V. Amoleo Posted July 11, 2022 Posted July 11, 2022 (edited) Usually the delisting of a product is frustrating but you can at least continue to play it if you purchased it. Thankfully, Ubisoft have found a way to make it worse! Below is a list of games that will lose features on 1st September 2022. Additionally, they were selling these on sale during the latest Steam sale so people (including me in one case!) will have bought these very recently. Ubisoft's response for Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 3 is to buy the remastered version, which I think is a very weak response. I don't believe you can even buy Far Cry 3 Remastered by itself and to use the term 'remastered' is pushing the boundaries of what the word means. Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered is more of an actual remaster and it includes all the DLC and Assassin's Creed Liberation. But still, simply saying buy the newer one should not be the answer to a game I already own becoming unplayable due to DRM (and not any sort of hardware changes). Red titles become completely unplayable, amber titles lose access to all purchased DLC, green titles require a work around to play single player and all titles lose multiplayer. Game name Platform Changes to functionality Anno 2070 PC You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Assassin's Creed II PC PlayStation 3 You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Assassin's Creed 3 PC You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to downloadable content (DLC) will be unavailable. PlayStation 3 Wii U Xbox 360 You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood PC You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable. PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Assassin's Creed Liberation HD PC You will be unable to link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable. Assassin's Creed Revelations PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 You will be unable to play multiplayer or use online features. Driver San Francisco PC You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable. PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Far Cry 3 PC You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable. PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Ghost Recon Future Soldier PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 The multiplayer for the game will be unavailable. To play the solo campaign, you will have to set your console into offline mode. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands PC You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable. Rayman Legends PlayStation 3 Wii U Xbox 360 You will be unable to link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Silent Hunter 5 PC You will be unable to link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable. Space Junkies PC (HTC VIVE, Oculus) As a multiplayer only title, you will be unable to play the game going forward. Splinter Cell: Blacklist PC You will be unable to play multiplayer, link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 You will be unable to link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. ZombiU Wii U You will be unable to link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Edited July 11, 2022 by V. Amoleo Source: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/help/gameplay/article/decommissioning-of-online-services-september-2022/000102396 1
Hero-of-Time Posted July 11, 2022 Posted July 11, 2022 Welcome to the digital future! Going forward I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of this kind of stuff, with publishers pushing to see what they can get away with. I see there's something similar going on with Sony and Studio Canal. Apparently movies by them are being delisted and if you bought them on PS platforms then you will lose them. The whole thing is messed up.
Glen-i Posted July 12, 2022 Posted July 12, 2022 (edited) I mean, really old games losing online features like online multiplayer is understandable, but not being able to reinstall DLC that people paid for just isn't right. I hope this isn't another "Horse Armour" situation where the community just lets it happen. But with how old a lot of these games are, I'm concerned it will happen. That said, I'm not surprised that Ubisoft is making another attempt to push how far they can screw customers over. Par for the course with them. Edited July 12, 2022 by Glen-i
Dcubed Posted July 12, 2022 Posted July 12, 2022 The sooner that Ubisoft gets bought out by someone else? The better. Hopefully Nintendo find a way to poach Ubisoft Milan as well.
Hero-of-Time Posted July 12, 2022 Posted July 12, 2022 The whole company is a mess right now. I replayed Child of Light last week for the first time since 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed my time with it again. It's nuts that Ubisoft were once happy to put out games like that, Valiant Hearts and Rayman Legends but have now become a shadow of their former selves, constantly chasing trends and making their open world games bloated and unsatisfying. I'd go as far to say that they are equal to or slightly worse than EA at this point.
V. Amoleo Posted July 12, 2022 Author Posted July 12, 2022 (edited) 18 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: I see there's something similar going on with Sony and Studio Canal. Apparently movies by them are being delisted and if you bought them on PS platforms then you will lose them. The whole thing is messed up. Yeah in Germany and Austria (so far), Studio Canal are pulling movies and shows completely from the Sony video store. It's a massive precedent so I do hope the EU pick up on this. The legalities are grey at best, but I still refuse to buy digital movies where I can't strip the DRM out and store elsewhere. Hell, I'm currently going through my PS3 and Vita catalogue dumping all the digital and physical games I have. 9 hours ago, Glen-i said: I mean, really old games losing online features like online multiplayer is understandable, but not being able to reinstall DLC that people paid for just isn't right. I hope this isn't another "Horse Armour" situation where the community just lets it happen. But with how old a lot of these games are, I'm concerned it will happen. That said, I'm not surprised that Ubisoft is making another attempt to push how far they can screw customers over. Par for the course with them. Losing online multiplayer is understandable because that requires a connection to their servers. Though even that I wish they'd still do dedicated servers like they used to in the past, so that the community could still play without the matchmaking servers being online. It's also frustrating that this is becoming an issue purely because they used their UPlay DRM instead of the Steam DRM. Yes Steam DRM has it's own problems, but at least that's at a shop level and not a publisher level. I guess really I shouldn't be surprised at their behaviour, they've been gunning for that spot which EA held onto for so long for a while. 3 hours ago, Dcubed said: The sooner that Ubisoft gets bought out by someone else? The better. Hopefully Nintendo find a way to poach Ubisoft Milan as well. Only problem with this way of thinking is if there's big monolithic publishers, they have even less reason to ever do anything in our favour. It's a shame really because there's definitely something broken in the executive level at Ubisoft these days. From their cookie-cutter games to their business decisions, it's all bad. 3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: The whole company is a mess right now. I replayed Child of Light last week for the first time since 2015 and thoroughly enjoyed my time with it again. It's nuts that Ubisoft were once happy to put out games like that, Valiant Hearts and Rayman Legends but have now become a shadow of their former selves, constantly chasing trends and making their open world games bloated and unsatisfying. I'd go as far to say that they are equal to or slightly worse than EA at this point. Even Starlink, which I know didn't review that well, had something their other open-world games don't have. I think that game just came five years too late. I just hope people don't let them just get away with this. So many people just saying "well the game is a decade old", and? I paid for Command & Conquer almost 30 years ago and I can still play that, even if it requires a few work arounds. The DLC for these Ubisoft games is just completely gone to the best of my knowledge. I don't pirate games, so perhaps there is something in that sphere that will help me keep the DLC I've paid for. But I don't know where to begin looking. Another thing I'm seeing is discussion about it on any official channel being locked down. Edited July 12, 2022 by V. Amoleo 1
Hero-of-Time Posted July 12, 2022 Posted July 12, 2022 1 hour ago, V. Amoleo said: I just hope people don't let them just get away with this. So many people just saying "well the game is a decade old", and? I paid for Command & Conquer almost 30 years ago and I can still play that, even if it requires a few work arounds. The DLC for these Ubisoft games is just completely gone to the best of my knowledge. I don't pirate games, so perhaps there is something in that sphere that will help me keep the DLC I've paid for. But I don't know where to begin looking. Sadly, I think they will get away with it. The vocal people are very much in the minority and once again it's the casual market that will dictate how things play out and for the most part they won't care at all. 1
drahkon Posted July 12, 2022 Posted July 12, 2022 2 hours ago, V. Amoleo said: I don't pirate games Yet
bob Posted July 12, 2022 Posted July 12, 2022 3 hours ago, V. Amoleo said: I don't pirate games, so perhaps there is something in that sphere that will help me keep the DLC I've paid for. But I don't know where to begin looking. Assassins Creed: Black Flag is probably the best pirate game. Best be quick though before they de-list it. 2
Cube Posted July 13, 2022 Posted July 13, 2022 EA are also doing something similar. They're removing the BioWare points at system, which was required to buy the DLC in the PC versions of Dragon Age, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Because the system is shutting down, it will no longer be possible to buy the DLC, so now the DLC for those games...is completely free.
V. Amoleo Posted July 15, 2022 Author Posted July 15, 2022 On 13/07/2022 at 8:16 PM, Cube said: EA are also doing something similar. They're removing the BioWare points at system, which was required to buy the DLC in the PC versions of Dragon Age, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. Because the system is shutting down, it will no longer be possible to buy the DLC, so now the DLC for those games...is completely free. Ten years ago, I don't think anybody would have ever thought EA would be making the better choices.
V. Amoleo Posted September 7, 2022 Author Posted September 7, 2022 There was an update to this situation a few days ago. https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/help/gameplay/article/decommissioning-of-online-services-for-older-ubisoft-games-october-2022-update/000102396 Quote As a result, we moved the decommission date from 1 September 2022 to 1 October 2022, and the single-player downloadable content (DLC) of several games on PC – Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Assassin’s Creed III (2012 release), Far Cry 3 and Splinter Cell Blacklist – will be available to download and keep before that date. If you own these games on PC, activate your DLC before the decommissioning on 1 October 2022 to continue playing it. There will be no impact to the same single-player DLC on consoles, and you will continue to be able to download and play them after 1 October 2022. You can find out more in an update from the Assassin’s Creed team. More, there is still an active game team working on Anno at Ubisoft Mainz, and a taskforce was dedicated to deploying an update to Anno 2070 that will upgrade the game and replace its old online services, allowing players to enjoy its online features into the future. Unfortunately I'm still yet to understand what 'activating' the DLC means. Does it mean buying it? Does it mean starting the game? Does it mean getting to a certain point in the game? Still means that it's dead if you ever lose that install I think. There's a bit more specifically about Assassin's Creed here: https://discussions.ubisoft.com/topic/168795/decommissioning-of-online-services-for-several-ac-games-october-2022?lang=en-US It still doesn't make it clear what 'activating' means though.
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