Crassmaster: Well, to be honest...that's his job. He's the CEO of a major traded corporation. It's his role to do everything he can to maximize cash intake.
RakeeshSorrel: This is true. But the first rule of being a money grubbing corporation is to not blatantly shove your customer's face into the fact that you're a money grubbing corporation. He's not really good at that part. :\
Most corporations seem to just not get that shareholders should not be their main concern. The Internet changed the world and the way corporations are seen. If a CEO makes a dick move, everyone will know about it. Underhanded tactics will no longer go unnoticed, obvious anti-customer yet pro-shareholder strategies will end up in the press. The latest Ubisoft scheme is just such a thing: keep the shareholders happy, piss off your customers. In the long run, it WILL hurt these companies.
The reputation of nearly all big publishers has been badly tarnished because of the shady and dodgy actions they've pulled in the past 10 years. I could name a dozen off the top of my head! Some have started to notice the drop in sales and lack of respect (which leads to piracy although they'll never admit they are partially responsible for that)) - EA has started to swing around, removing DRM, giving away games for free, trying to show us they're committed to original games, etc. LucasArts has shown they have interest in their old fan base too, by re-releasing their old games & allowing a new Monkey Island to be made. In general, it's no coincidence: it's ploy to get us to like them again.
At the moment, Ubisoft is really going off the deep end as being the most idiotic and retarded publisher out there which must make EA happy .... Expect a Ubisoft-charm attack soon.