Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

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Kalah
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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Kalah » 22 Aug 2012, 22:06

Speaking to <a href="/http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... esIndustry International</a> at Gamescom, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has explained his view that free-to-play-games are the way to go for PC games in the future, as this allows them to earn a profit in areas where piracy is rampant.



<i><blockquote>"We want to develop the PC market quite a lot and F2P is really the way to do it. The advantage of F2P is that we can get revenue from countries where we couldn't previously - places where our products were played but not bought."</blockquote></i>



Having had success with <i>The Settlers Online</i>, Ubisoft used this year's Gamescom to announce three new free games - <i>Heroes of Might and Magic Online, Silent Hunter Online</i> and <i>Anno Online</i>.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1345673208
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Korbac
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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Korbac » 23 Aug 2012, 05:12

Free 2 play = Pay 2 win.

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Re: Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Tress » 23 Aug 2012, 05:41

Korbac wrote:Free 2 play = Pay 2 win.
That really depends on greed of developer. Many MMORPG that go f2p, mostly don't have direct pay2win. There is often other way around too though, Allods online for example(although they trimmed a lot of pay 2 win stuff). Usually pay to get stuff faster, but not directly stronger. Considering model in MM Kingdoms though I wouldn't be too fast to judge either way.

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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 23 Aug 2012, 07:18

If people can't afford to buy it, they can't afford to buy it. So they won't gain additional players by going F2P. Now if they dropped their DRM, I'm pretty sure they would gain more customers, as they would no longer be inconvenienced.

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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby hellegennes » 23 Aug 2012, 09:20

MM Kingdoms started off as "just pay subscription to win" but it soon evolved into "he or she who spends the most, wins". That's what I call greed. Subscription wasn't enough, they had to introduce a bunch of unlimited stuff that you can buy. As long as you had an unlimited balance, victory was piece of cake, even if you were playing alone, with multiple accounts. Of course multi-accounts were technically not allowed, but the mods were turning a blind eye on them, since these players were spending a lot of money on the game.

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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Infiltrator » 23 Aug 2012, 18:40

Free 2 play = Pay 2 win.



Dota 2 would like to have a word with you.



In relation to the article, I think Yves Guillemot enjoys pulling things out of his anal cavity, such as "PC has around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate".
Infiltrator out.

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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby CloudRiderX » 23 Aug 2012, 18:50

Agree with Tress, F2P =/= P2W.



League of Legends, for example, is a F2P game where you can get no advantage over other players buy spending money.

On the other hand, games like Blacklight Retribution and Tribes: Ascend let you spend money to get more powerful weapons and upgrades.



Honestly, a F2P HoMM could potentially be a good idea. Instead of charging us $60 and releasing a game that might not meet our expectations, they could just release a HoMM game, let us play it for free, and then add more content just like any other F2P would. The replayability of the game would really synergize with the F2P model, and they could add any number of extra content without worrying about how much to charge the consumers. It would be win/win. The only downsides are those that come with the internet connectivity requirement.
Edited on Thu, Aug 23 2012, 14:50 by CloudRiderX
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Unread postby mr.hackcrag » 23 Aug 2012, 20:55

I've never read about a company that is so obsessed with piracy. They would rather fight with pirates instead of making a good game. I wish they would understand few people want to download their crappy games.

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Unread postby Tress » 24 Aug 2012, 05:43

mr.hackcrag wrote:I've never read about a company that is so obsessed with piracy. They would rather fight with pirates instead of making a good game. I wish they would understand few people want to download their crappy games.
Most funny thing is that from pirate point of view, UBI games are very practical for them. With DRM ripped off games are actually more easy to use than boxed version.

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Re: Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Avonu » 24 Aug 2012, 10:40

Kalah wrote:>>>"We want to develop the PC market quite a lot and F2P is really the way to do it. The advantage of F2P is that we can get revenue from countries where we couldn't previously - places where our products were played but not bought."
If one thought that HoMM VI will get rid of Conflux anytime, you can forget about it.
As you can see, Ubisoft boss thinks that "always online" is a solution for all Ubisoft recent problems and as long he stays on his chair, there is no way we get off-line games with proper, paper manual and without others "brilliant" Ubisoft's ideas.
HoMM needs Conflux and UPlay like a fish needs bicycle but as long as Ubisoft boss(es) will force "always online" policy, we will get them, no matter if they are useful or useless.

BTW - if Ubisoft entered F2P market 1-2 years ago, there maybe would be a chance for them to get some real money and some reputation from it. Now, it''s too late - as always Ubisoft is few steps behind game market.
F2P market is already taken by other firms and with current Ubisoft online games "quality" there is no chance, they will attract players for longer terms.

>>>On PC it's only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it's only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It's around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage
You are a lunatic, go away, pester someone else :P

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Unread postby Tress » 24 Aug 2012, 12:09

It's around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate
Perhaps number is not that far off in former USSR (specially for games that dont have cheaper versions available from local publishers). However it would be complete absurd to bring that up. It would be same as saying that everyone that red summary of Harry potter books or they hear from friend what those books were about, would have automatically bought books. 90% of people simply cant afford to buy all games they pirate, so claiming that it is lost profit is simply not applicable. Same way you could fine some hobo for sleeping in park for 1 million dollars and count them toward next years income for government budget and then blame fact that budget is not filling on evil hobos that doesn't pay their fines. logically anyone must understand that such thing cant be counted as loses in first place.

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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Korbac » 24 Aug 2012, 15:12

"Dota 2 would like to have a word with you. "

"League of Legends, for example, is a F2P game where you can get no advantage over other players buy spending money. "



Oh come on guys, I know that :)))) Of course we will have to wait and see if they do it right.

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Re: Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby GrayFace » 25 Aug 2012, 01:33

Avonu wrote:BTW - if Ubisoft entered F2P market 1-2 years ago, there maybe would be a chance for them to get some real money and some reputation from it. Now, it''s too late - as always Ubisoft is few steps behind game market.
F2P market is already taken by other firms and with current Ubisoft online games "quality" there is no chance, they will attract players for longer terms.
It's strange to read about 1-2 years making such a difference. I can't believe that's the case, but I agree MMO market is limited much more than single player games market. I think the gap between profits of MMO and single player markets on PC would eventually shrink.
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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Mozared » 25 Aug 2012, 10:15

"I've never read about a company that is so obsessed with piracy. They would rather fight with pirates instead of making a good game. I wish they would understand few people want to download their crappy games. "



This. Ubi officials really don't understand the concept of piracy. I'll repeat myself again: I bought HOMM6 and received so much less service than if I had pirated the game. This really goes to show how much they're missing the point.
Edited on Sat, Aug 25 2012, 06:16 by Mozared

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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Infiltrator » 25 Aug 2012, 13:19

"League of Legends, for example, is a F2P game where you can get no advantage over other players buy spending money. "



Sorry to go OT but:



Actually LoL allows you to get advantage over others spending money. Buying heroes others do not have or can't grind for = advantage. Buying runes that enhance your heroes stats = advantage.



The microtransaction model for dota is far, FAR more friendly towards the consumer as in Dota 2, ALL heroes are unlocked for free, forever, for everyone and you can only buy cosmetic items, which drop randomly anyway and you can trade them with others. Bringing the Dota2 and LoL transaction model together is an affront to common sense.



That said, to go on topic, Ubi will never, EVER do something like Dota2 with their games. They have proven time and again how greedy they are.
Infiltrator out.

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Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby BB Shockwave » 29 Aug 2012, 19:13

Allow me to say PTAH, and shake my head in disgust.



Seriously, what's with Ubi and their obsession with piracy? Every game can be cracked. Surprise, even HOMMVI has been cracked, a long time ago. And yet, some companies flourish... y'know why 1C is making the FOURTH King's Bounty game with the same engine and still manages to live by it, Ubi? Because they wasted less time and money on awkward, cumbersome anti-piracy only protections, as well as an idiotic way to re-invent the world and story of HOMM from the ground up, and instead focused on what people want - strategic gameplay, balanced creatures, well-designed maps and funny and entertaining quests.



That, and there is already a Heroes of Might and Magic Online. It's utter, horrible, grindfast crap where you have to lose creatures - millions of them - in battle, in order to upgrade them. That's how the game rewards good strategists who don't lose their troops! I should know... I helped the Chinese company beta-test this crap for 3 months due to my misguided hope they will fix these issues - only for them to come out and laugh in our faces saying "Oh BTW, we forgot to tell you, the game won't be playeable outside Asia. Thanks for collecting the bugs for free. Toodaloo!"



And Ubi leaves the license in the hand of these NetDragon ***holes. Who, I might add, are now ruining another favourite of mine with another MMO - Transformers.



I am sorry, but can't we start a petition to have Jon Von Caneghem come out of retirement, buy back the rights, and do a proper HOMM game? I'd even take IV over what has come since then.

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Re: Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby Angelspit » 29 Aug 2012, 19:32

BB Shockwave wrote:I am sorry, but can't we start a petition to have Jon Von Caneghem come out of retirement, buy back the rights, and do a proper HOMM game? I'd even take IV over what has come since then.
Seriously guys, leave JVC alone, his return to Heroes just won't happen. :)
I'm on Steam and Xbox Live.

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Re: Ubi to Develop More Free-To-Play Games

Unread postby GreatEmerald » 29 Aug 2012, 20:59

Angelspit wrote:>Seriously guys, leave JVC alone, his return to Heroes just won't happen. :)
How about Might and Magic? :devious:


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