There's a shiny big Ghost Recon game, Future Soldier, coming to consoles. It won't be coming to PC, though. PC users instead get a free-to-play game called Ghost Recon Online. Why? It's Ubisoft. Take a guess.
"We are giving away most of the content for free because there's no barrier to entry", Ubisoft's Sébastien Arnoult told PC Gamer. "To the users that are traditionally playing the game by getting it through Pirate Bay, we said, ‘Okay, go ahead guys. This is what you're asking for. We've listened to you – we're giving you this experience. It's easy to download, there's no DRM that will pollute your experience.'"
Right, but why not bring over Future Soldier as well?
"When we started Ghost Recon Online we were thinking about Ghost Recon: Future Solider; having something ported in the classical way without any deep development, because we know that 95% of our consumers will pirate the game. So we said okay, we have to change our mind."
By not releasing the game at all?
I'd point out the fact Ubisoft may have trouble attracting paying customers because their PC games are ported late and crippled with annoying DRM, and that they, like most other publishers, seems to turn a blind eye to piracy on the Xbox 360, but you know, it's getting perilously close to "broken record" territory about now.
Ghost Recon Online being free-to-play is a counter to piracy, says Ubisoft producer [PC Gamer]
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