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I Am Alive creative director amends comments on PC release, piracy
I Am Alive creative director Stanislas Mettra is citing the English language as the reason for his controversial comments about PC gaming and piracy. Mettra, who is not a native-English speaker, previously said that making I Am Alive for PC wouldn't be worth it because it would largely be pirated, even though Ubisoft had "heard loud and clear that PC gamers are bitching about there being no version for them." We don't know how "bitching" translates between languages, but Mettra has amended his statements in an email to IncGamers, saying he would "love" to see a PC version and Ubisoft is "working to see the feasibility of it, which is not necessarily simple." Mettra continued, "I gave some examples to illustrate the problematic [sic], but obviously it is not in my hands and not my part to talk about this. "Honestly, which game maker would not love his game to be playable on as many platforms and by as many people as possible?" This retraction may have held more weight if it weren't so easy for us to imagine large men in tailored Ubisoft suits standing behind Mettra as he wrote the email. For now it appears I Am Alive is still up for a PC release, but given Ubisoft's tense relationship with potential pirates, we're not holding our breath.
I Am Alive not planned for PC due to piracy concerns
I Am Alive creative director Stanislas Mettra has plainly stated that PC piracy makes the financial viability of the game on the platform uncertain. Ubisoft previously announced the downloadable title was only planned for consoles. "We've heard loud and clear that PC gamers are bitching about there being no version for them," Mettra said to IncGamers. "But are these people just making noise just because there's no version or because it's a game they actually want to play? Would they buy it if we made it?" Mettra continued that if 50,000 PC players buy the game it's not worth the cost of putting a team of 12 on the project for three months. He continued, "It's hard because there's so much piracy and so few people are paying for PC games that we have to precisely weigh it up against the cost of making it." Since I Am Alive runs on the Splinter Cell: Conviction engine, it could be ported to PC, but it's pretty clear that Ubisoft's relationship with PC players has become contentious, bordering on combative. It wouldn't be surprising if I Am Alive comes to PC some day, but it'll take longer than the standard one month delay.
