Ghost Recon Online producer Sébastien Arnoult says that free-to-play games are a response to piracy – and an alternative to the restrictive DRM that’s annoyed PC gamers in so many recent Ubisoft games.

“We are giving away most of the content for free because there’s no barrier to entry. 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.’”

While Ghost Recon Online is exclusive to PC, Ubisoft’s other Ghost Recon game, Future Soldier, uses a traditional payment model and will only be available on console.

“We’re adapting the offer to the PC market. I don’t like to compare PC and Xbox boxed products because they have a model on that platform that is clearly meant to be €60’s worth of super-Hollywood content. On PC, we’re adapting our model to the demand.”

The perceived value of PC games is heavily affected by piracy, Arnoult says – both for players and publishers.

“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.

“We have to adapt, we have to embrace this instead of pushing it away. That’s the main reflection behind Ghost Recon Online and the choice we’ve made to go in this direction.”

It’s a different stance to that of Stanislas Mettra, Creative Director on console-exclusive Ubisoft title I Am Alive. In an interview with IncGamers, he questioned the value of porting games to the PC at all.

“Perhaps it will only take twelve 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.”

Both agree that it’s a question of commercial viability, but the difference in approach is alarming. While it’s great to see the Ghost Recon team treating the PC as a distinct platform with its own needs, we’d like to see that attitude reflected by Ubisoft as a whole.

Ghost Recon Online closed beta is currently active in France and Germany, and is due in the UK in the next few months.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/23/ghost-recon-online-being-free-to-play-is-a-counter-to-piracy-says-ubisoft-producer

My opinion - Make prince of persia 2008 - 2 please Ubisoft.

It's cool to try it.. seeing that Assasins Creed Revelations, Far Cry 3, Rainbow Six Patriots and Brother in Arms: Furious 4 are still coming to the PC I don't think there will be much change in Ubi Soft policy..

Sorry Seece but this time your going to far, I am reporting this thread for violating two of VGChartz policies. I do not wish that you get banned but you would be smart to stop your behavior. Your hatred of me is getting out of hand and the fact that you seem to have no problem violating policies and provoking violations is starting to get annoying. The only reason I recently got banned and violated policy at all was due to flame bate and religios persecution.

I don't wish to see you banned but you do need to stop acting this way. People already got upset about our little back and fourth on a recent thread that was completely uneccessary. Your constant attacks and lack of consideration for my well being or that of other users is unacceptable.

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You purposely re-posted a topic I had just posted, then you posting material from another site not adding much if anything to the thread. No content and purposely reposting an existing topic is in violation of two VGChartz rules.

Ghost Recon Online is not exclusive to the PC. They had it running on the Wii U at E3, complete with an awesome trailer. I wonder if that version will be free as well, possibly included with the system?

Don't derail my thread please.

Well seeing that we can't pirate WiiU games (yet?) .. I'm certain we have to pay for it... but maybe a budget title..

So I guess their claims that their DRM was reducing piracy was pure bull as I thought. 

Now there's an integrity move. Good show.

Either that, or it's a full-price game but you get all the content when you buy it, unlike the free-to-play PC version.