Ubisoft Suing Over Leaked Video Game

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Ubisoft is suing the company contracted to make game discs for the PC version of Assassin’s Creed. According to this news story, the game was downloaded over 700k times after being leaked six weeks early. Total PC sales were only 40,000 compared to the millions sold for Xbox 360 – PS3. Ouch.

NPD indicates that the PC version of Assassin's Creed sold only some 40,000 copies through June, nothing compared to the stellar sales on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to Ubisoft the version that ended up early on the internet was downloaded more than 700,000 times.
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6 weeks? god damn. But it was a late release console port, isn't wasn't going to sell a million copies anyways.
 
Imagine that, the game had already been released on two different consoles and most people bought that instead of waiting for the PC version of the game.

How could something like that happen? :confused::rolleyes::confused:

 
SmokeRngs said:
Imagine that, the game had already been released on two different consoles and most people bought that instead of waiting for the PC version of the game.

How could something like that happen? :confused::rolleyes::confused:
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Yeah because obviously the 700,000 people who downloaded the game already had it for the console. :rolleyes:
 
They should just consider it payback for those of us that spent $60+ to play one mission on the console.
 
TwiceOver said:
They should just consider it payback for those of us that spent $60+ to play one mission on the console.
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Rationalizations like this make me want to stab myself in the eye with a Phillips screwdriver.
 
"according to Ubisoft, is that the earlier version of Assassin's Creed contained a bug (for security reasons) that would make the game crash half-way through. Though supposedly this bug was not in the final release"

I smell B.S. The retail version had the same bug (amongst many others). And you certainly DON'T send an intentionally buggy version to the printers only to change it out later. The setup costs and lead time cut into the profits if you have to do it again. Somebody's trying to cover their ass for doing a poor porting job.
 
I'm a PC gamer. Maybe I had already played or bought the game on my 360 or PS3 and therefor I have no reason to buy it on the PC. Also, this is one game that is way more suited for a console, as the control scheme isnt all that suited for PC.

This is kinda like UT3. How much you want to bet the 360 version sells the least, because people who really wanted it probably already played it on the PC/PS3.
 
The people who pirated the game should be suing ubisoft - the pirates are the ones who got ripped off. This game is utter crap. I bought this POS via steam and it's exactly what I expected from a console game being ported to PC. Good storyline - great graphics .... horrible horrible gameplay.

The reason the game didn't sell well on PC is because it sucks.
 
killerbobjr said:
"according to Ubisoft, is that the earlier version of Assassin's Creed contained a bug (for security reasons) that would make the game crash half-way through. Though supposedly this bug was not in the final release"

I smell B.S. The retail version had the same bug (amongst many others). And you certainly DON'T send an intentionally buggy version to the printers only to change it out later. The setup costs and lead time cut into the profits if you have to do it again. Somebody's trying to cover their ass for doing a poor porting job.
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Actually, I think the crashing Jerusalem was exclusive to the pirated versions.
 
Hahaha yup, someone's trying to cover their ass for being a pirate!


Ubi's doing the right thing in this case, only a matter of time until the record companies start doing it, haven't seen a single album in not get leaked in the last two three years, not even K-Feds.
 
grizzed said:
The people who pirated the game should be suing ubisoft - the pirates are the ones who got ripped off. This game is utter crap. I bought this POS via steam and it's exactly what I expected from a console game being ported to PC. Good storyline - great graphics .... horrible horrible gameplay.

The reason the game didn't sell well on PC is because it sucks.
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Really? I think it's a lot of mindless fun, like most action-adventure games, and I think the story is awful. Certainly it's not everything it was made out to be before the release, but we already knew that after the console versions, so I was prepared for your typical hack and slash and have not been disappointed.

You really like the story though? IMO the whole memory thing is complete garbage, used simply to tie in a celebrity and so that they could be lazy and not make an actual coherent story.
 
grizzed said:
The people who pirated the game should be suing ubisoft - the pirates are the ones who got ripped off. This game is utter crap. I bought this POS via steam and it's exactly what I expected from a console game being ported to PC. Good storyline - great graphics .... horrible horrible gameplay.

The reason the game didn't sell well on PC is because it sucks.
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So you expected the game to be bad, but you bought it anyway. Hm. Something about your story doesn't quite add up. I can't quite put my finger on it though. Oh well, I'm sure you're not lying or anything.
 
How do you accurately track pirated downloads? If you have any kind of way of tracking it, don't you then know where all the downloads are coming from? 68% of statistics are just made up anyway.
 
based on reviews, i decided against even trying it.

that's usually my course of action with any game my brother enjoys. :D
 
I don't believe NPD tracks online sales like steam. I think most people had already bought the game for a console which is what really hurt the sales, I imagine.

imo the game is simply too short to justify buying right out of the gate, it will probably see better sales around the time they release assassins creed 2 and drop the price on #1 so folks can do a straight shot through 1 and 2.
 
I am a PC gamer and just didn't find it to be worth $50, not to mention there was no demo for the PC version. Now for the whole piarcy hurt our sales, this is the first report that I have seen that used real numbers and had reasonable numbers (no 15,000,000 - 20,000,000 pirated copies crytek). I am sad to hear they only sold 40k but last time I checked this was a port that was released six months after the initial release. What did you expect, most people bought it on the console, why would they buy it again with no modding support? And one final note their profit margin has been long meet, the porting cost was a super small fraction of the development cost, so this was all profit!
 
Volcanon said:
I don't believe NPD tracks online sales like steam. I think most people had already bought the game for a console which is what really hurt the sales, I imagine.

imo the game is simply too short to justify buying right out of the gate, it will probably see better sales around the time they release assassins creed 2 and drop the price on #1 so folks can do a straight shot through 1 and 2.
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I agree a short story with no modding, wasn't worth $50 to me. I am thinking of getting it now but $30 still seems like to much. Once it hits $20 i will grab it.
 
Volcanon said:
I don't believe NPD tracks online sales like steam. I think most people had already bought the game for a console which is what really hurt the sales, I imagine.

imo the game is simply too short to justify buying right out of the gate, it will probably see better sales around the time they release assassins creed 2 and drop the price on #1 so folks can do a straight shot through 1 and 2.
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NPD only tracks retail sales for companies that give them info. They do online sales for some of those stores as well. Though there is one giant reason NPD numbers are ass for PC games. Wal-Mart does not participate in NPD numbers. Amazon does not. I don't know if Gamestop does, but who goes there for PC games anymore?

Next problem? Valve outright refuses to release numbers for game sales on Steam so we'll never know how well the game sold there.

Compounding this problem, the game isn't worth its asking price. Its $30 in retail and $30 on Steam. $15-20 would be a far better price for the game.
 
I think I know why PC gamers didn't buy it. Because it SUCKED ASS. Just the same with 75% of the PC games in the past 4 or so years.
 
Xenozx said:
Also, this is one game that is way more suited for a console, as the control scheme isnt all that suited for PC.
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You do realize you can plug a wired XBOX 360 gamepad into your PC (or wireless if you buy the dongle for it), check a box in Assassin's Creed, and play it with the EXACT SAME control scheme as the 360, right?

All "Games for Windows" support the XBOX 360 gamepad out of the box, Assassin's Creed is no exception. If you don't like playing it with a keyboard then plug in a gamepad and kick back.

"Not liking the control scheme" is NOT a valid excuse for any game on the PC, because you can use virtually any controller with a PC.
 
Not to defend the pirates (far from it) but chances are, they wouldn't have bought it anyway. Not that it gives them the right to play it, but its not "real" lost revenue. I used to do it just to say I had a game. Rarely if ever played any of the games I downloaded. I did go back and start buying the ones that really interested me, though.

Anyway, yeah...already on two other consoles with a console oriented control scheme. Theirs your cannibalized sales. That and pretty weak reviews in a lot of cases.

Oh, and I would say releasing a disc that wont play (not a glitch, but it just wont start the game) with a downloadable patch to make it work (that you can only download after registering) is not a horrible idea, BUT I know folks still on dial-up that just plain could not do that.
 
It's about time the probably main source of the leaks was getting sued. Many hands can get to games and software in a replication plant, both before and after it's manufactured.
 
Well, Ubisoft is right, but for the wrong reasons. I pirated the game, and because I pirated it, I did not buy it. However, my decision not to purchase it was based soley on the utterly shit UI. There is even a sodding joke video on how it take something like eleven clicks to exit the game. Dumped the game after a half hour and felt cheated for the bandwidth consumed.

Attn Game Devs: I want a static, fast loading UI utterly devoid of load times and foofy nonsense. See CoD4 MP for a good example.
 
you know, i'm 110% all for this games for windows initiative... I really like the idea of renovating the era of pc gaming.

however if giving us sloppy (and i mean sloppy) seconds equates to what they want to do...then just dont bother and let more indie developers tear into the pc market.
or you know... release all platforms for the same time and take the extra week or two to redo the ui to properly match a computer setup.
 
Jaerb4 said:
Actually, I think the crashing Jerusalem was exclusive to the pirated versions.
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According to a lot of people who bought either the retail or Steam versions, not only did it crash in Jerusalem but also everywhere else. I couldn't play more than 20 minutes before it would crash somewhere. I finally gave up. Biggest waste of $50. Ubisoft produced games are now on my permanent shitlist.
 
Wow, the numbers reported really are comparing apples to oranges... Like others have said, NPD only tracks US retail sales (and not even all of them). On the other hand, the download counts would be worldwide. This means the numbers for downloads would be much lower if It just counted US downloads. I wouldn't be surprised if the US downloads are closer to 100,000 - 200,000. When you include the fact that NPD only reports on a small percentage of the market, the numbers are not nearly as bad as reported.

Also Steve, can you next time not say "total PC sales" when it is the NPD numbers reported?
 
I don't know why devs keep thinking that releasing a late port with no effort on making it work and look good on the pc is a good idea. I would like to know how mass effect is doing on the PC. I have been holding off on getting it for awhile.
 
I downloaded it played it for about 25 to 30 min. Couldn't figure out how to exit the game hit Ctrl alt del ended process deleted game LOL It sucked. End of story. Make a good game get paid make a bad game don't get paid pritty simple if you ask me :)
 
Xenozx said:
I'm a PC gamer. Maybe I had already played or bought the game on my 360 or PS3 and therefor I have no reason to buy it on the PC. Also, this is one game that is way more suited for a console, as the control scheme isnt all that suited for PC.

This is kinda like UT3. How much you want to bet the 360 version sells the least, because people who really wanted it probably already played it on the PC/PS3.
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QFT. I played it on the PS3. What was the point of getting it on the PC? I mean, they're not adding multiplayer or anything like that, just a couple extra mission types. Yay :rolleyes:
 
Manaknight said:
you know, i'm 110% all for this games for windows initiative... I really like the idea of renovating the era of pc gaming.

however if giving us sloppy (and i mean sloppy) seconds equates to what they want to do...then just dont bother and let more indie developers tear into the pc market.
or you know... release all platforms for the same time and take the extra week or two to redo the ui to properly match a computer setup.
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The whole GFW: Live should DIAF is all I have to say. I forced a retailer to let me return UAW: Earth Assault because I couldn't stand that sh*t.
 
Filthy pirates. I picked up Assassin's Creed on PC for $17 and I'd say it's a $17 well spent.
 
If the game was more than a shitton of potential it'd have sold better. It's a skilless platformer, made you repeat the same 5 missions a dozen times, and the only reason to explore was to collect flags. The only good thing about the game was the missions themselves, but you had to trudge through the monotony to get to them. They spend too much time building a gameworld that they didn't really utilize at all.
 
Dende said:
I downloaded it played it for about 25 to 30 min. Couldn't figure out how to exit the game hit Ctrl alt del ended process deleted game LOL It sucked. End of story. Make a good game get paid make a bad game don't get paid pritty simple if you ask me :)
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glad you told me it sucks, i was considering going and finding it and downloading it.
 
Pirated games = try before buy for me. If I try a game, and I really think it is worth buying, I will go out and buy it.

I wil not buy a game that is total and utter crap. If the devs can't .. yep, I said CAN"T make a good game, they dont deserve to be payed for it.

It is like if you hired a contrator to build you a mansion, they agreed to build you a mansion, they showed you blueprints for a mansion, and then they build you a shack made out of cardboard and expect you to pay for it.
 
Main reasons why AC failed for the PC...

VERY early pirated copy available.(Even though I saw GTAIV and Soul Caliber 4 on torrent sites a week before actual release. They seemed to sell fine.)

Game was almost publicly proven to be over-hyped, soon after console release. It didn't suck, it was average and kinda boring.

Console release was much earlier and I'm sure the 4 mil or so copies they sold on them saturated the market.

Thing is, If the last two weren't an issue, the piracy wouldn't have mattered. (Even Crysis sold 3 million copies.) I do think they have a valid case, as far as their particular situation with the Disc Replication company. I hope they do recoup, but seriously, how many more would have bought it? I say 2x as many. 40,000 x 2 = 80,000. Just because you see 700k leechers doesn't necessarily mean they all downloaded the entire game and played it. My friend GAVE me AC for 360 and I couldn't get past the first 2 missions due to boredom. I sure as hell ain't buying the PC version.
 
cyclone3d said:
Pirated games = try before buy for me. If I try a game, and I really think it is worth buying, I will go out and buy it.

I wil not buy a game that is total and utter crap. If the devs can't .. yep, I said CAN"T make a good game, they dont deserve to be payed for it.

It is like if you hired a contrator to build you a mansion, they agreed to build you a mansion, they showed you blueprints for a mansion, and then they build you a shack made out of cardboard and expect you to pay for it.
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...so you refuse to pay, but you go ahead and live in it anyway.

And nobody who keeps using that argument seems to realize how fucking stupid that is.
 
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