Ubisoft backtracks on unprecedented move to remove access to an older game from legitimate owners of the games | DLCs and Online still being removed

[AlTech]

Summary

 

Ubisoft has backtracked on their plans to block legitimate owners of older Assasin's Creed games from re-downloading their purchased games on Steam once the games are delisted from Steam.

 

Ubisoft had attempted to quietly block access to older Ubisoft games for legitimate purchasers but some users noticed on Steam that Steam was warning individuals that the game would both be delisted and also no longer available for re-download by legitimate owners of the game once the game was delisted.

 

Ubisoft was scheduled to effectuate this change on September 1st but following backlash by the gaming community this will no longer be the case.

 

This doesn't affect Ubisoft's decomissioning of online services of these games and Ubisoft removing access to game DLCs from owners of older Ubisoft games and they will still be unavailable at the dates they were planned to be unavailable.

 

Quotes

 

The original Steam Page messages showed:

Quote

“At the request of the publisher, Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD is no longer available for sale on Steam,” the notice says. “Please note this title will not be accessible following September 1st, 2022.”

 

Prior to the backlash, Ubisoft was planning to remove access to the game from people who already bought and owned the game.

Quote

As such, it appears that the only way for people who own Liberation HD on Steam to play the game after September 1 will be to buy Assassin’s Creed III Remastered and start from scratch with Liberation Remastered.

 

Ubisoft's response to the backlash

Quote

UPDATE 2: Ubisoft has issued a follow-up statement to VGC, which implies Steam’s information is incorrect and that Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD will remain playable after September 1. It said:

“As stated in our support article, only DLCs and online features will be affected by the upcoming decommissioning. Current owners of those games will still be able to access, play or redownload them.

“Our teams are working with our partners to update this information across all storefronts and are also assessing all available options for players who will be impacted when these games’ online services are decommissioned on September 1st, 2022.

“It has always been our intention to do everything in our power to allow those legacy titles to remain available in the best possible conditions for players, and this is what we are working towards.”

 

My thoughts

What a f*cking shit show. Honestly, part of me wishes they had kept to their original messaging of removing the game from paying customers so that someone could sue them into oblivion and have game EULAs and the Steam EULA be changed to stop this from happening in the future. Alas, we did not get that outcome but I'm hopeful somebody will be mad enough at losing DLCs from games they own to sue Ubisoft anyways for taking away their DLCs.

 

What a scummy company. Frankly, this kind of disgusting behaviour should be illegal. If a game company wants to sell you a game, they shouldn't be able to take away your access to it once you've bought it. Period. Same for software you buy.

 

Sources

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/assassins-creed-liberations-steam-page-says-it-will-soon-be-unplayable-even-for-owners/

 

[Kamina]

They tested the waters to see if they could get away with it. Glad the community said no. This sort of precedent would be horrible.

[Fasterthannothing]

This is why online games that can't be setup on your own system are a stupid idea. As soon as the servers shut off the game is as good as gone anyway 

[Kamina]

3 minutes ago, Fasterthannothing said:

This is why online games that can't be setup on your own system are a stupid idea. As soon as the servers shut off the game is as good as gone anyway 

I worry about Valve if Gabe passes away. I worry that the next guy will make the company go public and just corrupt the entire thing.

[strajk-]

If a game company wants to sell you a game, they shouldn't be able to take away your access to it once you've bought it. Period. Same for software you buy

That's the thing, you're not buying the game, you're buying a license for it.

If they go belly up and you didn't download it first, then you effectively lost access to it forever.

Same applies if Steam in the unforeseeable future ceases its operation, you will lose all access to that piece of software, license which isn't even transferable to other platforms, so if Steam fucks off you won't be able to get it from EPIC or GOG.

[AlTech]

18 minutes ago, strajk- said:

If a game company wants to sell you a game, they shouldn't be able to take away your access to it once you've bought it. Period. Same for software you buy

That's the thing, you're not buying the game, you're buying a license for it.

And that license shouldn't be revocable. If that means that the game has to be sold and not licensed then they should make it that way but ultimately if you buy it then it should be like buying a book, once you buy a physical book and own it the publisher can't come knocking on your door demanding to have it removed from your house just because they feel like it.

18 minutes ago, strajk- said:

If they go belly up and you didn't download it first, then you effectively lost access to it forever.

Sure but that has nothing to do with ownership of the game.

18 minutes ago, strajk- said:

Same applies if Steam in the unforeseeable future ceases its operation, you will lose all access to that piece of software, license which isn't even transferable to other platforms, so if Steam fucks off you won't be able to get it from EPIC or GOG.

In Steam's case they have said you'll be able to download games from them without Steam's DRM if they are forced to shut down.

[Forbidden Wafer]

Ubisoft: everybody loves us.
Reality: meh, just die.

[Error 52]

I will say I genuinely don't think this is a backtrack, I don't think Ubisoft were ever actually planning on disabling the whole game. Think it was just shitty communication. DLC situation still seems pretty messed though.

 

Quote

In Steam's case they have said you'll be able to download games from them without Steam's DRM if they are forced to shut down.

That was a pinky promise made well over a decade ago, so I wouldn't put too much stock in it. That said, Steam DRM is incredibly light and easy to crack (not to get too specific, but there's a universal crack you can find on the internet. Slide the files in, tweak a couple of things, and you're good to go) so it doesn't really keep me up at night. Doesn't help if the games use additional DRM like Ubisoft does, but still.

[Zodiark1593]

5 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

 

In Steam's case they have said you'll be able to download games from them without Steam's DRM if they are forced to shut down.

Should the worst happens, I wonder how this will stand up in practice? Is this a condition they actually place in the contract with studios and publishers? Given that it was put in writing, it would probably have more weight behind it than some verbal agreement. 

 

As for Ubisoft, the only game I ever bought of theirs is the Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 disc I have for the Wii. Their excessive DRM for Assassin’s Creed 2 back in the day kind of makes me associate Ubisoft for not being friendly with PC gaming, and that has kind of stuck with me. 

[Quackers101]

sadly all those licenses they want to do is for live service, even if the game or single player aspect doesn't need such a service.

 

We are long gone, not able to mess with your solo experience like cheating, still needing online services just to play a single player game and to follow their path of grind. So that diablo 3 market place exploiters can have equal rights or cheaters in GTA and etc. Or people having bot service for MP or SP games due to the grind or online service as seen with runescape from the early days.

 

makes me miss TB, to the times it was called just MP only games and not live service to DRM. Until live service became the norm and the few games that started horribly by being live service (some account based which made it even worse), some went down just a couple of weeks to months later, and less options of any single player experience including less games today don't include bots or working bots for a SP experience. As stated from how overwatch 1 released, and how a lot of things is said about how we are now and with overwatch 2 nearly a decade later. that they were "so focused on just releasing a full title".

 

TotalBiscuit - "I will now talk about multiplayer only games for just under 40 mins."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4tNoVHr5iI

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Quackers101

[Senzelian]

9 hours ago, Kamina said:

I worry about Valve if Gabe passes away. I worry that the next guy will make the company go public and just corrupt the entire thing.

He has a son, Gray Newell. Don't know anything about him tho.

[Rauten]

They can backtrack all they want,

1. The PR damage is already done
2. They will still remove DLCs, meaning people WILL lose access to content they paid for. So it's still inexcusable.

If I lose access to any of my games or DLCs (haven't really checked if that would be the case, I quite honestly can't be arsed) I will have zero qualms about sailing the high seas to recover access to content I already F'ing paid for.

[Beerzerker]

As I had said before and I quote myself:
"If only gamers would simply say "No" collectively, that would get some things changed for the better but no way that's ever gonna happen, it's more important to put up with it and play anyway I guess (Game on?) but then again, that's not my call."

I'm glad to see the gaming community actually did stand up and say "No" for once.
If they would continue to stand alot of things can be changed for the better - NEVER let anyone say you don't have a voice or a vote with your wallet because you do.
Trick here is to use it. 
In this case the voice was heard but know the wallet vote is even louder if it has to be.

[Doobeedoo]

Ugh.

I want to see new PoP game one day. They are doing remaster oh wait.

[RILEYISMYNAME]

It could be the case that Ubisoft tried to sneakily pull access to the entire game, instead of just DLC and multiplayer, but I think this is more likely to be a miscommunication between Ubisoft and Steam, since Ubisoft's initial announcement only mentioned decommissioning online services, not entire games. 

 

Regardless the idea that a company can just revoke access to something users paid for is ludicrous. But that's our lease-everything, own-nothing digital world right now

[Forbidden Wafer]

51 minutes ago, RILEYISMYNAME said:

But that's our lease-everything, own-nothing digital world right now

I kind of miss good old CD managers.

 

Looking at this kinda makes me want to 3d-print it... 

[Vishera]

2 hours ago, RILEYISMYNAME said:

Regardless the idea that a company can just revoke access to something users paid for is ludicrous. But that's our lease-everything, own-nothing digital world right now

I heard that a lot of people (me included) started boycotting Ubisoft following the shutdown of online services and DLC.

And considering the financial situation that Ubisoft is in (we all heard about Yves Guillemot salary cut)

If enough people boycott them, then them trying to save money at the expense of their customers will cost them more than the losses they had before - It's a lose-lose situation.

And that will make an example out of Ubisoft who forgot where their money comes from.

 

 

Their financial situation is a result of a series of bad decisions and the creative recession that have been plaguing Ubisoft since 2015.

 

Far Cry 6 = Far Cry 3

 

Rainbow 6 Extraction = Feels like a DLC to Rainbow 6 Siege

 

Their upcoming game Skulls & Bones? - Too similar to Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag,it seems like most of the game is AC4 assets...

Is it bad? - No,AC4 is an amazing game so there is a pretty good foundation here for the upcoming game,but where did the creativity go?

[Beerzerker]

3 hours ago, Vishera said:

I heard that a lot of people (me included) started boycotting Ubisoft following the shutdown of online services and DLC.

And considering the financial situation that Ubisoft is in (we all heard about Yves Guillemot salary cut)

If enough people boycott them, then them trying to save money at the expense of their customers will cost them more than the losses they had before - It's a lose-lose situation.

And that will make an example out of Ubisoft who forgot where their money comes from.

Indeed - The wallet vote does have power to change things and did so here. 
If they had forgotten where the $$ comes from, now they've been reminded so be sure they never forget again.

A lesson well earned of value isn't worth forgetting.

[Motifator]

25 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Far Cry 6 = Far Cry 3

 

Rainbow 6 Extraction = Feels like a DLC to Rainbow 6 Siege

 

Their upcoming game Skulls & Bones? - Too similar to Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag,it seems like most of the game is AC4 assets...

Is it bad? - No,AC4 is an amazing game so there is a pretty good foundation here for the upcoming game,but where did the creativity go?

All the FC games from the recent era are a copy paste of each other. Siege was their get-go title but they kept messing it up with every new season adding more nonsense and worsening the functional maps / map pool. Their totally toxic community ain't helping either.

Skulls & Bones looks like Sea of Thieves.

As for the over all creativity side of the things, I can't think of very many titles that I'm interested in which are actually creative. I play COD and it's the same story, they always copy paste ideas from older titles. There was this game called Trepang (who comes up with these?) I looked into, the gameplay was solid but you could fool somebody into believing it's a F.E.A.R title from Sierra / Monolith.

[darknessblade]

1 hour ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

I kind of miss good old CD managers.

 

Looking at this kinda makes me want to 3d-print it... 

Don't forget your Much needed DVD rewinder

Lets see how many youngsters get the meme/joke nowadays

[Vishera]

7 minutes ago, Motifator said:

Skulls & Bones looks like Sea of Thieves.

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag:

 

Skulls & Bones Gameplay trailer:

 

 

[Forbidden Wafer]

2 hours ago, darknessblade said:

Don't forget your Much needed DVD rewinder

Lets see how many youngsters get the meme/joke nowadays

I don't know why, but this suddenly reminds me of Juicero, Theranos, etc...

[Beskamir]

On 7/12/2022 at 7:41 AM, Kamina said:

They tested the waters to see if they could get away with it. Glad the community said no. This sort of precedent would be horrible.

Give it few years and they'll try it again.

[Arika]

On 7/12/2022 at 11:38 PM, AluminiumTech said:

“It has always been our intention to do everything in our power to allow those legacy titles to remain available in the best possible conditions for players, and this is what we are working towards.”

No it fucking hasn't ubisoft...

You know why? Because you didn't even issue an apology.

 

No acknowledgement of the backlash or any showing of understanding, just generic vague PR statement that contradicts your last one. 

 

It's the high seas for me for any ubisoft game from now on. 

 

[darknessblade]

On 7/14/2022 at 12:20 AM, Forbidden Wafer said:

I don't know why, but this suddenly reminds me of Juicero, Theranos, etc...

The DVD rewinder was the OG, bullshit curiosity product, that some people bought for laughs.

 

Theranos failed because they faked their tech.

While Juicero was a actual scam, as you could not even use your juice package if its 1ms over the exiry date. not forgetting squeezing it yourself yields more juice. by a couple ML's