Ubisoft is decommissioning online services for some of its games in September and this will render some of them inaccessible.
Ubisoft said that they would discontinue online support for some of their older games, and the list of games being discontinued is quite extensive.
This move will include pulling support for multiplayer services and DLC for these games from the 1st of September this year.
The reason for this mass decommission was given as freeing up and refocusing resources for new, more popular titles.
Some of the games affected will be :
- Assassin’s Creed II
- Assassin’s Creed 3 (2012 Release)
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
- Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD
- Assassin’s Creed Revelations
- Far Cry 3 (2012 Release)
- Ghost Recon Future Soldier
- Space Junkies
- Silent Hunter 5
For the entire list, you can check out the Ubisoft site here.
Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD and Silent Hunter 5, two games on the list for which Ubisoft is discontinuing online support, appear to be completely unplayable as a result of the action, which runs counter to Ubisoft’s initial explanation of which features of each game would be removed.
Since the announcement Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD and Space Junkies have been pulled from sale and have notices on their respective Steam pages stating:
“Please note that this title will not be accessible following September 1st, 2022.”
Splinter Cell Blacklist and Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands remain available for purchase with a notice stating:
“The deluxe edition and DLC for this title will not be accessible following September 1st, 2022.”
This circumstance sets a troubling precedent for the mutability of our digital purchases, as did the PlayStation Store’s removal of purchased movies from user libraries in Germany and Austria.
While publishers have previously removed titles from Steam, this has never happened to a user’s library. It doesn’t matter if you purchased it, according to the second notification for Liberation. It will no longer be found in your library.
This is bad news for those who have bought these games thinking they owned them fair and square, it seems Ubisoft is not concerned about that as they are pulling a lengthy list of games from Steam libraries.
Normally, players who purchased a game can continue to access it after the developer delists it from Steam. If Ubisoft’s strategy isn’t already unclear and poorly explained, it is peculiar. It’s also a great reminder that despite how much money you spent on the game, nothing is ours to “own.”