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Ubisoft: PC piracy cannibalising console sales

"Piracy's basically killing PC," says creative director of EndWar

Ubisoft Shanghai's creative director Michael de Plater has said that piracy is killing the PC gaming market.

The reason the studio's latest title, Tom Clancy's EndWar, isn't being released for the PC on the same day as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions is because users will steal the pirated PC copy, rather than pay for a console version, according to de Plater.

"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," he told VG247.

"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."

"You know, the level of piracy that you get with the PC just cannibalises the others, because people just steal that version," he said.

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Matt Martin avatar
Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.
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