Ubisofts DRM boosts piracy

The implementation of overly-strict digital rights management has resulted in pirates having a better gaming experience than legitimate customers, according to Gamesbrief’s Nicholas Lovell.

It seems crazy to me that Ubisoft didn’t emulate Steam, which by some estimates has more than half the market, and instead went for their own, draconian system,” he told PC World, as reported by CVG.

There is no doubt in my mind that pirates now have a better experience than legitimate consumers. Publishers spend a ton of money on promoting its games. So there are ways to see piracy as the start of a relationship with a future consumer, not theft.”

The words are in stark contrast to recent claims from Namco Bandai that Ubisoft’s model is probably the best option currently available.

When asked what alternative approaches Ubisoft could have adopted, Lovell added: Give the whole game away entirely for free, make it small and charge for DLC. Slash the marketing budget and rely on pirated copies to spread the word about how good your game is, then charge for additional elements.”