If your copy of Far Cry 4 on PC doesn’t have FOV (Field Of View) options, and you complained about this on a forum, you might want to go and delete your comments. Because there’s a very good chance you’ve just outed yourself as someone who pirated the game.
Ubisoft Montreal creative director Alex Hutchinson says:
PC players! If you’re online complaining about the lack of FOV control … You pirated the game.
— Alex Hutchinson (@BangBangClick) November 18, 2014
Seems the option to adjust the FOV was added as part of an update that came along with the retail release of the game, so anyone who doesn’t have it is most likely (a small handful of folks might have bought a disc version and never gone online, but then, how would you be complaining online?) in possession of a pirated copy.
It’s not the best means of anti-piracy I’ve ever seen on PC, but in terms of both frustrating and then outing pirates, it’s up there.
Comments
31 responses to “Far Cry 4 Tricks People Into Revealing They Pirated The Game”
Thats a pretty good troll by Ubisoft.
Nice! But I suspect there will be a work around from the piraters by the time I finish this sentence. They’re good like that.
Of course. I downloaded 1.3 patch version crack. Only games I torrent are Ubisoft and this is my first one. I’ve bought over 150 games on Steam alone and another hundred between non Steam and consoles. But Ubisoft has burned me too many times. I may consider purchasing the game when the fix this horrible stuttering and frame dipping.
i wish i had the ability to selectively turn off my ethics like you apparently do
ahahahahhahahahhahhahahahahah! That’s amazing!
Is it really achieving anything by telling us the secret thing they’re using to track piracy?
Maybe they knew it was ultimately futile, and putting it in only to be able to tell us they are “smarter than that” is an elaborate PR double bluff.
Well, it will have outed a lot of people in forums, that isn’t a bad thing.
It definitely isn’t a bad thing. My point is, though, that if it’s actually effective they’ve just ruined it by drawing attention to it publicly.
If it was working, why reveal it? Did they know they were going to talk about when they implemented it? Why do it at all if they’ve no intention of actually using it to dissuade people to pirate their next game?
To make themselves look aloof and cool, and for the briefest of moments, as if they were winning. In other words, for public relations.
That’s all supposing my premise is true, however. Most likely everything I’ve just written is garbage.
It wasn’t a secret piracy measure though – It’s functionality that was added with the first update (something pirates wont receive)
You couldn’t have been more wrong.
No, he’s right. Let’s assume you posted on the forum with the account you use for all other ubisoft games, stating that you can’t find the FOV slider. Ubisoft can’t go ahead and deactivate your account because you couldn’t find a single menu option. There have been many times I’ve complained about an option being missing only to find it when instructed by fellow players…
So please, explain how you think it’s a secret piracy measure? The closest I can get is that it gives a rather inaccurate measure of the number of people who pirated the game and post on your forums, plus anyone who played pre-day0patched, plus anyone who genuinely didn’t find the menu option…
The game is so rigged, not sure what the non pirated version is like but the pirated version sucks balls. Every 15 seconds a eagle attacks you or a rabid dog or a demon fish right before you get into a boat or onto land, the whole game is f__king rigged and I’m about to kill some developers if they put this in the real version.
There’s no point in buying the game if the game is this f__ked up, they only did the updates the first week of the same month this broken a$$ game came out because of people pirating it, no one wants to pay your 60 bucks you a$$holes. F__k ubisoft, never going to buy a game from them again if they can’t f__king fix it, I bought far cry 3 for the pc and the optimization is nice, but a year down the road when it came out.
I swear they push this games quicker before they can test them, seems like they gave up on that and grabs the title from EA games for the worst video game company in the world, even though all video games are universal by one illuminati a$$clown organization, the whole video game thing is just to distract you on whats going on or some like to hint to tell you some fear mongering BS to misinform you or to tell the truth.
You won’t know till it happens, I do know the world is synced and this could mind as well be HELL we are trapped inside of, you call Earth.
didn’t the day one patch add the fov command for both pirated and legit copies?
this screams of “IT’S NOT A BUG, IT’S A FEATURE!”
Yip as the first shipment come without the fov slider on it. Just another cover up by ubisoft.
The game was shipped with version 1.1.0 which didnt have the fov slider. 1.2.0 was the second patch. http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/far-cry-4-has-a-day-1-patch-because-of-course-it-does/
I don’t think they’re claiming they did it on purpose to expose pirates, just that it reveals people who pirated the game. When people do this sort of pirate trolling it tends to be a funnier bug rather than just one missing feature (unless that feature is saving progress).
Although I disagree with the idea that anyone on the internet must also have the update. There’s quite a few reasons why someone might have forum access without installing the latest patch.
Said retail patch is already up on torrent sites
The sooner people use the term stolen instead of pirated the better. Getting a stolen copy off the net is no different to shoplifting a copy from a store.
Well said.
While I’m with you in the anti-piracy camp, its not the same. Downloading something off the internet does not exclude someone else from having it, you’re making a copy, not stealing the original.
And when you’re shoplifting from a store there’s no doubt many more copies in back, so no one’s really being excluded from having it. Minor differences really.
You can’t assume that. A physical copy stolen may potentially deny a paying customer from buying, therefore that is legitimately stealing.
I don’t agree that it’s the same thing. Digital media piracy will never be the equivalent of stealing someone’s physical property, no matter how you try to twist it. The clincher is the fact that no one has any way of quantifying if a given pirate would or wouldn’t have actually paid for the media, coupled with the nature of no one else being denied access to the product when it’s taken. I don’t believe that digital stuff can be considered someone’s ‘property’, therefore by definition it is not stealing to me.
“… You pirated the game.” Or cancelled/ignored the update?
There’s been a few of these over the years. Along with the Flashpoint gradual decrease in accuracy, there was GTA 4’s continuously wobbling camera
It is something that devs need to be careful with though. I seem to remember part of the reason Mirrors Edge didn’t sell as well as it might have early on was because the fade copy protection crippled the running speed. A bunch of pirates whined which resulted in other people assuming the game was broken.
It’s absolutely tottally useless. Those cracked versions are up 30 minutes later than the retail release crack. They had GTA IV fixed immediately. They had Far Cry 4 patch crack immediately. It’s totally useless and only hurts the people who buy the game.
Adding in decent multiplayer modes and online content that needs origin/steam login to verify then download it should be enough, crippling your game on launch isn’t very wise. Many PIRATES actually go out and buy the game afterwards, but if it has things like this occurring it will likely just deter them from bothering.
Pirates do tend to buy more software then legitimate honest goody too-shoes afterall!
so what happens to all the poor folk who do not have internet at home…. they buy the game and it doesnt have said feature…. or has said pirate detector fault.
why are they made to pay for not having internet and not being able to update…
i realise the percentage of people in this bracket would be small, but still a factor none the less
yeah true, but i reckon ppl who are actually buying the game, and have bought something to play it on, probs (/almost definitely) will have the internet
i know plenty of people…… some in my family who this would apply to….. they live in more rural areas where internet is not such a common thing.
my nephew for example has a console and would be likely getting games as bday presents and xmas gifts…… why should bhe suffer coz of stuff like this
ah good point, i didn’t even think about that. yeah that really sucks.
..whooo, mispost