Ghost Recon: Future Soldier NOT Coming To PC, Ghost Recon Online IS Coming To PC

I have some sad news for PC gamers today; Ubisoft has confirmed that March release Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will not be coming to PC, likely due to Ubisoft‘s fear (and debatable mishandling) of piracy.

However, it has been confirmed that it will, at the same time, offer a PC release of a new title called Ghost Recon Online. This title is a standalone, free-to-play game that will be available instead of Future Soldier. This will presumably be only the multiplayer portion of the game, and will not include a single-player campaign.

Ghost Recon Online producer Sébastien Arnoult told PC Gamer this:

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.

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.

…95 percent?! I think this man has a PhD in exaggeration.

You know, as a lifelong PC gamer who has never pirated a game, but know several who do, I just don’t see the point to all this crazy anti-piracy mambo-jumbo. My experiences in gaming communities are that no matter what, someone will find a way to crack a game, no matter how ridiculous the DRM might be. It’s things like this that make PC gamers have a strange sense of obligation to pirate games. It’s a skewed sort of justification, and I don’t personally agree with it, but that’s how people are.

Also, pirates, support your industry. We wouldn’t have to deal with annoying DRMs if people actually bought a game once in awhile.

This is also the part where I tell people to get off my lawn.

What say you, gamers? Has this affected your view of Ubisoft at all?