By John Walker on July 25th, 2011 at 8:09 pm.
Get ready to fall off your chair, and probably through the floor itself, with shock. From Dust, the new game from Eric “Another World” Chahi, was due out from Ubisoft on Wednesday this week. But would you just flipping believe it – Green Man Gaming are reporting that at the very last moment it seems the PC version only has being delayed!
Climb back up, calm yourself down. I know. It’s too much. Of all people, who would have thought Ubi could be the ones to suddenly delay the PC version of a game at the eleventh hour, like they did with Call Of Juarez: The Cartel last week. And others of their games in the last couple of years.
Now due on the 17th August on the PC, 360 owners will be able to enjoy the game almost a month in advance.
Last week, when the same happened with Call Of Juarez: The Cartel, I approached Ubisoft to ask why this had happened on this occasion, and more importantly, why it happens on so many occasions. After a couple of days I received this reply:
“Our teams work hard to ensure that all versions of our games achieve a level of polish and quality that our customers will appreciate. The development team needed a little more time to focus on the PC version [of Call of Juarez], so we adjusted the date accordingly.”
The answer to my second question, came it not.
It’s worth noting that while Green Man and GamersGate have both updated the release date on their sites, Ubisoft are still selling it as if it will come out on Wednesday.
Big thanks to Trey for letting us know.
It’s like they really don’t give a shit about PC Gaming.
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Oh they give a shit. In fact they’ve given PC gamers plenty of shit.
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Zing!
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And they treat PC gamers like shit.
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Thanks for explaining that there, I was thinking, “I don’t remember receiving any excrement”, but then I saw the hilarity. Oh, you jesters.
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Remember that Tom Clancy game? The one where the multiplayer would only find servers half the time, and randomly disconnect everyone in the middle of gameplay?
Oh that’s right. That was all of them.
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You guys do realize that any game with 3D on the PC has to work with a bunch of exotic hardware configurations and figuring all the out takes time, right? You do realize that it’s better to get the game working right than to rush out a sloppy mess, right? You do realize it’s just plain less time consuming to develop games for consoles, right?
It’s really no wonder why so many Indies stick to 2D and so many AAA developers stick to console-only.
EDIT: Being Ubisoft, why the hell are we even worried about it being delayed (TO MAKE IT WORK RIGHT)? Shouldn’t we be more worried about the DRM?
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@MadTinkerer:
That’s pure BS, but let’s believe for a moment that it’s true.
It’s the fourth or fifth game that Ubi delays for PC TWO FUCKING DAYS from release, citing “optimizations, polishing and whatever” as excuses. The last ones came one to six months later, with bugs the size of cathedrals, zero optimizations beside “mouse and keyboard” (ohhhhhh, thanks for that!) and a huge ration of completely unacceptable DRM.
I’m starting to fear that this one is going to be exactly the same, despite having Eric Chahi at the helm. The level of stupidity and douchebagginess at Ubi is just too high to compensate for.
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“You guys do realize that any game with 3D on the PC has to work with a bunch of exotic hardware configurations and figuring all the out takes time, right?”
Yeah, thats definitly the reason. Making PC games is hard, poor Ubi.
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“You guys do realize that any game with 3D on the PC has to work with a bunch of exotic hardware configurations and figuring all the out takes time, right?”
Hi, I’m DirectX, nice to meet you. I solve 99% of the problems you named easily and without breaking a sweat.
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@MadTinkerer Lets assume that we do know this, lets assume that everyone on a gaming blog knows this. Do you think that would imply that everyone working on a PC game in a studio for their living knows this?
So perhaps it’s reasonable to assume that they can project manage as such. Things like this never just happen, not on projects that large. They must have know weeks and weeks ago that they would have to delay and if they didn’t they should sack the PM.
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★★◎Something unexpected surprise
Look, even the spam bot’s shocked.
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Yeah, I’m just not understanding why we’re all piling on Ubisoft in particular for this. They’re actually trying to give us a game that is very much the sort of thing you’d have only seen on the PC ten years ago, as opposed to making something primarily aimed at the 18-35 consoletard demographic and then porting it to the PC over a year later.
@rocketman71: Uh yeah, I brought up the DRM issue first. No one else mentioned it (except possibly much further down the comment list) until I did. My point is that why are we complaining primarily about a delay, when the delay is due to an effort to try and fix all the issues you mentioned (other than DRM)?
@CaspianRoach: You’re a PC gamer yourself, so you know darn well 99% ain’t acceptable to us non-consoletards. And as a programmer who is learning DirectX myself, I can tell you that programming in DirectX does not make things as simple as if you only had one hardware configuration.
@Nallen: No, actually a lot of times major stuff is overlooked and only discovered at the last minute, or major problems develop that didn’t exist in the earlier versions of the software; in all kinds of software development, not just games. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any need for post-release patches.
Bottom line is: We’re PC gamers. We are also humans with functioning brains capable of remembering things. I remain unconvinced that any of this bitching over delays in this particular case is justified. Valve still haven’t released Episode 3. 3D Realms killed themselves failing to finish what ended up being a mediocre FPS. EA keeps killing studios that don’t measure up. Activision keeps killing studios that are wildly successful. XCOM is an FPS. The latest Ultima is a F2P Facebook Evony clone. Let’s have some fucking perspective here.
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@MadTinkerer You’re far too optimistic. This is their perfect way of fighting day one piracy – /force/ people to buy console versions of the game. Simple, effective and grows the console market share. All wins for Ubisoft. Whereas if it was never announced for PC, most PC gamers wouldn’t care about the game.
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Spambot is a big fan of From Dust. He has trouble with DRM and delays. Spambot is not so different than YOU.
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F.
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My question would be, “don’t you think it hurts PC sales to constantly release PC versions months behind console versions, and are you doing this purposefully to further an argument against the viability of the PC market?”
Because it smells of self-fulfilling prophecy to me.
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Good depressing point.
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“…are you doing this purposefully to further an argument against the viability of the PC market”
Don’t be daft. Who on Earth do you think they need to convince? If they didn’t want to sell games on PC they just wouldn’t
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Their investors. Other CEOs. And us.
They stand to gain quite a bit if us PC gamers would just give up the platform. They wouldn’t have to code specifically for us, they wouldn’t have to spend money on DRM, they wouldn’t have to accede to our unique demands (Clan servers! Server browsers! Mod tools! Ongoing support! Updates that aren’t just packaged and sold as DLC!)… they’d make out like bandits.
They don’t only because we’re a large enough market that they can’t ignore us at will and truthfully report to their investors that they’re playing every angle. We’d get royally fucked in the bargain if we ever did give it up, but then, it only seems so self-evident to us.
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The best way to make you give up the platform would be to not put out games for it at all. You’re suggesting they’re going to the trouble of making a PC version and then secretly hoping that it doesn’t sell, which is crazy and all the way paranoid. A far more efficient way to not sell something is to just not make it in the first place.
This is about not allowing PC piracy to cut the legs out from under console sales during launch. It’s always been about that.
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The problem I see with this^ is that I regularly see console versions of multiplatform games get released by warez groups before PC versions, often days or a week before the retail release date. Wouldn’t a pirated console version several days before the retail release undercut console sales more than a pirated PC release several days after retail?
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I see what you’re saying, Jimbo, and yet fail to see how it isn’t an explicit attempt to undercut PC sales.
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to be fair, i think pirating for consoles is less likely to be a huge issue because you have to hack the hardware first. generally pirating for pc is as easy as download, mount and go whereas xbox requires hacked hardware and a carefully done burn to work.
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If Ubisoft wants out of the PC market, that’s fine. We’ll just spend our money somewhere else. As for lowering our standards to accept the crap consoletards are used to, it just won’t happen. After all the fiascos Ubisoft managed to get itself into, you’d think they would have learned this by now.
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Why i’m not surprised?
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Damn, and here i thought i would get something to play this week.
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Ahh, I wondered why it said 17th of August on Gamersgate.
In other news, I think my facial hair is turning black from brown. Curious.
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Not currious at all, human hair get darker has you age (before you start to be affected by hair turning grey), for the best example look Scandinavian population, it easy enough to find a natural platinum blonde kid, but even there you will have to search for an adult for who it is a natural color.
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At least you’ve got hair!
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This gives me hope, as an individual of dark complexion with a little too much ginger in the beard department. Hang on, did someone mention Ubisoft?
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My beard in a veritable rainbow of hair-color, like a freshly ground peppercorn medley.
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I’m 26, and i have facial hair like a 16 year-old. It’s just a dawn of a moustache…
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I’m 18 and I have facial hair like a 16 year old. It’s barely there, which is a shame because it’s a lovely copper colour, unlike my actual hair which is boring brown.
@Pinkables: No, what are you talking about? Ubisoft? Pshaw!
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Peshawar?! I hear it’s a nice place to visit. The naan is nice too.
There are lots of men with beards there.
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That’s funny because I’m 5 and have a beard like a 40 year old.
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I think everyone should have at least one beard. Unless you have more than one chin. Then you should have one beard per chin. Otherwise it would just look silly.
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Problem is, every chin starting from the second is really neck, so you’d just be rocking massive neckbeard.
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Better than black to ‘salt ‘n’ pepper’ as I believe they call it.
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I saw the above comment out of context in the side feed and nearly died of shock.
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I grew a hair chest way way before anything else, like 14 years old, totally over night too. Wake up one morning and BAM, body decided to give me a t shirt.
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Idiots.
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Unless they really do have to do something major to fix it or whatever for the pc release this is rubbish. Clearly this is more of a “pc game” than a “console game” and they should have put the effort in there to make it better…which it sounds like they’re doing. So I’ve confused myself. Maybe what I meant is they should have designed it for the pc then ported it to consoles? Yes, probably.
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It could work well on consoles as well, there isn’t much of a distinction between mouse and analog stick in this game I think
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At least now instead of competing with no other substantial major releases, it will come out within a week of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
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Indeed. On the bright side, I know what to get myself for Christmas.
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Who buys PC games on their release date anyways? The only things generally worth getting new (and unpatched) are mmo’s, although I’ll make an exception for something like Deus Ex. Digital distribution sales turn most gamers into bargain hunters.
CoJ is not Deus Ex. hmmm
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“Who buys PC games on their release date anyways? ”
Nobody. Not a single person, ever. Nobody ever wants a video game that they’ve been looking forward to on day 1. That just does not happen. I don’t even know why you brought it up because it’s such a crazy, radical idea.
Although I have no idea what that has to do with anything, to be honest.
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If anything, wouldn’t you not want to buy an MMO on launch? From a purely unscientific look through my memory, I’d say that MMOs tend to have more problems on day 1 than not MMOs. And since console-to-PC ports often takes months to complete, you’d often already know whether a PC game is good or not.
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““Who buys PC games on their release date anyways? ””
The people pre-ordering The Old Republic.
Well they buy it, they might not actually GET it on release.
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If anything, wouldn’t you not want to buy an MMO on launch?
Completely agree, seems strange to make an exception for, of all genres, MMOs, who tend to be a lot more buggy, unstable, unbalanced (and loaded with server problems) than any single-player game ever could be. Strange logic.
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:( preordered this yesterday
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Is the game going to come out on Steam? Still can’t pre-order it from Valve.
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We need to appreciate the fact that it takes a lot of time and resources to configure and install crippling DRM.
I only hope it has mouse support when it finally gets released. My guess is that we will have to use the arrow keys to navigate the menu system.
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Seeing as it’s Ubisoft, it’s only a matter of time before they put out a mouse-based game where you move the cursor with the arrow keys.
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Have you played assassins creed II? You were better of using the arrow keys when using the pointer on the map.
They’re THAT good.
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Well it’s a Ubisoft game. That automatically devalues it to the point of worthlessness anyway.
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Not exactly fair there. Their development wing has plenty of brilliant ideas, that then get stomped all over by the publishing department.
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Wat.
Whoever’s in charge of Ubisoft publishing should be shot in cold blood, but the creative and development branches of Ubi are actually some of the best in the industry. You’re not going to get the Assassin’s Creed series out of an American developer, I’ll tell you that much.
I know it’s strange, but after waiting for years because Ubi’s publisher house chose to shat all over ACII’s PC release until they finally removed their always-on DRM, and after having jumped hurdles making accounts for their stupid Uplay program (read: also DRM, albeit less obvious/intrusive), I got to play ACII and loved the hell out of that absolutely stellar game. Similar experiences with pretty much anything from them. Brilliant titles shit-coated by people who don’t know the first thing about proper publishing.
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oooooooooooh nooooooooooooooooo
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Any mention if this game will ship Ubisofts notoriously horrendous DRM? If it does, that’s the final nail in the coffin for this game as far as I’m concerned.
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It could be a lie, to be able to use the tactic of releasing something later on PCs to reduce day-one piracy, without the negative response to that tactic. Covering that up as: “yeah, we just want to make sure its high quality”. Pretty crafty, if you ask me.
Of course, it could also be that the company is filled with people who are as bad as me at judging the amount of time required to finish work, and only want to say so a few days before the deadline.
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You won’t really reduce the piracy by this, only postpone it…
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Of course that is the reason. I can’t believe that there ever were any doubts.
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Noone said it was a great plan, I suppose.
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Preventing people from legitimately buying a game has always been an effective deterrent to piracy.
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I know there are some people that don’t place a priority on gaming, and will gladly pirate everything with no intention of paying, when they could in fact actually be buying games and supporting the hobby .. Unfortunately, delaying PC releases just means those people get the games ahead of the rest of us, because leaks happen regardless of what the actual release date is.
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I think you’re right. This fits Ubisoft’s adversarial approach towards pirates (and therefore consumers in general.) To be honest I like this a lot better than the “always-on” drm, and chances are they planned this from the start.
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At this point, consoles are actually the easier platform to pirate on. The console version is almost always leaked first and doesn’t need a crack made especially for it to work.
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“You won’t really reduce the piracy by this, only postpone it…”
I would actually say you will increase it, the game will be out so the sweet spot of major buyers is gone, just left with teh people trying it out or peopel who have read the reviews and found out its crap who don’t want to pay for it.
Talk about digging your own grave!
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Noooooo.
Why can’t we have nice things? :(
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I’m too disillusioned with the AAA industry to care any more.
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Although to be fair it’s a download only (?) auteur-led budget title, which is exactly what the likes of Ubisoft ought to be doing for the PC right now.
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“Ought to be” is exactly where the despair comes from. Fucking AAA publishers. Fucking twats. There should be more organisations than just RPS calling them out on the fact that ALL of their PC games are mysteriously delayed at the eleventh hour.
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Ubisoft isn’t exactly my publisher darling at the moment but to be fair, if the game were to be released as a shitty, buggy port, we would complain just as much and would ask why they didn’t give them some extra time to polish it up.
I’m still paranoid enough from my previous experiences with that awful company that they do it for some bizarre marketing decision.
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Oh, it’ll still be a shitty port. But now it’ll be a shitty port with DRM that sodomizes your compy.
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yeah, if it happened now and again you might have a point, but every time in recent memory? Shenanigans. Or as most people call them: “Lies”.
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Don’t worry, they’re clearly spending the longer time making sure it’s not a crappy PC port. I mean no way Ubisoft would sully their good name with a rushed PC port? Right guys?
:|
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I’ve many an intellectual argument to present against this policy. Instead I want to say this.
Motherfuckers.
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On another note, I watched the first minutes of Call Of Juarez: The Cartel being played yesterday and holy shit what a piece of crap. I think my eyes broke because of the fogginess and blurriness of the game. Either way, this is not a surprise any more and I will probably never buy a PC release by Ubisoft again.
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Yeah, I watched some of Giant Bomb’s quick look, and I’m mad I wasted even those twenty minutes.
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It’s priced £19.99 on Steam with no ‘special’ discount so they seem to partially realise this.
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Is it me, or is Ubisoft staffed by complete morons?
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No, it’s just headed by complete morons. I can’t believe their DRM schemes are being devised by someone low enough on the corporate totem pole that his actions would be accountable to and criticizable by others around him.
I still won’t buy any Ubisoft products until they apologize to PC gamers (either by way of releasing their games completely DRM free or by admitting they screwed up, but preferrably both). I hope they do before they release Beyond Good & Evil 2 though, as I’d hate to skip that like I’ve skipped the Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, and Prince of Persia franchises since the DRM was introduced.
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fuck you ubisoft :\ any news if the game will ship with their draconian DRM or not? I mean, can I play it offline?
If not, well this will be the first time I’ll pirate\ buy and crack an eric chahi game : ( and then i’ll buy it when it’s on sale or something
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Gamersgate have it marked as a ‘Permanent Internet connection required’ game so I’d say their DRM is present and correct – yes.
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And just like that I am no longer buying it.
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This makes good business sense. A lot of people will rush out and buy the console version and then buy the PC version as well simply because this sort of game (and pretty much every sort of game except beat’em ups) plays ten times better on a PC. This has been proven by many previous games, such as GTA eta al. I seriously doubt it works the other way around.
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Well I have a console, but all this delay means to me is that I have to wait, and get slightly peeved. I’m certainly not going to buy it twice.
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Yeah I really don’t know if that argument holds up.
PC games are generally cheaper, so even if you have a console, if waiting a month for the PC version takes 10 quid off asking price I can wait a month.
If you can’t you really should look into having more self control…
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Yeah I don’t really know if that argument holds up either, but that’s not enough to stop your average cynical businessman from trying to bleed a few more pennies out of less astute punters.
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Nah, this really doesn’t make sense. First of all, it’s a downloadable title that’s retailing for under $20. Your profit margin on whatever handful of people you might get with such a tactic can’t be particularly high. Secondly, I don’t know who, when confronted with the news that their preferred platform’s version of a game will be a few weeks late, will go and buy an inferior platform’s just to play a little bit sooner. The way you get people to double dip is to be Rockstar and claim that you have no plans of ever releasing a PC version, right up until you do release one a year or so later.
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Watch the same thing happen with Driver: San Francisco (for now the release date on Steam is still the same as consoles but we all know that’s gonna change)
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Still really looking forward to it :)
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Oh fuck off.
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[publisher name] postponing PC release to weeks after console release, again eh? F**K YOU [publisher name]!
It’s a sad state of affairs. :(
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Isn’t [publisher name] almost always Ubisoft? I may be misremembering.
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Ah, I remember now. It was the last minute nature of the delay that caught my attention and distinctly said “Ubisoft”.
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Seems obvious that Ubisoft wants to milk console sales first.
Lost my sale now.
Fuck you, Ubisoft.
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Its clear Ubisoft is doing this to “combat piracy” by not releasing on pc their games until after the console versions have released for several weeks, so as to drive more sales towards those copies rather than lose sales to piracy on the pc.
Just like with every other Ubisoft anti piracy measure, we the paying consumers get screwed, the pirates will still play for free.
Think I”m just not going to get this now at all.
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Brilliant plan. Cause every game sold on a PC is a lost game, and every game sold on a console is a profit. Also because all PC gamers will run to no-piracy-ever-never consoles version of their game just because it gets released first instead of totally ignoring their pathetic company.
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I guess a Summer of Arcade (or whatever the XBLA promotion is called) title being released concurrently on the PC was too good to be true. At least we’re getting this, unlike Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet which started out as a PC game IIRC.
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Nope, it was always an XBLA title.
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Reality: Ubisoft(unlike many devs) releases their major titles on PC and have messed up with some bad DRM.
PC Gaming Perception: Ubisoft is the devil how dare they insult us by bringing their games to PC.
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Yea, right, cause we should bow before the UbiShit and give them all out money just because they release games on a PC.
If you haven’t noticed: Most of major titles get released on a PC these days. It’s not 2009.
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“Reality: Ubisoft(unlike many devs) releases their major titles on PC and have messed up with some bad DRM.”
No this is not correct
“Reality: Ubisoft SAY they are going to release the game on PC, go as much as to say it in press releases etc, then week before release say “PC version delayed” and then only release on other two consoles. No clue if they ever actually intended to release on said day (btw if it was ever fonud out through any means that they actually intended to do this from the get go, as past behaviour would imply, they could be presecuted for fraud, as fraud is gaining an advantage through misinformation which this would be an exmaple of”
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I’m going to give Ubisoft the benefit of doubt and force myself to believe this is because of lack of polish in PC-version, but then again, the announcement comes pretty late. I don’t know. :(
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I must’ve missed something. I always thought it was mid-August.
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From Dust just went from “day one purchase” to “wait for the Thanksgiving or year-end sale” for me.
Given how many untouched games I have on my Steam list it’s getting harder to justify buying anything for full price unless the publisher really works hard to wow me.
Also, the PC version is so important the game’s official site doesn’t even indicate there’ll be one – At the bottom of the main page it only has X-Box 360 and PS3 logos.
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Believe it or not, delays result in a better game, but because its Ubisoft this must not be the case. What makes them different from every other dev?
Team Fortress 2, Half Life 2, and other “PC” titles were delayed for years but you don’t hear the BS that is posted when Ubi delays their game a month.
As always, hypocrisy is the main theme at RockPaperShotgun.
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Consistently not releasing products on time on one particular platform gives customers a certain impression of the publisher – namely that they couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery.
Yes, it’ll be better than what it was going to be, but it should have been that good on the release date they gave it in the first place. Consistent failure to meet deadlines smacks of incompetence.
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Well, smacks of either incompetence or outright assholery.
Salad10203, none of your examples make sense, because they don’t match the facts of this situation in the slightest. So, huh?
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I don’t think hypocrisy means what you think it means. Treating two different companies differently because of what we’re learned about them from their past actions isn’t hypocrisy.
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@SpakAttack, so Valve and Blizzard are clearly incompetent, since they can never manage to hit a release date then?
Honestly, I don’t get 90% of the comment thread; they delayed the game so that they had more time for *bug fixes*. Would you rather have more bugs? Don’t we complain vociferously about releasing clearly unfinished code?
The only thing that has happened here is that the PC release date has been pushed back so that they can spend further development time on making it work right. The console version does not require additional work. If there were no console version, then this would be identical to a Valve or Blizzard last minute delay, which happen *all the time*. Nothing weird is going on here at all, except that it happens to be Ubisoft, and there happens to be a console version, both of which are strictly speaking irrelevant to the concept of a PC game being delayed.
As to why it happens so often: PC game development is a lot more complicated than console development, just by nature of their respective architectures. You either take the time to do it right or you release buggy code. I would personally rather wait an extra few weeks before purchasing the game than wait an extra few weeks for the patch that makes my game playable.
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You might have a point if Blizzard or Valve delayed a game for one platform but not others.
They don’t.
When Blizzard or Valve delay a game, it isn’t for just one platform – they delay release of the game because the game is not currently complete.
From Dust is currently complete. It will be shipped on the Xbox 360 on Wednesday. It will not be shipped on the PC on Wednesday. Why? We don’t know. However, it is reasonable to suspect some form of shenanigans, because Ubi has done this sort of thing before.
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@Tacroy
You’re part regarding Valve is sound, but when has Blizzard ever had a multi-platform release?
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@Eolirin: When Valve or Blizzard miss a release date, this always (to date) results in a better game and is thus worth the wait. The same does not happen when Ubisoft delays a game (to date.) Usually we get a worse game.
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@Srethron
How often have we had a chance to play those pre-release versions? Only one I can think is Lost Coast.
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@Kaira: How about when Half-Life 2 was leaked? I understand that version was vastly different than the final game.
For Blizzard examples, I was thinking of their public multiplayer “betas”. By the time the game is actually released, the changes from public beta day 1 are substantial. Single player is harder to know, but we do have work-in-progress footage from Blizzcon demonstrations of, say, Starcraft II vs. the single player I paid moneys for.
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Oh yes, of course. I didn’t personally play the leak. For some reason mistook “Lost Coast” being that leak.
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@ Kaira: I haven’t played the leak either, but I remember reading a lot about it when Valve caught the hacker who was responsible. The Combine Overwatch wiki has a description of what gameplay and story in the leak is like. It’s pretty different, and sounds quite unfinished–but also interesting.
The book Half-Life 2: Raising The Bar also had a lot of info about how the game changed during its development process. Valve employees were pretty open with details about how the entire story was revamped multiple times, leading to cut levels, rearrangements, redesigns of Alyx, and so on.
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“Consistently not releasing products on time on one particular platform gives customers a certain impression of the publisher – namely that they couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery.”
You should know that every single game has trouble meeting the projected release date. “Crunch time” – massive amounts of (often unpaid) overtime put in at the end of a project to finish it in time for a release date – is a massive thing in the industry.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/05/the-death-march-the-problem-of-crunch-time-in-game-development.ars
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More to the point, when has Blizzard *ever* missed a release date? They don’t even give a date until they *know* when it’s coming out.
And I’m not sure, but I can’t recall Valve missing a date they’ve set either.
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@Azradesh
Here, let me help you.
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time
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“Also, the PC version is so important the game’s official site doesn’t even indicate there’ll be one – At the bottom of the main page it only has X-Box 360 and PS3 logos.”
I don’t know what page you’re looking at but I can see the PC logo there quite clearly:
http://from-dust.ubi.com/from-dust/en-GB/home/index.aspx
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“The answer to my second question, came it not.”
The syntax of John today, I find very endearing.
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Shame, but whatever. I can understand how it can be possible to have the game reach the Xbox quality bar but for it to still not be in a shippable state on PC. Hardware compatibility issues, etc.
I still think this looks gorgeous and I’ll still buy the PC version.
Which, by the way, is surely the correct “vote with your wallet” option if you want Ubi to prioritise the PC versions of future games. Not to not buy it at all, or to buy the console version, or to pirate it. Hate to point out the bleedin’ obvious, but this thread seems to have a lot of “cut off your nose to spite your face” suggestions… ;-)
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Shame, this game looked interesting. Given it’s a Ubisoft game though, I’d always intended to wait and see if the port was shoddy and the DRM terribad. Now I’ll be waiting longer, and with my well known attention span difficulties I’ll almost certainly have forgotten I was interested when it eventually limps out.
Something to be reminded of in a Steam sale a year or two down the line, I suspect. If it’s good enough, well known review aggregation sites will give it a decent enough score that I’ll pick it up for 4.99 or similar.
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Phew! Good thing I don’t give a flying fuck about Ubisoft titles. I swore off them when they implemented their always-on DRM.
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Thank you Ubi, for not releasing some buggy piece of derp that causes us to resent you profusely for not properly testing your games.
Making us resent you just a little for making us wait to play a well-made piece of derp is the lesser of 2 evils.
Just remember: at least theyre not activly kicking puppies.
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You can’t be sure of that, god knows what goes on in their HQ. Plus, they’re French
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@Zigs
Wouldn’t that mean that Ubisoft is actively getting kicked by puppies? Eh? Eh?
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Weird that it was slated for the same day anyway, given it’s in the XBL Summer of Arcade thing. They usually have to be exclusive or timed exclusive to be in it afaik. Maybe Microsoft just realised and were all “lol no”.
I have a week off and was intending to play this on Wednesday. Annoying.
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I’m intrigued by the number of people saying they were eagerly expecting this game. I have such a monumental backlog of games from the Steam Sales that I just can’t fathom caring about a release date. If it’s any good I’ll pick it up in the next Steam sale.
I love it, it’s much cheaper this way and I couldn’t give a monkeys about a slipped release date.
Have you really played every game you own? There’s not one AAA game you picked up cheap recently and haven’t played?
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Well, yeah, but this looks better! That’s why I would have bought this day one and only bought those other games when they were giving them away 12 months after they came out… I suppose I will begrudgingly play one of those other games ¬_¬
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Yes I have, I don’t mass buy at sales, I have a list in my head and selectively choose what I want. Only bought two things this summer sale!
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Delays happen, especially with Ubisoft, but I really don’t agree with this policy of theirs to announce the delays mere days before the release date. For few months now we’ve known and been told that the PC and XBLA versions would release on the same day but suddenly two days before that date, the PC version is delayed by three weeks. With the Cartel they announced the two month delay about a week before the release day. I guess they have huge flaws within their publishing department and following this trend, the next PC delay they will likely announce AFTER the release date of the game.
Also the Cartel still has a release date of 21.7.2011 at the Ubisoft Store so no point following those dates.
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You could claim that they hit legitimate delays and prioritised their largest market which is unfortunate but understandable.
It is very odd that it happens quite so regularly.
Perhaps they either weren’t ever planning on doing the porting until after the game’s release for cost savings reasons, or delay to reduce the impact of piracy.
Here’s another thought. Many people are multi-cultural and own consoles and PCs. Givent he choice of a $60 Xbox game or the same $50 PC game, people will probably choose the PC version. I know I bought Grand Theft Auto 4 on Xbox because there was no PC version, and I bought Grand Theft Horsie on Xbox too.
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Really, Ubisoft? Really? Let me guess, when you delay the PC release an entire month, release it with DRM, and release within the same window as a title such as Deus Ex.. You’re going to blame everyone but yourselves for the horrible sales and the piracy?
I’m not playing this game with a controller, but neither can I see myself buying this while Deus Ex is just around the corner.
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Its fifteen dollars. You were going to buy it or you weren’t.
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He was going to buy it and now isn’t.
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Chronic consolitis. :8
Seriously, I WAS kind of waiting for this one. Probably am not anymore. Screwing customers so many times over ain’t a good thing.
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It infuriates me how they do this, they treat our beloved PC platform like shit. Really makes me want to go out and pirate it, on every platform, just to make a statement.
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“beloved”?
Its a platform, not a starving child.
And pirating games makes you a shitheel, regardless of the reason.
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Pirate it, that’ll show ‘em the PC is worth their money all right…
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Try minimise sales loss by ‘strategically’ pulling games at the last minute, lose potential sales, dissatisfy customers who have pre ordered, still implement a horrendous DRM system, piss off more legitimate customers who can also easily pirate.
Stay classy.
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I’m sooo surprised…I’d be pissed, if I knew it were supposed to come so soon…oh well…
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I just registered to comment on this thread. :) Love this site, and this game was virtually on my top1 position in my steam wish list (doesn’t exist on steam yet).
Delay is not that bad (but not cool) if it’s *really* to polish the game. I can wait a few more weeks.
Then I saw someone mentioning ‘Permanent Internet connection required’…
DOH!!!!
I own right now 183 (ouch, nothing to be proud of, mostly promo stuff ;) games on Steam so I for sure can buy stuff when I want too, and I’m very likely to buy this one… unless critics are really ultra negative… or Mr UBI implements some stupid DRM on top on steam…
If so, I’ll set uTorrent to share the pirated version like 10 times or more!
Mister UBI, WE DON’T NEED DRM on steam. Just in case. :)
Let’s wait & see… (& pray)
BTW: Hi registered fellows :D
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Please, don’t pirate the game. That’s not going to help anyone.
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It’s specifically the ‘last minute’ element that I find objectional here: keeping PC users keen throughout the promotional cycle by promising they will be able to play on their chosen platform, then whipping it away at the last minute in the hope that they will resign themselves to the more-lucrative-but-inferior console version is approaching British politician levels of douche-baggery.
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I honestly wasn’t aware it was out so soon anyway.
Guess I don’t feel disappointed because of my ignorance.
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Wow, i really haven’t kept up with tech. Seems like they are able to press masters, and deliver a game to physical stores around the world in just two days.
oh. wait. they can’t and just thought it’d be fine to inform customers that the game the game they wanted to buy is a month late two days before scheduled delivery.
Way to go to show respect for your customers, Ubisoft!
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Damn it. I have wanted to play this game for a while now. >:|
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GRUMBLE!!!!
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But why delay it two days before the release date… do they have no understanding of project management? Oh, and of keeping your future customers informed? Ubisoft, you so silleh.
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/haslostallinterest
i think ill play through terraria again instead.
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Christ, Ubisoft…
Next they’re gonna delay Aassassin’s Creed: Revelations.
This has been their trend to kick PC gamers in the nuts for the past few years by delaying the PC version.
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Were they not cutting it a bit fine if it was not finished two days before release
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Same old, Same old.
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Pitchforks and torches I say
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any bets on assassin’s creed: rev.? ;D
still: ubisoft releases on pc. not like rockstar and the likes, which release bugged and almost unplayable versions of their games months half a year behind the console game (*cough* GTA IV *cough*) and later don’t release for pc anymore.
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It’s almost certainly not for polish. I can’t imagine any game getting non-critical patches prior to launch, games are generally locked down feature/polish-wise a long time before release. The non-cynical side of me wants to think that’s its a late-stage problem that generally specifically come around with PC releases, i.e. a high-frequency compat issue or installer problem (and 2 weeks delay is pretty much a ‘scramble-and-fix-it’ timeline for a dev rather than a premiditated thing). The more cynical side would suggest that it’s a marketing ploy to double-dip on people that can’t wait, but I doubt that’s the case.
The most depressing thought in my head right now is that there are a bunch of Ubisoft guys watching the fallout right now saying “and THIS is what happens when we listen to criticism and try and release a working product”.
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i just pray that this game is half as good as another world was
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Would someone explain to me why it’s so important to play this game in July rather than August and why withholding a product is a grievous offence? Because I honestly don’t see the reason for all this commotion.
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Honestly, I don’t think anyone cares all that much if it releases in August or July. Everyone here has had to deal with release dates being pushed back before, and it’s not a big deal.
But this is Ubisoft. They (apparently, I didn’t even know about the Call of Juarez delay) have a history of pushing back the PC version of the game very close (within a week) of the game’s release.
Their excuse: well, we want to make sure the game is optimized properly and that PC gamers get a good experience.
The reality (again, from what I’ve heard. The only recent Ubi game I played on PC was AC2 (also delayed ~6 months on PC, IIRC), and that was fine with a pad): the PC version is released months late. It’s buggy, poorly optimized, and has shoddy mouse keyboard controls. Or similar. Also, they like to saddle the PC version with horrible DRM, like the always on DRM on their recent games. I only got AC2 after they backed it down to only check at launch, but Steam does that anyway so it didn’t really matter.
Based on the results of them doing this before, repeatedly, their excuse of bugfixing and optimization is total garbage. This means that they have ulterior motives for delaying the PC version and only the PC version.
Most of the people in this thread do not like the possibilities that Ubi has for these motives. Such as, they’re taking extra time to add UbiDRM to it. Or, they want as many people as possible to buy the console versions, so they delay the PC release. Or, for the more paranoid, they’re trying to purposefully lower PC sales so they can justify killing off their PC division.
Take your pick of their possible motives. Combine it with their history of announcing delays mere days before release (that’s just a jerk move), and you have Ubisoft basically giving the finger to PC gamers in general.
Unless they’re actually doing bugfixes and optimization. Which, again, they don’t seem to have a history of doing, even when that’s what they say they’re doing.
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Thank you for the lengthy reply, DarkNoghri, but that still doesn’t make any sense to me.Even if they don’t have a good reason for delaying (which is doubtful, since I find optimising to be very plausible, even if previous titles have shown that they need to work rather more on it), they still have every right to delay their own games and that doesn’t really hurt you at all.
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Frankly, people feel lied to, and nobody likes that. The problem isn’t delays, the problem isn’t optimizing, the problem is repeatedly delaying games at the last minute for one and the same platform. Of course it’s their game, nobody is entitled to play it, and they could cancel it tomorrow and never release it – it’s their right to do what they want, it’s their game. But as a customer, I don’t need to like what they’re doing, or in particular ho they’re doing it. It’s just amateurish PR.
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GOD FUCKING DAMNIT…I was looking forward to playing this game this week so much
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Just when I thought I might end up changing my policy of not buying Ubi games.
Whelp, guess they made that easy.
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“Our teams work hard to ensure that all versions of our games achieve a level of polish and quality that our customers will appreciate. The development team needed a little more time to focus on the PC version [of Call of Juarez], so we adjusted the date accordingly.”
TRANSLATE
“We never actually bother with making an actual PC version of games anymore, and the marketing guys always forget that the one guy we have doing the ports from the X360 version is a part-timer who also makes coffee for the legal department, which is more important.”
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I once meet a guy that was talking very loud about the “PC’s sould not be used for gaming”. He tried to ridiculized PC gaming, and made the point that videogames sould be played in consoles, not on PCs.
I never replied to him, so here is my reply (5 or 10 years later):
“PC gaming is a different type of gaming. We get different games, even crazy games that are part experiment, part game. Since is different,losing PC gaming would mean losing something unique.
On the PC, gaming cultures can evolve, people meet and can choose his rules. Communities are created. There are people that is good at creating mods or maps. Then a community can decide exactly how want to play a game. And is not a set of options decided by a corporation, but options from a almost infinite pool of crazy modders and mappers.
We have AAA games, but also games made in 1 hour. ”
I have the feel that this dude (or people like him) now works at Ubisoft. Don’t really understand why we play games on PC computers. And seems to firmly think X sould not be used on Y. Even if people doing X on Y have a lot of fun.
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It’s funny, because the consoles are going to be dead before the PC is.
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WE WILL BURY YOU.
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What a shame
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The draconian DRM has already made me really not want to buy Ubi games. Do I feel like i’m missing out? Nope. They might make a good game here and there, but there will always be Minecraft.
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Ubisoft? That’s a no from me then.
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Based on this:
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http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/izcd4/what_a_surprise_ubisoft_has_delayed_the_pc/
Eurogamer: Is there a chance that the PC and PS3 versions will release on the same day as the Xbox 360 version?
Karl Stewart: No. The agreement with Microsoft is, in order to participate in their hugely successful Summer of Arcade promotion there is a window of exclusivity. That window of exclusivity is a set four weeks.
– - –
This can be Microsoft tryiing to kill the PC platform. Don’t want the PC platform to compete with his XBox platform, so create “artificial exclusives”.
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Someone was saying above that not buying the game and/or pirating it is actually giving Ubi more arguments in their quest against the PC.
It is a compelling argument, but flawed.
The customer has an amount of income that he can spend in games and he will spend it in your game if you make it more attractive than your competitor’s game. This includes of course game design, and I think we all agree that Ubi is capable of producing attractive products. But it also includes a lot more things, like for example marketing and technical excellence. And in the PC market, Ubi seems to have stopped caring for both marketing and technical excellence.
The worrying thing here is that Ubi is not competing with features to attract more customers, but with restrictions in order to maximize profits from customers who have no other choice but to buy their game.
Unfortunately for them there are choices, many choices. Pirating is one of them, buying a game from someone else is another. It sounds pretty basic marketing stuff to me but hey, what the fuck do I know, I am just some faceless guy on the internet.
I can tell you that for one, this faceless guy on the internet is not buying any UbiSoft game since they introduced their lovely DRM. And believe it, the Asassin’s Creed series was a sure sale for me, as well as Silent Hunter, From Dust and Cliffs of Dover. Those 200 euros (more or less) are now in the pocket of some other game publisher. Well done Ubi!
THAT is voting with your wallet.
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So next time ubisoft put out a story about there games being pirated to hell or them not selling on the PC i hope you along with the rest of the gaming media will ask them one simple thing.
“Why do you expect the market to treat you right when you have been repeatly ramming them up the bum with your treatment, invovling DRM systems that everyone has siad won’t work and 10th hour delays on pc for the past few months”
unfortantly i now have to not buy ubisoft games, which means no rayman oragins for me :(
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You can complain about this to the Lead Dev via this email (from his personal project site): aw.contact@anotherworld.fr
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I don’t mind delayed games. The only games I get at full price are Obsidian and Bioware games, and I didn’t even get Dungeon Siege III or DAII at full price (I didn’t even get DAII on the steam sale), so having longer to wait isn’t really much of a problem for me. It just means more bugs are fixed and the release is less hinky.
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I plan to vote with my wallet, alright… By showing that even if blighted with Orwellian DRM, poor PC optimisation and last-minute, PC specific delays by a publisher with a worse reputation than Pol Pot, I’m still willing to pay that publisher money for a genuinely imaginative and beautiful looking new IP.
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RAGEEEE
Oh no wait, that’s another game.
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By way of antagonising or just informing, I tried the 360 demo of this today and – errmm…..
Not my cuppa at all – it’s one of those games where you have to do things for a stupid AI who works like mad to undermine you anyway – win or lose, it’s down to a lot of randomness.
The graphics are – well – they’re not BAD, but the way your villiages grow is crap. Look at the history of RTS’s, the sheer beauty of the way buildings are erected etc. and then look at this where stuff like ‘slides up out of the ground ready made’ – it looks shite.
Not that you have time for this because you’re trying to build a bridge so that your ungrateful peons can do stuff and they’re just grumbling because they can’t pass through 1cm of water or can’t see the bridge you built already or – nahhhhhhhhhhhhh
It does hold the record for the easiest achievement ever tho – I loaded the demo, pressed ‘Start’ and then stared at some boring (unskippable) video for a few mins – then pressed LTrigger and got an achivement.
They need to look up ‘achievement’ – and also ‘fun’.
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Honestly, I pirate and crack all Ubisoft games I purchase. I like the box art, so I keep that around. But usually just buying it at dirt prices.
So, like all the other pirates, we won’t be worrying about that troublesome DRM.
Sorry customers.
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