Ubisoft Announces Plan to Shut Down Servers for 15 Games

[trsttte]

I was just thinking about this with World of Tanks. People spend lot of money on tanks and buying gold, would be a real shit storm if WG ever decided to pull the plug. I can see Ubisoft doing it, it's their style..

They will eventually, just like Apex, Fortnite, Warzone, World of warships, Genshin, etc... None of the free to play stuff will last forever and everything you ever bought there will not mean shit. A percentage of users knows this and most choose to not buy anything (or at least limit their spending) and just enjoy the free game, the percentage is probably small though.

This is where some kind of ownership system like NFTs could be interesting if it was possible to avoid greed and stupidity from taking over it like it always does.

That's the 2nd time they did that this year: Ubisoft has officially shut down online services for over 90 games

From that news article:

Units and Challenges for the games that used Ubisoft Connect will also be disabled, meaning players will no longer be able to earn Units for completing certain tasks.

Content that could be unlocked through Ubisoft Connect, such as maps and skins, will also be disabled, meaning players will no longer be able to unlock them.

What does this mean for stuff that was already unlocked? And for the stuff it wasn't, will we now be able to buy complete editions of the game? (I know the answer to the second one, no because Ubisoft fucking sucks. I still remember when I bought one of the earlier Assassins Creed on Uplay (grey market key) and it was simply not possible to buy one of the expansions without buying a "deluxe edition" that was also not available either as standalone or as an upgrade on uplay :facepalm: - this was not even a recent occurrence, it was somewhere around 2015 or 2016 when the games were not that old, might actually have improved now since they "remastered" all the early stuff but I won't buy them again anyway lol)

 

[Minus Infinity]

I should play AC III and finish Far Cry 3 I guess. I have a fair few older AC games in my Steam Library.

 

[Mussels]

I think something is missing in the translation, the DLC that you can't acess should only be the multiplayer parts of it, why would they let you still purchase the game and not play the single player DLC?
More you have the remastered versions that include said DLC, would they be on purpose cutting the single player DLC from the remasters?
Your assumptions make no sense at all, that or Ubisoft is crazy and on a path to piss off every customer.

Because the servers that verify you own that content are being shut down to save money

They will eventually, just like Apex, Fortnite, Warzone, World of warships, Genshin, etc... None of the free to play stuff will last forever and everything you ever bought there will not mean shit. A percentage of users knows this and most choose to not buy anything (or at least limit their spending) and just enjoy the free game, the percentage is probably small though.

This is where some kind of ownership system like NFTs could be interesting if it was possible to avoid greed and stupidity from taking over it like it always does.



From that news article:


What does this mean for stuff that was already unlocked? And for the stuff it wasn't, will we now be able to buy complete editions of the game? (I know the answer to the second one, no because Ubisoft fucking sucks. I still remember when I bought one of the earlier Assassins Creed on Uplay (grey market key) and it was simply not possible to buy one of the expansions without buying a "deluxe edition" that was also not available either as standalone or as an upgrade on uplay :facepalm: - this was not even a recent occurrence, it was somewhere around 2015 or 2016 when the games were not that old, might actually have improved now since they "remastered" all the early stuff but I won't buy them again anyway lol)

Anything unlocked will be gone. No server to track who owns it or earned it. Gone.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Think I have hitman 3 on ubisoft came with a 980/ 1080 purchase or 1080ti can't remember which one
Obviously I haven't reinstalled/ used ubisoft engine in a long long time last I remember it was a buggy game so no big deal they probably dropped it off their server already

 

[Deleted member 177333]

Back in 2012 the CEO claimed in an interview that 95% of PC gamers were pirates.

And the ironic thing is pirates will still be able to play the games when any single player DLC is turned off. Thank goodness for Fitgirl, DODI and the high seas at large. Proud to say I haven't bought a game from Ubisoft since 2018. Good to see them struggling financially, too.

 

[MentalAcetylide]

Again there should be law's for this sort of stuff.

Imo games with a online component should be converted if a dev does not want to support it any longer so that consumers themselves get access and means to easily host matches or whatever is needed.
It would be crazy to demand a dev to always support it.
But it should not result in loss of functionality, give it to the people then, make it open.

There should be, but doubtful it would ever work in our favor since most of these companies probably spend more on written EULAs & such to make sure their asses are covered when they do these kinds of things.
Chances are there's just not enough of those players spending money to warrant keeping those servers running. There needs to be enough income from those particular games to keep their servers running or else it just becomes a money sink. With the way companies are profit driven, things like this will be one of the first things to go, regardless of how many players actively play the game. It either becomes pay to play or it has to go.

I was just thinking about this with World of Tanks. People spend lot of money on tanks and buying gold, would be a real shit storm if WG ever decided to pull the plug. I can see Ubisoft doing it, it's their style..

I don't think players are spending that much money on tanks. The ones that do just like collecting the tanks since the majority of their premium tanks are either trash or just a reskinned version. Most of the money is spent on gold & credit bundles.

 

[eidairaman1]

The worst part of this is that they're simply killing off access to paid DLC, they need to just enable it offline for everyone who owns it, if they're going down this road to earn back some of the goodwill lost by canning the games

This is why I dont like DLC, it should be on disk lol

And the ironic thing is pirates will still be able to play the games when any single player DLC is turned off. Thank goodness for Fitgirl, DODI and the high seas at large. Proud to say I haven't bought a game from Ubisoft since 2018. Good to see them struggling financially, too.

I 'dlike to see EA and Epic, Valve suffer as well. Lets get Back the Tom Clancy's, Unreal Tournament, Orangebox Games again instead of Fortnites.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

Again there should be law's for this sort of stuff.

Why?

Everyone was warned at the time, that if people accepted the convenience of digital storefronts and not having to get off their lazy fat backsides and (Shock!) have to go to a store and buy a physical copy (The horror of it all!) anymore, one day this sort of stuff would happen.

When will people realise that You're not actually buying these games in the digital space, you're just renting them as and when until the companies involved, want their stuff returned.

 

[Bomby569]

Because the servers that verify you own that content are being shut down to save money

What? That literally makes no sense, they should be the same servers that verify you own the game. I'm sorry but that's peak internet crazy drama making stuff up

 

[TheDeeGee]

Time for Ubisoft to move all games to Steam, just like EA and Bethesda been doing recently.

 

[Dammeron]

Very much agreed, I believe Turn 10 do the same thing with Forza/Forza Horizon. I've not paid for the add on's for Horizon 2 and I'm unable to get to complete the game at all because I can't access or buy add on's that allow it. It really sucks.

Don't compare the ubi games with Forza Horizon (and pretty much any other racing game). Publishers can't sell old racing games due to car brands' licencing.

 

[Bomby569]

Time for Ubisoft to move all games to Steam, just like EA and Bethesda been doing recently.

this games are all on steam (maybe not that new MP one, no idea), they just don't have the newest ones on steam

 

[PapaTaipei]

People buying Ubisoft games are degenerates.

 

[TheDeeGee]

this games are all on steam (maybe not that new MP one, no idea), they just don't have the newest ones on steam

The old Anno and Settlers History Editions arn't on Steam.

 

[mechtech]

I'm not at the "boycott" stage with Ubisoft yet but they're getting close. The last game I paid Ubisoft money for was Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

Even with no Ubisoft or EA for the last decade, I have too many great games to play and not enough free time to play them all. If you don't like a company's business practices, stop giving them your money.

Like Terraria!!!!!!!!!!

And the ironic thing is pirates will still be able to play the games when any single player DLC is turned off. Thank goodness for Fitgirl, DODI and the high seas at large. Proud to say I haven't bought a game from Ubisoft since 2018. Good to see them struggling financially, too.

It's not good to see any company struggle financially. It's usually the few people at the top that cause all the grief. All of the other employees are just trying to earn a living and don't get a say. If the company goes under, it's the innocents that suffer, while the execs get the golden parachute.

 

[The red spirit]

Ubisoft upper management are dysfunctional. Back in 2012 the CEO claimed in an interview that 95% of PC gamers were pirates. No mention of the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that PC gamers were spending on their games and DLC year after year. The CEO never retracted that statement and that's why still to this day that there is so much DRM on their PC version of games.

For all the crap Ubi is pulling, 95% is still too low.

 

[Deleted member 177333]

It's not good to see any company struggle financially. It's usually the few people at the top that cause all the grief. All of the other employees are just trying to earn a living and don't get a say. If the company goes under, it's the innocents that suffer, while the execs get the golden parachute.

While I don't disagree about collateral damage, what this tells me is that gamers are in large part rejecting Ubi's anti-consumer behavior and poor / stale games. And to me that's a good thing for the industry. And I say this as someone who was a big Ubisoft fanboy a good 10-15 years back.

 

[MarsM4N]

From that news article:

What does this mean for stuff that was already unlocked? And for the stuff it wasn't, will we now be able to buy complete editions of the game? (I know the answer to the second one, no because Ubisoft fucking sucks. I still remember when I bought one of the earlier Assassins Creed on Uplay (grey market key) and it was simply not possible to buy one of the expansions without buying a "deluxe edition" that was also not available either as standalone or as an upgrade on uplay :facepalm: - this was not even a recent occurrence, it was somewhere around 2015 or 2016 when the games were not that old, might actually have improved now since they "remastered" all the early stuff but I won't buy them again anyway lol)

Decommissioning of online services (September 2022)

To my understanding every purchased DLC will be rendered unusable, unlocked DLC items will be gone, multiplayer will be gone & archievments from DLC or in multiplayer will become unarchievable.

Yep, and selling the standard version of games without selling upgrade options separately is a well known dirty trick to sell the game twice. Seen it not only from Ubisoft.

 

[trsttte]

Decommissioning of online services (September 2022)

To my understanding every purchased DLC will be rendered unusable, unlocked DLC items will be gone, multiplayer will be gone & archievments from DLC or in multiplayer will become unarchievable.

Yep, and selling the standard version of games without selling upgrade options separately is a well known dirty trick to sell the game twice. Seen it not only from Ubisoft.

AC Black flag is not affected yet, but I have the complete edition on uplay (with the freedom cry expansion - which was actually deserving of the name for a change), wonder how it will be affected since it wasn't an unlockable or any of that sort of thing, it's a specific version of the game, complete edition or whatever it was called.

Only thing I've bought on uplay were the earlier AC games, guess I learned that lesson lol.

 

[Frick]

This is where some kind of ownership system like NFTs could be interesting if it was possible to avoid greed and stupidity from taking over it like it always does.

NFTs doesn't solve anything, ever. You just need databases and all the devs/publishers supporting it. Adding NFTs doesn't take away the difficult stuff, which is getting the publishers to agree to share content they have created. The idea is nonsensical.

 

[MarsM4N]

AC Black flag is not affected yet, but I have the complete edition on uplay (with the freedom cry expansion - which was actually deserving of the name for a change), wonder how it will be affected since it wasn't an unlockable or any of that sort of thing, it's a specific version of the game, complete edition or whatever it was called.

Only thing I've bought on uplay were the earlier AC games, guess I learned that lesson lol.

Yes, Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag™ isn't on the list, yet. But it might be next round.

On Steam it shows it has "In-App Purchases". Guess they will be gone when it's also decommissioned.

 

[big_glasses]

NFTs doesn't solve anything, ever. You just need databases and all the devs/publishers supporting it. Adding NFTs doesn't take away the difficult stuff, which is getting the publishers to agree to share content they have created. The idea is nonsensical.

yup, and you'd still need some database to ping for ownership. Atleast in the form of gaming, NFT is just a fancy DB.


and people here are delusional about Ubi and their finances. They've taken a cost-analysis, not enough players are playing those games -> don't want the cost for keeping servers running

Ubisoft’s three largest brands each generated well over 300 M€ of net bookings this year, a first in Ubisoft’s history

Investors | Ubisoft

Investor Center

www.ubisoft.com

Revenue over 2.2B$ according to companiesmarketcap

Ubisoft (UBI.PA) - Revenue

Current and historical revenue charts for Ubisoft. As of November 2024 Ubisoft's TTM revenue is of $1.97 Billion USD

companiesmarketcap.com

They (and EA) have closed down servers before, they do it every so often.

 

[Mussels]

What? That literally makes no sense, they should be the same servers that verify you own the game. I'm sorry but that's peak internet crazy drama making stuff up

No... they verify you own the game, because you have a serial key and that check is installed in the base level version of the game on CD (however you bought it, that initial check for valid serials is included internally. DLC gets added later, and verified externally)

The DLC requires an online server to verify you own it - it's "online only" content - and if they shut down their servers? that's it, it's not available.

 

[Bomby569]

No... they verify you own the game, because you have a serial key and that check is installed in the base level version of the game on CD (however you bought it, that initial check for valid serials is included internally. DLC gets added later, and verified externally)

The DLC requires an online server to verify you own it - it's "online only" content - and if they shut down their servers? that's it, it's not available.

the store is a online verification that you own the game and DLC It happened sometimes to a lot of people, including me, to not have a single game owned on Ubi store temporarily. I give Ubi as an example because they go to the extreme of bad functioning sometimes. There is always a online check. Even if you do the offline thing there is a verification first.
And if game has Denuvo, like most AAA do now, they verify you own the game every time, an online verification. They don't even do this for DLC (they will start now)

 

[bug]

the store is a online verification that you own the game and DLC It happened sometimes to a lot of people, including me, to not have a single game owned on Ubi store temporarily. I give Ubi as an example because they go to the extreme of bad functioning sometimes. There is always a online check. Even if you do the offline thing there is a verification first.
And if game has Denuvo, like most AAA do now, they verify you own the game every time, an online verification. They don't even do this for DLC (they will start now)

Again, you do not own the game or the DLC. You simply license the rights to access the publisher's property. Licenses can be revoked.
Often times, what is installed on your machine isn't even playable. Loot tables and such are kept on the server "to prevent cheating", that's how you end up with stupid always-online requirements for single player games.