Watchdogs free if you want it

[popuptoaster]

There is nothing wrong with Uplay.
It is a Ubisoft game hub comparable to Steam..

It's not comparable to Steam in any realistic way and neither is almost any other game companies UI, I'm not a Valve fanboy and to be honest would rather do without any extra UIs at all but at least Steam carries games from many many publishers and has extra features that are useful.

I personally refuse to install any extra UIs now, however light they are on resources they do use SOME and that's my power being used without my permission for no purpose other than an attempt to persuade me to spend more money.

WG are trying it with WoWP, you wait and see, WoT will be next despite WoT having worked successfully for years without needing an extra UI on my PC. It'll cost them me as a customer and I'll miss the game but it's something I feel quite strongly about personally no matter how "light" these UIs are supposed to be I don't want them.

 

[Iskariot]

It's not comparable to Steam in any realistic way and neither is almost any other game companies UI.

I think it is, although it is different in several respects.

I personally refuse to install any extra UIs now, however light they are on resources they do use SOME and that's my power being used without my permission for no purpose other than an attempt to persuade me to spend more money.

Without your permission?
If you install it then it is with your permission.
If you don't install it, then it won't use your 'power'.
It will never use your 'power' without your permission.

I used to be on the fence about this stuff too. I am an old geezer and I hated the digital distribution system, because I wanted everything on a disk, in a box, with a manual etc. etc.

Now I have difficulty seeing what the problem is.
The UBI ui only is activated when I play a ubi game. I shut it down when I shut down the game.
Nothing bad happens. I hardly notice the use of resources at all.
My PC doesn't care. I don't care.
And most importantly I have a few cool games I can play.
I like many of the UBI games. I love the Assassin's Creed series for example, and Far cry, and Ghost Warrior etc.
And the way they distribute their updates and patches via this system is incredibly convenient and carefree.

I even have Origin (I am not a fan of EA) installed. and of course Steam and the Blizzard App and last but not least the Epic Games UI.
They are just pieces of software that hardly use any resources and make certain things much more convenient and streamlined.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

the way I see it, imo you are either ok with forced platforms to run your games or you are not, and it was valve that started the whole thing by forcing steam on your pc even if you had retail half life 2.

Here is the thing... I don't like fragmenting my games across multiple platforms either, but, why should ubisoft be demanded to pay 30% of sales to valve for putting their games on steam? valve used to have some sound ip of their own but now they don't seem to have much interest actually making games, they get paid for doing very little so why invest in making your own software... hell they get money for nothing from trading cards now too.

of course we are the punters and it is our choice to boycott ubisoft for refusing to pay valve tax, but I don't blame them, and I blame EA for a lot of things, but NOT for deciding to make origin over steam......

imo if you really want to make a stand then only buy software totally independent of any of them, GOG I think sell only DRM free stuff, and that way the devs make more money (ie buy Elite dangerous direct and not from oculus or steam and Frontier make more cash afaik.)

 

[Iskariot]

the way I see it, imo you are either ok with forced platforms to run your games or you are not, and it was valve that started the whole thing by forcing steam on your pc even if you had retail half life 2.

Yes, I agree with you and popuptoaster that these platforms are forced on you if you want to play certain games. In the sense that you can't play them without having these platforms installed.
When this thing started I was irritated, to say the least, about this too.
But, it is what it is, and these platforms don't do harm and do not cause problems.
They are light on resources and I have more hdd space these days than I know what to do with.

You can stay angry and on the fence about it being a forced platform until you drop dead, but what good does that do you.
Instead I started to look at the advantages. I try to look at the bright side of this platform system. and to be honest there are many bright sides.

Especially Steam is incredibly convenient. Steam gives me easy access to all kinds of third party games I would not have known existed otherwise and it also is a guarantee (has been so far) that the games run perfectly on my games platform. I have close to 250 games in my Steam account, most of them bought with heavy discounts and they all, without a single exception run flawlessly.
Also games are easily patched, updated, reinstalled and expanded and DLC are easily added.
This is especially important in these days when games and patches and updates and DLC can be pretty big.
Another advantage is that I never worry about the conditions of game cd's and dvd's anymore.
In the old days I sometimes bought 2 or 3 copies when I particularly loved a certain game, because I worried about not being able to play the game anymore.
These days reinstalling these games is incredibly easy and the distributor even updates many of them to be compatible with newer hardware all the time.

Here is the thing... I don't like fragmenting my games across multiple platforms either

I understand, but actually it doesn't make a big difference. As I described I have Steam, Uplay, Epic Games Platform, Blizzard App and even EA's Origin.
The platforms only run in the background when I play a game that is on that particular platform and none of them is heavy on system resources.
HDD space is not a problem at all these days and the advantages really outweigh any possible disadvantages.

why should ubisoft be demanded to pay 30% of sales to valve for putting their games on steam? valve used to have some sound ip of their own but now they don't seem to have much interest actually making games, they get paid for doing very little so why invest in making your own software... hell they get money for nothing from trading cards now too.

For me that is just back stage economics. It is not my problem. If Valve can ask 30% and if even big boys like UBI are willing to pay that then surely they made the calculations and decided it is more than worth it. UBI could simply stop distributing via Valve and exclusively use their own Uplay platform.
That is what EA did after all. I don't believe any of the new EA games can be bought via Steam anymore.

imo if you really want to make a stand then only buy software totally independent of any of them, GOG I think sell only DRM free stuff, and that way the devs make more money (ie buy Elite dangerous direct and not from oculus or steam and Frontier make more cash afaik.)

I too bought Elite from Frontier (it wasn't on Steam when I bought it) and I did not use my free Steam key. I too want Fdev too earn maximum profit to further the development of the game.
But I also believe that Elite being on Steam made them a lot extra sales. That is why FDev put ED on Steam in the first place. It was their decision.
I am not going to blame Valve for Fdev's decision to put ED on Steam.

And imagine FDevs portfolio growing in the future. How easy would it be to change the Elite launcher into a general Frontier Games launcher. To me that seems a very natural and obvious future development. I would have no problem with it, because I certainly will buy the Jurassic Park game too and I am on the verge of buying Planet Coaster.
It would be convenient to have a Frontier Platform that gives me news and information and keeps track of updates and patches etc. of all my Frontier games.


I feel like a platform salesman

 

[popuptoaster]

the way I see it, imo you are either ok with forced platforms to run your games or you are not, and it was valve that started the whole thing by forcing steam on your pc even if you had retail half life 2.

Here is the thing... I don't like fragmenting my games across multiple platforms either, but, why should ubisoft be demanded to pay 30% of sales to valve for putting their games on steam? valve used to have some sound ip of their own but now they don't seem to have much interest actually making games, they get paid for doing very little so why invest in making your own software... hell they get money for nothing from trading cards now too.

of course we are the punters and it is our choice to boycott ubisoft for refusing to pay valve tax, but I don't blame them, and I blame EA for a lot of things, but NOT for deciding to make origin over steam......

imo if you really want to make a stand then only buy software totally independent of any of them, GOG I think sell only DRM free stuff, and that way the devs make more money (ie buy Elite dangerous direct and not from oculus or steam and Frontier make more cash afaik.)

I'm not forcing anyone to put their games on Steam and pay 30%, in fact, given the choice I buy games direct from the publisher but only if they come without a compulsory UI, like it or not (I don't) there are some games only available through Steam so i will use it. I have returned more than one game i bought on Steam because they also installed their own UI and that is, frankly, bloody ridiculous.

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread Steam is useful and points out things of interest and has regular sales and so they get my money, I don't want UBI launcher or whatever its called for the odd game i may buy from them.

if others are fine with having this software on their PC that's up to them, I don't want extra junk on my drive however small it is, i will resist being forced to install something i have no use for will pirate stuff to avoid using a UI rather than paying for it.

I vote with my wallet, bottom line is games companies don't care about much else, even a creative genius making games because they love it needs funds to make the next game.

 

[Mole HD]

I can remember folks bringing similar arguments with Windows 3.1 and especially Windows 95... unnecessary software, takes up resources, games don't need it to run...yada yada. The birth of Linux gamer geekery and FTP downloading...I certainly don't miss any of that. Whilst I'm old, lived through the birth of all that and can commiserate readily with folks who feel those platforms are an intrusion, it's an attitude harking back to the dark ages of computer gaming.

Steam and the like are convenient, full of bargain software and sales, take up minimal resources, update and patch games locally with decent bandwidth servers...what's not to like?

Having been on Xbox for a few years with the evils of the Microsoft store and Xbox live subs....I find Steam especially quite a bonus.

 

[Jezzah]

No complaints here either. It maybe a little annoying that there are so many different ones but I can only play one game at any given moment so that's the delivery service I have active. Once finished it's closed down and something else run.