Ubisoft: No Plans for I Am Alive PC, Cites Tired ‘PC Games Don’t Sell’ Argument
by Mike Bendel on November 23, 2011 @ 11:32 am
Ubisoft has no plans to bring its survival-adventure I Am Alive to PC. Why? Creative director Stanislas Mettra revealed in a recent interview with IncGamers that the cost of releasing a PC port isn’t the worth the payoff, since “few people are paying for PC games.”
Further, Mettra gave an example, saying that it’d be difficult to break even with 50,000 copies sold. That’s assuming a 12-man development takes three months to complete the port.
“We’ve heard loud and clear that PC gamers are bitching about there being no version for them,” said Mettra.
He added, “But are these people just making noise just because there’s no version or because it’s a game they actually want to play? Would they buy it if we made it? It’s hard because there’s so much piracy and so few people are paying for PC games that we have to precisely weigh it up against the cost of making it”
“Perhaps it will only take 12 guys three months to port the game to PC, it’s not a massive cost but it’s still a cost. If only 50,000 people buy the game then it’s not worth it.”
It seems like, for a new IP, it’d still be beneficial for a large company like Ubisoft to take the risk and try to maximize exposure. Plenty of games have enjoyed breakout success on PC. DRM notwithstanding, Ubisoft has a hard time catching a break with PC gamers, and with comments like these it’s not hard to understand why.
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Read more: Ubisoft Says Its DRM Is A Success, Correlates to Lower Piracy Rate, Chris Taylor: Piracy Hurting PC Platform, EndWar Hitting PC Later Due To Piracy, Says Creative Director, PC Gaming Alliance Says PC Piracy On Decline, Splinter Cell Conviction On PC To Require Persistent Online Connection
