The game publisher Ubisoft announced that it will be shuttering online services for over a dozen games this September, but wait there’s more…
Shutting down multiplayer servers for older games is a common practice, especially nowadays when every game and its mother has a Battle Royale mode or some other tacked on multiplayer micro-transaction filled hell-scape. However Ubisoft’s decision to do close down legacy games’ online features is affecting more than the multiplayer modes…
It’s taking away the ability to download DLC (Downloadable Content) even if you OWN it. Let me reiterate. Ubisoft will no longer let people download content for the games they’ve fairly purchased.
Closing the online services for some older games allows us to focus our resources on delivering great experiences for players who are playing newer or more popular titles
Ubisoft Help Page
The full decision is to cut out this collection of game’s online services. That encompasses the multiplayer components, access to online in-game features, linking of relative accounts to said games, and in some cases – installing or accessing downloadable content. This last point is majorly due in part to Ubisoft’s DRM (Digital Rights Management), and since all online features are cut, that mean the ability to correctly verify the content’s ownership.
The full list of affected titles is on Ubisoft’s help page, and it’s a fairly substantive list with games FULL of downloadable content, as is Ubisoft’s usual policy of loading each game up with tiny content packs.
The standout titles affected are of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. You know, the one that’s STILL RELEASING GAMES. Not that the newer titles are narratively connected to the ones affected, but this practice sets a bad precedent where Ubisoft is making it abundantly clear you’re just licensing any games you buy from them until they deem it too much of a hassle for you to enjoy them.
Oh yeah, and they’re still SELLING some of these games. So that’s cool. How very nice of them.
