Ubisoft Wants You To Be Comfortable Not Owning Your Games

If paying full price and obtaining a digital copy isn't ownership, then taking that digital copy without paying can't be stealing can it?

I legit wonder what would happen if this argument is used ( in a professional way by a professional lawyer ) in a court of law. Like, could this legit be argued to be the same?
- I don't see it going well but I'd love to see it happen. "One rule for ye, another for me" and all that
Piracy is never stealing.
- Piracy by definition is stealing.
I’m not sure how you drew this conclusion, since most people I know consider paying full price to obtain a digital copy to be extremely close to ownership.
I liked Telltale’s Law and Order series. They can’t sell it anymore, but I can still download my digital copy because I bought it full price.
The whole argument in the article is about monthly subscription rentals.
- When a contract ending almost caused Sony to remove all Discovery content from users last year, including digital copies of things people had paid full price for, the cracks between buying a digital license and actually owning something that can't be taken away became more visible to a chunk of people. It's something, but it's not ownership, and it can be taken away based on agreements you may have no way of gaining insight into.

Oh I'm very comfortable with it. In fact I haven't owned a Ubisoft game in many, many years, and I wasn't about to change that.

They should get comfortable with me downloading cracked versions of their games.

The developers that come out and tell people "pirate our game and if you like it consider buying when you can" will always get my money.
Developers who tell us we own nothing and should be pleased about it can get my steel and cannonballs, cause this ship is ready to set sail.
A-fucken-hoy matey! 🏴‍☠️ May the seas bless your sails today.
They actually used cracked versions of their games years ago. Rockstar were also caught red-handed using cracked EXEs.
- Why not?

Oh, fear not Ubisoft, I'm perfectly comfortable never owning any of your games again. Ever. Eat shit.

If your games are on steam, you're already not owning them. The only difference seems to be that steam doesn't demand a monthly subscription cost, yet

We already have game pass so it's not like this is something completely new either.

If this makes money, other big publishers will join and in 10 years it's the norm.

Personally, I'll try my best to keep buying on GOG and itch.io where I get to actually own my games.

Agree, I own a lot of games in Steam but most come from bundles or were not bought a full price. I do buy full price games on GOG because I can have a backup offline.
The only difference is a huge difference though. Pay once for a game that you can access anytime versus paying continuously for the rest of your life to keep access to a game.
Some games are not worth keeping access to and subscription may end up being cheaper, but it is trading one benefit for another.
The only difference seems to be that steam doesn’t demand a monthly subscription cost, yet
Which Ubisoft isn't doing either. This is just Ubisoft's gamepass style subscription, which has been available for a few years now, it's just getting a 2 tier pricing model.
I'm not enough of a Linux user to inconvenience myself so I'm just using Steam. The cloud sync is the killer feature for me - if GOG had something like it even if I have to pay extra, I'd so use it.
If your games are on steam, you're already not owning them
Almost as if all the "evil" in the game's industry Valve started.
- We did it guys, we found the source of corporate greed!

I’m comfortable with not “owning” the games I pirate.

Your move, Ubisoft.

We already don’t own our games, because we can’t sell them. We used to be able to sell and exchange games, but with digital platforms like steam, we don't have the right to sell them anymore, meaning we only bought the right to play the game, not owning it.

Not that there are many pro NFT folks here, but even with that approach it's still just a transferrable license that they can change to be meaningless.
You still can, that’s why - outside of a few exceptions - I only buy console games on disc, and sell them later
Can't sell your organs either... Well, not easily.

Well I'm comfortable not buying any of theirs. They're in my steam ignore list along with EA 🖕🖕

Ubisoft disable multiplayer in games like splinter cell and then have the nerve to charge you 20 ducats for a 10 year old game with only half the gameplay requiring a shitty launcher and with glaring bugs that they just didn't bother to address.

As for the future. There is still emulation. So stock up 😉

If buying isn't ownership then piracy isn't theft.

Buying a CD/DVD was never ownership of the media that's on it. It's ownership of a piece of plastic and a license to play to the content on the plastic within certain limitations. If it was ownership, you would be allowed to project the DVD on a wall and charge patrons to view it, but legally you can't, because you don't own anything but the plastic. Buying a CD/DVD was always just a more convenient version of buying a ticket to a concert/theater to see the same thing. You're paying for the experience of viewing their artwork.
So, as long as you also agree that sneaking into a concert/theater to view a show without paying also isn't theft in any way, then I can't argue.
- Blah blah blah. Shove that copyright-maximalist take. You own things, god dammit. Even if you only own your copy of a book, it's not somehow an ink-and-paper license to a copy, it is your copy. That's what ownership means.
  If you don't know the difference between individual property and intellectual property, stop spitting at people who do.
- We found the record company shill.
  I‘m all for sneaking into concerts and everything else since ticketmaster is trying to wring every penny out of customers.
  All those leeches can die in a hole.
- The record company can’t disable my physical CD from working if they choose to. That’s 99% of the point.
- So how many plays do I get with the media license that comes with a CD?
  Worried they'll revoke my license on my blues traveler CD that's been stuck in my car since '99.

I want ubisoft to be comfortable with me not playing their games.

They already fucked me on this years ago. One day I logged into Uplay and Battlefield 3 and my 2 other games were just fucking gone. Haven't touched them with a 10 foot pole since.

What Ubi wants means fuck all to me. Yall wanted us to buy NFT guns too, see how that worked out...

It's rather amusing how everything people fear happening under communism comes to pass under capitalism in one way or another. Turns out that it is the capitalists who aim to strip individuals of their personal property by transforming everything into a rental service. You see, you no longer possess your media, books, computer, phone, or any other device; they've all been transformed into internet-connected subscriptions. The moment you cease paying or when the company decides to discontinue its services, you find yourself in quite an unfortunate predicament.

This is the direction the big companies are looking to move in. This is the direction Microsoft is banking on, too. Even if you like one service more, the end result may be the same. It's a matter of time before we see subscription exclusives.

GamePass subscribers are the pre-orderers and mtx consumers of yesteryear, normalizing the industry to practices harmful to general consumers.

Piracy is a very noble endeavor to keep alive. Thank you Ubisoft for keeping us on our toes instead of being complacent with trusting digital platforms. Piracy is the true preservation and ownership.

I've been quite comfortable with not owning any new Ubisoft games for a few years now

One thing I read (a lot, oddly) is that GamePass is 'really popular'/the most popular 'subscription' service, but I have never met anyone who uses it.

I checked the numbers of people using GamePass, and it seems the numbers have gone:

2021 - 23 million

2022 - 25 million

2023 - there was a brief post on linkedin saying 30 million, but it was removed.

If even the most popular service is struggling to pass 30 million users, how exactly is Ubisoft going to compete? There's what, 120 million people with Xbox subscriptions, and they can barely get 1/4 of them to use GamePass?

It's interesting to watch 'AAA' studios absolutely faceplanting every year now, hopefully we can make a full indie-sweep soon.

I use gamepass. I've definitely saved money with the amount of games my household has played.
I buy games I really like and just try them on gamepass.
- The reason people I know tend to give for not using GamePass is you're essentially paying for demos (which still exist on PC pretty often. I just bought Roboquest because of the demo.)
  EDIT: Also, $12/month is a huge amount of money for me to spend on something like that. Just shy of 150/year for games that aren't good enough to own, but are good enough to play, doesn't strike me as valuable.
My issue with getting into indie gaming is I have no idea where to start. I always end up with some frantic platformer that doesn't do anything for me. But I just want games that aren't a mess on release and everyone says to go indie.
- I just go by reviews, usually from people I know. The only real difference between AA/A and Indie titles now really is marketing budget and size of team. Not much else is different. You also run into issues about what counts as indie now: it used to mean without a publisher, but it seems to have morphed into 'a smaller company.'
  But yeah, just look up reviews. Games like FTL, Hades, and so on tend to become known by word of mouth.
All my friends have it. They just want to play the game once and move on
All of my cousins and friends have this, becaude they don't care if they own the games.
I think.that most peple like it, I don't have ultimate, because I.like to own my games.

Honestly I don't think the addicted Assassins Creed and Far Cry players care. Too addicted to the endless gameplay loop.
- My big problem with quitting assassin's creed is that it's the best representation of what these places looked like hundreds of years ago. I know it's not 100% accurate, but the fact that my wife could guide me around Rome in game because she'd lived there is one of my favorite gaming experiences. Replaying an AC game and reading all of the research has made vacations to places where they're set amazing.
  That said, I'm never buying a subscription to games. The second I can't buy the game and have it, I'll stop taking their abuse.
Doesn't matter, saw game on TV, must buy.

I'm quite comfortable not owning Ubisoft games, and have been for years. It helps that other than one Switch game that I have physically, they haven't released anything really worth purchasing.

Has any of the rapists or apologists in ubisoft had any repercussions yet?

Then i am not interested in their games anyway.

They say this but have some of their games on GOG lol

Yeah, apparently I don't own The Crew 1 anymore.

Hehehe no

Agree, I own a lot of games in Steam but most come from bundles or were not bought a full price. I do buy full price games on GOG because I can have a backup offline. hack score match 2023

- Not even slightly. I tried to explain this concept to my friend some weeks back and he downright refused to believe Steam or other platforms would leave players without their games if they were to go belly-up, for example.
- Do we really own any games at all? We own licenses, nothing more. Even if it's on a DVD.

I bought a copy of Riders Republic on PS4. Before that, I hadn't played a Ubisoft game since AC1. I'm quite comfortable continuing that track record.

Worked for books and Audible!

@ylai fuck ubisoft. They haven't made a decent game since black flag.