I suspect that Ubisoft (once, but very once, a great company) don't want to have anything to do with PC gaming anymore. Probably because of the costs, but the piracy isn't one of them reasons. It's an obvious scapegoat, and to be honest they want to cut with the porting + extra DVDs. Their ports have been lazy time after time, and to be honest and much obviously their DRM sucks. I haven't played recently any Ubisoft game, maybe subconciously, but surely now they are making me doubt.

While I agree that it definitely looks like UbiSoft wants out of the PC market, that's fine. It's a marketing decision on their part. That doesn't mean they should do it like this. Because they've also lost a console sale or two from me with this bollocks. (Was considering getting Rayman Origins, which looks great, but I flat-out REFUSE to spend money on this company any longer.)

[Darklinky]

Rayman origins aint that great anyway dude, just another side scroller platformer (i only played first 2 levels tho)

and maybe they are right coz i downloaded the wii leaked version 2 days before it came out lol

[Englebert3rd]

The first Rayman is a side-scroller platformer.

[Darklinky]

The first Rayman is a side-scroller platformer.

And so is the new one.

[Supreme Warrior]

Kinda sounds like they are trying to copy Sega and jump on the OLD SCHOOL COOL bandwagon, wonder who will follow suit?

[Dr. Ivo Robotnik]

Kinda sounds like they are trying to copy Sega and jump on the OLD SCHOOL COOL bandwagon, wonder who will follow suit?

Perhaps, but at the same time, if a game's in 2D and works very well, who cares?

From looking at that, the gameplay certainly looks fun, but we're kinda drifting off topic here. We're supposed to be bashing UbiSoft here! FOCUS!

[TheRealSpiders]

I was never much for PC gaming, but I feel like it's a little much to alienate a portion of the market... and then practically gloat about it.

[Englebert3rd]

I was never much for PC gaming, but I feel like it's a little much to alienate a portion of the market... and then practically gloat about it.

Well that's what Ubisoft does and what Epic games did too.

[Qwelzaar]

The comments of I Am Alive’s creative director suggests that if the company can’t find a viable solution, they’re likely to consider skipping PC altogether.

I have a suggestion for the guys at Ubisoft. Now, this may sound crazy, but how about releasing a game that's worth the money and not a pain the ass to play? The DRM they use is terrible and punishes paying customers rather than pirates. It reminds me of a picture I saw explaining why people pirate movies. Basically, when you buy a movie you have to go through a bunch of bullshit before you can even watch it. When you pirate a movie, though, you press play and the movie starts right away. It's the same situation with games. I'm not going to pay $50 for a broken game and then bend over backwards just so I can install a day one patch, and then finally play the game only to realize it's a shitty game anyway. And that's not even taking into account how many developers release paid DLC that includes content that should already be in the game.