EndWar likely to trail on PCs

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Oct 8, 2008 3:21 pm PT

Ubisoft Shanghai creative director says piracy is preventing desktop edition from arriving day-and-date with other versions.

The prevalence of illegal file sharing on the PC platform has given developers and publishers cause to enact drastic measures to protect their games from being stolen. This year alone has seen cases such as Crytek abandoning PC exclusivity; Codemasters, Atari, and others directly going after consumers; and EA implementing digital rights management software invasive enough to spark a class-action lawsuit.

For Ubisoft and its upcoming Tom Clancy-inspired real-time strategy game EndWar, the focus appears to have shifted from prevention to mitigation. In an interview with VideoGaming247, Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater revealed that the PC edition of EndWar will likely trail the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games due to illegal file sharing.

"To be honest, if PC wasn't pirated to hell and back, there'd probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two," said de Plater. "But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you're doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy's basically killing PC."

EndWar won't be the first time Ubisoft has postponed the PC edition of a multiplatform game. Both 2006's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and its 2007 sequel saw PC editions arrive months after their console counterparts. This year, Ubisoft released an enhanced PC edition of its best-selling Assassin's Creed, a full five months after the game debuted on the 360 and PS3. Even still, Ubisoft was plagued by piracy issues for that release, eventually suing a disc-replication firm for leaking the game onto the Internet two months before its street date.

For more on Ubisoft's EndWar, check out GameSpot's latest preview from last week. Retailers are currently expecting the game to arrive on the Xbox 360, PS3, DS, and PSP during the first week of November, with the PC edition following in February.

246 Comments

  • VK001thunder

    Posted Jan 25, 2009 2:37 pm PT

    i want for PC

  • joshy294

    Posted Dec 10, 2008 7:57 pm PT

    when will they release this game for pc?? this was the one game i wanted so bad...!!!!!

  • Lukemaneiro

    Posted Dec 2, 2008 12:35 pm PT

    Piracy is not a bad thing. Think about it. It has existed for centuries and it has helped companies improve themselves overall.

    They need to LEARN with piracy and try to LIVE with it, not avoid it. You can't get rid of piracy. Companies need to adapt themselves to it. Find a way to sell games, give people real convincing reasons to buy your product.

    If they don't realize that ... well, let's just say we gamers are doomed.

  • Lukemaneiro

    Posted Dec 2, 2008 12:31 pm PT

    God, Xbox 360 pirating is growing larger and larger every day ... why is the PC delayed instead ?

    If piracy was the real matter over here, those companies would be making games for PS3.

    About pirating in general ... I live in Brazil. You wouldn't believe what are the costs for a PS3 / 360 original game. Price goes up from the U.S. $60 to $150 ... All a bunch of taxes. We have no choice. Whenever I go to the US I buy as many games as I can, but we just can't spend the money equivalent to a NEW CONSOLE to buy TWO GAMES.

  • Hermes33

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 10:09 am PT

    Great post Gwarpup, couldn't agree more! Well it looks like a good rule of thumb to follow is we know when Michael de Plater is lying because his lips are moving. After reading this, I'm actually GLAD they didn't manage to finish the PC version yet and missed out on the busy Christmas sales period. Oh sorry, WHAT sales? "Piracy's basically killing PC", sorry Michael, I forgot...

  • MrLions

    Posted Nov 6, 2008 10:17 pm PT

    >_> Do they even know you can pirate 360 games....aswell...

  • Merc_Scar

    Posted Nov 5, 2008 9:12 pm PT

    You know what. I think I am gonna pirate this just to piss them off. They pissed me off by delaying the ONE game I wanted the most out of this year, so F them.

  • Gwarpup

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 2:05 pm PT

    This story is getting old. Its so much easier to pirate on XBOX than on PC. On PC a cracking group has to crack a game before they can put it online. But XBOX has no copy protection. Anyone with a Modchip, which is SOOOoo easy to get, can immediatly on release day find it online and download it. PC gamers need to wait a week or two for the game to be cracked. Searh online and you'll always see the XBOX version appear before PC. If this was their logic, theyd only be making PS3 versions which hasnt been cracked yet. XBOX is the most pirated system around, but because it has such a huge playerbase, the percentage of pirates isnt as noticeable. Oh PC pirated games cant play multiplayer online games, they cant login to the servers. But guess what? XBOX pirated games dont have that problem, because again.. there is NO copy protection. And Endwar is mostly an online game. Therefore PC pirating it wont do any good. Same with Left 4 Dead, and just like COD4 before it. Games that emphasize online play dont get pirated on PC, other than maybe to test them out. Anyone addicted will want to buy it and go online. Now kill the piracy BS!

  • fantasyx92

    Posted Oct 21, 2008 6:29 pm PT

    yup PC version is gonna suck, look at the intelligence of these guys. Delay the game so it wont be stolen, they'll probably pirate it because they're sick of waiting for it to release

  • TankGun

    Posted Oct 20, 2008 10:02 am PT

    rgame1 I hope you know PC's will always win over Consoles due to the fact that you can update a PC and not a console. You jsut made your self seem like an ideot and screwed your self over buddy.

  • schinkinator

    Posted Oct 13, 2008 7:22 pm PT

    to rgame1 how is it better? Pc gaming pushes the visual graphics that eventually get passed down to consoles a year or two later

  • 42316

    Posted Oct 12, 2008 12:19 pm PT

    rgame1 = prick

  • jeremy2

    Posted Oct 11, 2008 12:35 pm PT

    This is totally stupid and misplaced, all this is doing is punishing PC Gamers pirates are not going to be able to do the primary function of this game, multiplayer. like Battlefield 2, yes there is a single player but its 10% of the gameplay the people that really want to play it will buy it

  • Hyork

    Posted Oct 11, 2008 7:25 am PT

    Ignoring the obvious attempt to start some kind of flame war... an increasing number of industry leaders are seeing the console to be the one that will die out first, in favour of a more multi-media device. Its going in a cycle. PCs spawned the technology for consoles, and in time consoles are becomming more and more like pc's. Don't believe? The PS3 now has: a keyboard, a hard-drive, an internet connection, and install times. What you'll eventually see is a PC in a console shaped box, with console branding, but at the core it'll still be pc gaming.

  • rgame1 posted Oct 10, 2008 6:52 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    rgame1

    Posted Oct 10, 2008 6:52 am PT (hide)

    wicked. The sooner PC gaming dies, the better.

  • Aus_AR

    Posted Oct 10, 2008 6:48 am PT

    I dunno about the sequel. but Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter was released later than the 360 & PS3 versions because it was developed by a different studio. not because of piracy.

    also, there is a lot of piracy on consoles, it's not just the PC that is plagued with piracy.

  • crucifix401

    Posted Oct 10, 2008 2:01 am PT

    The simplest solution is for the different publishers to get together and invest in developing proper copy protection. Something that secures their work without causing issues for the customer. Personally the only problem I have is the delay to titles. I play a LOT of games and choose to buy them to support the industry. I'm happy to pay and happy to put up with the protection on the title as long as it doesn't mess with my machine or game experiance.

  • szeboro

    Posted Oct 10, 2008 1:35 am PT

    To at least slower piracy make all PC games a must activate online or by phone to even play te single player of it and put a security tool to...

  • Hyork

    Posted Oct 10, 2008 1:32 am PT

    Consoles are not immune to piracy, not in the slightest. The PsP has been pirated up to the eyeballs, and wasn't there a story a week ago about a guy being sued by Activision for having $60,000 worth of pirated CoD4 copies? That's a lot of piracy right there. Valve has shown everyone how to do PC games sales right, but no-one seems to pay any attention. And anyway, if people stop making PC games, the pirates will just move onto the next whipping boy: consoles. The problem will never go away, just move around.

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