Being number one is a great honor indeed, but when you end up being the number one game to be pirated across an entire continent, it can be a really painful revelation.
Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs has had a tumultuous journey. It set out being a bug ridden game, which received very negative reviews in its beta test. Things changed, however, when the final version was released. It seemed that Ubisoft had been listening closely to fans, and had decided to incorporate all the feedback that fans left. Irrespective of that, hardcore gamers felt that the game was a disappointment. So the journey has been anything but easy. At the end of the day, Ubisoft has been able to create quite a few ripples with the game.
Watch Dogs’ Popularity
This year, Watch Dogs has sold more than 8 million copies of the game. Irrespective of how the hardcore gamers feel about it, Watch Dogs has quickly positioned itself as Ubisoft’s best-selling IP. However, many more than 8 million people are actually enjoying the game in North America. This is because a large stock of the pirated version of the game has entered into the market, and a lot of gamers have decided to buy the pirated version. This has burnt a huge hole in Ubisoft’s revenues from the game. Not to mention that Ubisoft’s sales would have been much higher had the pirated version of the game not been doing the rounds.
Movoto Research and Revelations
Movoto, an independent research company, recently performed a research on what people were ‘torrenting’ in the United States. Though the company is looking at movies, audio, video and a lot of other things apart from games, the research did bring up interesting revelations for Ubisoft. Almost all across the country, Watch Dogs is the leading downloaded game. The torrents for the pirated versions have millions of hits and players from all over the country are seeding these download. This allows other players to easily download them too. In fact, 19 of the 50 states in America had Watch Dogs as the most pirated game on the internet. The game is followed by Elder Scrolls Skyrim, which was listed as the most pirated game in only 4 states. That is a huge margin in itself.
What Does This Mean?
Movoto’s study has been quite thorough. It only left out Alaska and Hawaii, but it is unlikely that the inclusion of these two states may have changed the numbers by a substantial margin. Though being most pirated means that Ubisoft loses a big chunk of revenue to piracy of Watch Dogs, it is also a huge compliment. The numbers, when added, seem to point to the fact that Watch Dogs is indeed this year’s most popular game and despite having a huge sales record, the game is also at the top of piracy charts. It seems that people are out in droves, bit paying for the game and enjoying it legitimately, and pirating it to enjoy it a little beyond what the law commands.
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