Why on EARTH would I pre-order from UBISOFT!!!
 

Lol... I thought ok you know what? I will go for the digital download. I believe maddox will get more money for digital downloads. Since its just software. No need to make a nice production etc. pressing of dvd's etc.

So i travel to ubisoft. And i click on preorder. oh nice submarine thingy for free. and whats this? ADD EXTENDED DOWNLOAD SERVICE for 8 euros...

WTF? I have to pay 8 euros so my game will be downloadable for a measly 2 years??? Without it I'm screwed if i forget to backup the game to dvd and my drive chrashes????

Screw you ubisoft I'll never going to buy from you now. I'll wait for steam or d2d or something else.

That's why i think I'll go with steam.

steam is great :cool:

The way things have been going, even if Monsieur Ubi himself delivered a hard copy of Cliffs of Dover to my door and offered to make me a plate of bacon and eggs as it installed. I think I'd still rather get it from Steam. Just to ensure that Ubisoft see no profit from me for their piss poor handling of the game.

So Ubi don't get any profit from team sales?
Do we know that Ubi are not handling DD?

1C gets a bigger piece of the pie from Steam.

Steam won't expire your copy.

Unless Steam is late out of the gate that's where I'll be getting it from.

Developer = maddox games
Publisher = Ubi in the west, 1C in the east

The 60:40 or 70:30 deal is between steam and publisher, not the developer.

Maddox games is not self-publishing, they are using two publishing companies, so they are not the ones getting that 70%.

Conclusion?

Oleg and his team will probably not get 70% of your money if you buy it on Steam because Oleg =/= 1c.

It's the company that has the publishing rights on Steam that will and who knows, it could just as well be Ubi as it could be 1C. The Maddox games team (the actual developers) will get whatever cut of that 70% their contract with the publisher specifies.

If you do the math you'll see that in such a case it's actually better not to publish in multiple platforms in a layered manner, but in separate versions. Let's assume that Ubi and 1c are getting a 30% as well. With such a deal we'll have:

30% to Steam
30% to Ubi or 1c (whichever has the rights to publish on steam)
40% to Oleg's team

That's more than half the price of the game not going to Oleg's pockets.

If they did a completely separate version for Steam and a completely non-steam version through regular retail and digital download, it would be better. For the steam version you'd have a 70:30 in favor of Oleg's team and for the non steam versions you'd have a 50:50 or 60:30 or 70:30 between Oleg and Ubi/1c, depending on the region and agreementes. Since publishing only on retail tends to give a bigger cut to the publisher, i just went with an arbitrary number, it might be 60:40 in favor of publisher, who knows.

What i'm trying to say here is that just because 1c gets more money by selling on Steam (if it's 1c that's selling there and not Ubi), it probably doesn't mean that money is going to Oleg's pockets, so supporting the developer team is not a solid reason to buy from Steam until we know more details about their deal (if we ever will). In fact, the combined cut of Steam and Ubi/1c could be upwards of 50% of the game's price.

Depending on the financial agreements between Oleg and Ubi/1c, it might actually be better for the developers if you ordered straight from a single publisher.

For example, if Ubi and/or 1c get 50% for every order in their online shop, but they also get 30% for every Steam copy (on top of Steam's 30%), it's actually better to order directly from them depending on your region:

splitting it 50/50 is better than having
game price - (30% for steam + 30% for publisher) = 40% for Oleg's team

Until we know more about the way everyone involved gets his cut, saying that buying from Steam makes Oleg more money is just the same as saying that buying from Ubi does: both are pure guesswork. ;)

Haha! Great minds think alike! I just made basically the same post a few hours ago in the Poll about Steam users thread. :-P

Can I order the English version from 1C? I like 1C better.

The only thing we know is that the publishing situation must be complicated between Ubi, 1C and Steam/Valve. Quite likely there's some complex contract involved about who is allowed to publish which version at which time - otherwise I don't see how the game wouldn't be shown at least as a "coming soon" title on Steam.

I'll gladly wait until that clears up though, I'm on vacation anyway during the release week :-P

Maybe, but I think 1C publishing only for Russian customers.

I hear you. The thing that drives most people impatient and we have all this bickering among ourselves (we're all guilty of that and i'll be the first to raise my hand and admit it) is that this complicated situation between different publishers and platforms results in a slow trickle of information on matters relating directly to our ability to purchase the title.

On the other hand, even if the level of conversation can descend to some low standards and we're all getting repetitive from time to time, all this impatience is still a sign of enthusiasm about the title so it's not all bad :cool:

I'm lucky enough to have a relative studying in the UK, so i managed to get an order for the collector's edition placed. Then i'm going to be biting my nails until it arrives: will it be misplaced if it's shipped via mail, or will my relative forget to put it in the baggage before going to the airport to return back home? :-P

Just to be clear, Maddox Games is 1C: Maddox Games, owned (at least in part) by 1C. So there will be a predefined scheme to share profits between 1C and Oleg, and this will stand whatever platform the game is then published on.

Based on the article Novotny posted, in a boxed copy sale via Ubisoft the revenue will be split about 60% Retail store, 25% Ubisoft and 15% 1C/Oleg.

Download sale via Ubisoft will probably go something like 50-60% Ubisoft, 40-50% 1C/Oleg, assuming the deal for sharing profits is the same between Ubisoft and 1C/Oleg.

Sale via Steam will however go 30-40% Steam, 60-70% 1C/Oleg, with Ubisoft out of the loop because of 1C's policy of retaining the download release rights for their games.

To sum up, Oleg gets the most money from a Steam sale, might at best get a similar/slightly lower amount from Ubisoft Download, and gets a fraction of the amount from a boxed copy sale.

ubisoft SUCKS. period

Hmm thanks for the info. I havent even really thought about all the percentages and such. I'll stick with steam then. hopefully maddox gets a bigger piece of the cake and meanwhile I can happily avoid Ubisuck.

First time I mailed Ubisoft it really should have been obvious though... I wanted to receive details on how to order the Collectors Edition of il2 sturmovik cliffs of dover formerly know as battle of britain:storm of war here in Holland.

They replied with:

Sorry for the inconvience but we can only help you with games published by ubisoft. Please contact EA.com...

You will get a STEAM redeemable product key anyway so you can allways download it from your Steam account anyway, no need for the extended download service at all.

l
unbelievable:)

WOW are you absolutely certain about this? Do you have a source for me? I'm not sceptical by nature but I really want this game and on release and I can't think clearly when I want something very bad :p

Steam features are integral part of the game, so you'll need to activate it on Steam regardless where you bought it (and you don't need any extended download service from other sources). However 1C will get more percentage of your money if you buy the game online than a boxed copy in a retail store if this matters for you:)

Thank you. ok you won me over. Weird though that steam is not advertising it yet although you will need steam to activate it, as you say.

Yeah I was going to download because I want maddox to get a bigger piece of the pie :) Furthermore I always lose my booklets and dvd's anyway so thats why i'm building my game library on steam.

The odd thing is it would probably sway my purchase if I'"Knew" Oleg and Company were getting a bigger cut. I really wish they would self publish....I want to pay THEM!...Period

Yeah I check every day for a steam page. Hopefully soon!

I wouldn't expect it before 3/25. With the information at hand and some deductive reasoning I would say that it is likely the publishing (of box copies) contract they have with Ubi would prevent 1C from offering the game digitally, assuming the interview with Daryl Still is correct, before 3/25 so that Ubi can take in as much on pre-purchases as possible with the expectation that the lion's share of day one purchases and beyond would be digital. That would also explain (imo) why Ubi hasn't made any real concerted effort to advertise for the game, but that is using rationalization, reason, and theorizing.