Ubisoft recently announced that they’re launching Uplay, a download service akin to Origin or Steam. While this demonstrates Ubisoft’s commitment to more traditional PC gaming, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot also emphasizes that free-to-play is important as well.
“We want to develop the PC market quite a lot and F2P is really the way to do it,” said the French CEO. “The advantage of F2P is that we can get revenue from countries where we couldn’t previously – places where our products were played but not bought. Now with F2P we gain revenue, which helps brands last longer.”
“It’s a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it’s only around five to seven percent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven percent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It’s around a 93-95 percent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
