Ubisoft gives PC gamers another reason to pirate its games...

[b1k3rdude]

Summary

A decade or so ago, Ubisoft was constantly complaining about PC gamers pirating its titles. The French company was so frustrated with pirates that a number of iconic “Ubisoft vs PC pirates” GIFs flooded the market. And last week, Ubi gave PC gamers another big reason to simply pirate its games.

 

Quotes

Quote

According to Ubi, accounts that are inactive for less than 4 years are safe, and won’t receive such an email. Moreover, if someone does receive such an email, they’ll be able to cancel its closure by clicking on a link.

Let’s start with the obvious here. Scammers and hackers can easily use this template in order to create phishing emails. I know, I know, people shouldn’t be clicking on everything they receive in their emails. However, Ubisoft’s email feels like a phishing/fake email, and that says a lot.
 

What’s also funny here though is that PC pirates will still be able to enjoy Ubi’s games, without the need to use a Ubisoft account. This is another case in which pirates get a better experience than legitimate owners. So, instead of rewarding its customers, Ubisoft is giving everyone another reason to pirate its games. It’s hilarious, really.
 

So, imagine this scenario. Imagine wishing to try the first Assassin’s Creed game on your PC after a decade or so from now. Why you say? Well, why do people still play older games? You then launch Ubisoft Connect, just to find out that your account was closed. Now, the only way to play the game you had previously purchased will be by pirating it.
 

This is one of the reasons why a lot of gamers are against digital-only purchases. It’s also why a lot of gamers miss the 90s, during which you didn’t need an EA/Ubi/Steam/EGS/Battlenet account to play your game. You simply installed the game on your PC and started playing it. Plain and simple. Okay okay, all games back then required the presence of the game CD/DVD (which is why some used no-CD/no-DVDs cracks with their legitimate copies). In a way, even back then, PC piracy was offering a more “comfortable” experience. And things got even worse in today’s age with all the DRMs that plague modern-day games.

Update -

- https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/24/23805783/ubisoft-delete-game-accounts

"Ubisoft, not The Verge, bold'd the part about how “accounts that include purchased PC games are not eligible for deletion.” And it’s notable that logging into non-Ubisoft accounts like Steam can apparently save your account from deletion.

The statement as provided doesn’t quite fit with the company’s terms of use, which state that it will notify users their account is pending deletion after six months of inactivity. Ubisoft provided a very similar statement to ours to PC World in 2021, so it’s odd that the company hasn’t updated its terms of use to reflect those facts, at least as far as we’ve been able to see."

-  but Ubisoft hasen't updated it T/C's to reflect the above statement.

 

My thoughts

My first thought was that I had been considering getting the new Star Wars game from Ubisoft, but this just potentially killed that. My second thought was, how exactly would they delete/remove access to a game bought on steam...

 

Sources

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/ubisoft-gives-pc-gamers-another-reason-to-pirate-its-games/

 

[jaslion]

10 minutes ago, b1k3rdude said:

delete/remove access to a game bought on steam...

Simple. The code is registered to your ubisoft account.

 

If that account no longer exists the code is no longer valid

 

So you lose access to the game on steam

 

Steam will support you and sometimes will try to give the money back for the game

 

Otherwise you need to contact ubisoft to restore the link which they do do but it's stupid af

[PocketNerd]

Ah, I see Ubisoft has fucked around with the "You will own nothing" mantra and is finding out.

[OhioYJ]

Anyone read through their TOS? If they close your account would you no longer be subject to their arbitration clause? Seems like you are no longer bound by their terms at that point. 

[b1k3rdude]

I would like to think that if Valve got wind of this, would would lean on Ubisoft. But I am not holding my breath and I am also not going to change my position on not buying Ubisift games anytime soon.

[b1k3rdude]

23 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Otherwise you need to contact ubisoft to restore the link which they do do but it's stupid af

There are horror stories on this very forum of users trying to contact Ubisoft, the end result is the user just pirates the game and never has to deal with Ubishaft again.

[Dedayog]

While I understand that we agree to a license agreement, similar to what Apple does with music...

 

I have no qualms at all about visiting my friends in the 'Bay area in times like this.

[NumLock21]

What does an inactive account gives the user the right to pirate their games. If you have an account with them and it hasn't been used for a while, just sign back in to reactivate. If you received an email from them that looks suspicious, then contact them directly via live chat and work your way from there. At least with someone on the other end, the link they sent to you will be in real time, so you can double check with them to see if its legit or not.

 

An update, they do not deactivate accounts that made purchases.

[Dedayog]

5 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

What does an inactive account gives the user the right to pirate their games. If you have an account with them and it hasn't been used for a while, just sign back in to reactivate. If you received an email from them that looks suspicious, then contact them directly via live chat and work your way from there. At least with someone on the other end, the link they sent to you will be in real time, so you can double check with them to see if its legit or not.

 

An update, they do not deactivate accounts that made purchases.

So if you don't use your account for 4 years and 30 days, it's gone.  What you paid for 5 years ago is wiped.

 

What to do?

[NumLock21]

Just now, Dedayog said:

So if you don't use your account for 4 years and 30 days, it's gone.  What you paid for 5 years ago is wiped.

 

What to do?

They said they don't delete account that made purchases.

[OhioYJ]

4 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

An update, they do not deactivate accounts that made purchases.

Just to clarify, that link still says they can, it just says as of today they have not, and "in practice" they do not. 

[NumLock21]

6 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

Just to clarify, that link still says they can, it just says as of today they have not, and "in practice" they do not. 

The link also says logging into Steam will also save your ubisoft account from deletion. There people sign into Steam, so everything is all good.

 

Quote

 

Account deletion follows a very strict process. As such, we take into consideration the 4 following criteria before an account is deleted:

*The gaming activity of the account since its creation

*The account’s libraries: accounts that include purchased PC games are not eligible for deletion

*The duration of inactivity of the account, meaning the last login to our ecosystem (including from Ubisoft games on Steam and other platforms)

 

 

[OhioYJ]

13 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

The link also says logging into Steam will also save your ubisoft account from deletion. There people sign into Steam, so everything is all good.

 

The way I read that statement was a game had to be launched. Not just logging into Steam. Even if it was logging into Steam, I'm betting only if you Ubisoft's software is running in the background. What about people like me who disable EA, Rockstars, Ubisoft's, etcs launchers from auto running on boot. There is no reason for all that junk to start with the PC. Steam will start it with the game when needed. 

[NumLock21]

5 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

 

The way I read that statement was a game had to be launched. Not just logging into Steam. Even if it was logging into Steam, I'm betting only if you Ubisoft's software is running in the background. What about people like me who disable EA, Rockstars, Ubisoft's, etcs launchers from auto running on boot. There is no reason for all that junk to start with the PC. Steam will start it with the game when needed. 

If people play their ubisoft games on steam, then it wouldn't be a problem since they're basically logging into their accounts all the time. The launchers can be disabled from startup, and when you play a ubisoft game, can just login during that time.

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, OhioYJ said:

Anyone read through their TOS? If they close your account would you no longer be subject to their arbitration clause? Seems like you are no longer bound by their terms at that point. 

If they close your account then you won't be bound to their terms, but it's the agreement of the terms that allows you to play their games, so I am not sure what you are implying here.

 

 

41 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

Just to clarify, that link still says they can, it just says as of today they have not, and "in practice" they do not. 

I don't like that way of thinking. Just because they could in theory do something does not mean they will. We shouldn't be going around with pitchforks and shouting about something that could happen, but that we have no evidence or indication that it will happen.

If it is true that they are only going to delete inactive accounts that haven't bought any games then I think this is a nothing burger. The whole "this justifies piracy" is very weird to me. Sounds like people are just scraping the bottom of the barrel to find reasons to justify piracy or their hatred for Ubisoft.

[OhioYJ]

17 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I don't like that way of thinking. Just because they could in theory do something does not mean they will. We shouldn't be going around with pitchforks and shouting about something that could happen, but that we have no evidence or indication that it will happen.

I'm not necessarily pointing that out to say round up the pitchforks (more devils advocate?). I'm somewhere in the middle on this one. I just don't think they deserve a free pass just because they haven't yet. They came out with a bunch of legal speak that essentially said, "we don't normally do that".  They did NOT say we won't do that. Ubisoft does not have the best track record.

 

I also don't think the excuse of it's to prevent fraud either. I think that's just the closest thing they come up with to a legitimate reason to do this. So if I read those 4 asterisks are they just deleting accounts that have no games associated with them (and in activity?) Or free games and no activity?  Are those the two supposed cases so far? These are the fraud situations they are preventing? The fraudulent accounts that are not using their system? Perhaps I'm not following where the fraud is happening.

[NumLock21]

31 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

I'm not necessarily pointing that out to say round up the pitchforks (more devils advocate?). I'm somewhere in the middle on this one. I just don't think they deserve a free pass just because they haven't yet. They came out with a bunch of legal speak that essentially said, "we don't normally do that".  They did NOT say we won't do that. Ubisoft does not have the best track record.

 

I also don't think the excuse of it's to prevent fraud either. I think that's just the closest thing they come up with to a legitimate reason to do this. So if I read those 4 asterisks are they just deleting accounts that have no games associated with them (and in activity?) Or free games and no activity?  Are those the two supposed cases so far? These are the fraud situations they are preventing? The fraudulent accounts that are not using their system? Perhaps I'm not following where the fraud is happening.

They deleting accounts that's been inactive and have never bought anything from them.

[suicidalfranco]

3 hours ago, b1k3rdude said:

Why you say? Well, why do people still play older games?

Considering that Ubisoft doesn't make the game unavailable by then

[b1k3rdude]

12 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

They said they don't delete account that made purchases.

Correct, but Ubisoft hasen't updated it T/C's to reflect this statement -

- https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/24/23805783/ubisoft-delete-game-accounts

"Ubisoft, not The Verge, bold'd the part about how “accounts that include purchased PC games are not eligible for deletion.” And it’s notable that logging into non-Ubisoft accounts like Steam can apparently save your account from deletion.

The statement as provided doesn’t quite fit with the company’s terms of use, which state that it will notify users their account is pending deletion after six months of inactivity. Ubisoft provided a very similar statement to ours to PC World in 2021, so it’s odd that the company hasn’t updated its terms of use to reflect those facts, at least as far as we’ve been able to see."

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, b1k3rdude said:

There are horror stories on this very forum of users trying to contact Ubisoft, the end result is the user just pirates the game and never has to deal with Ubishaft again.

Well you can get away with that if it's single player. Hell you can get away with that with all steam games if you're a petty thief. It's incredibly easy to bypass steam if you simply want to play offline. The fact of the matter is, the "store" bits in steam don't really do much in steam games, they're simply a way to manage DLC/achievements and give trading cards. VAC doesn't come into play unless you're playing a multiplayer game AND it's a Valve operated game. Most other multiplayer games use their own anti-cheat (eg EAC) and multiplayer services.

 

That said, it's less I hate "UBISOFT" the company, it's "Ubisoft Connect" I hate with impunity because it's so unstable, garbage, and worse than EAPlay/Origin. The literal fact that I can not buy an EA or Ubisoft game on steam and not have to deal with these garbage second-store tools  is why I don't buy Ubisoft or EA games if I can help it. 

 

All I want is to be able to launch the game from steam and not have to fiddle around with anything to make it work. Steam is not a console experience, but I would prefer it to work like a console experience when it comes to games from all publishers. Launching the game launches the game, not a second launcher. If there is a need to login for multiplayer, that is linked to the "device", and not constantly badgered to login just to play, even in single player. 

 

There are literately games I'd play more often, and simply don't because I can not be bothered to play the "What was my password, reset password, create a new overly complex password due to password complexity requirements that differ from my other passwords, login, wait for 2FA...." like to play some of Ubisoft or EA's games, I end up having to waste 20 minutes logging into stuff that I would not be doing on a PS5.

 

It's almost as if Ubisoft enjoys pushing a miserable experience.

[RejZoR]

I've had few free games on my Ubisoft UPlay account and it seems I've lost them all when they migrated to Ubisoft Connect. I got no email, no notification, my account is 19 years old and it's just blank now. Thanks Ubisoft, you just reinforced my hatred towards you. I own few games of the old Ubisoft era from the late 90's on GOG, but ever since they introduced always-on DRM with UPlay ages ago, I just boycott them entirely. I don't buy or play any of their games. I was considering giving a go to those hoarded via legit free means, but I guess they don't even want that. So screw them. Screw Ubisoft.

 

I wonder if Epic will do the same crap considering my entire Epic account consists of hoarded free games only... LOL

[Kisai]

49 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I wonder if Epic will do the same crap considering my entire Epic account consists of hoarded free games only... LOL

Epic's store is also pretty miserable to use, and miserable to install software with.

 

Literately any time I want to claim a free game, i'm met with about 2 minutes of the EGS just sitting there looking like it's locked up, before I can even scroll the store page. 

 

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

 

Steam's store sometimes does this as well, as it's usually things like the steam sale or developer streaming-right-now pages that just take a moment to connect to whatever is sending the video, but generally navigating the store isn't as much as a pain.

 

Like in terms of "willingness to use" it goes:

 

a) Steam

b) GOG

c) Nintendo

d) Windows Store/Apple store

e) Epic Game Store

e) EA Play

f) Ubisoft Connect

 

And I don't think any other company is so full of themselves that people would willingly buy software off a third party store. Even DLsite (Japan equivalent of GOG/itich.io) most DRM are developer decisions, which means if you buy something from a developer that uses a server for DRM, and they take it down, that game is lost for good.

 

Speaking of DRM in stupid products. Did you know that Adobe's update servers for older (CS3/CS4/CS5) products only works if you set the clock back to 2010? This is because apparently due to the SSL library no longer generates correct data to connect to the server. And as soon as you do... everything else that uses SSL on the computer stops functioning. 

 

I imagine this is probably the same solution that has to be invoked for old games that connect to old DRM schemes. If the server is even still working.

[Stahlmann]

Other than Steam the online launcher i use is GOG. The others are only "necessary evils" because the game doesn't exist on the other 2 platforms. Epic Games Store, EA Play and Ubisoft Connect don't add anything of value and are only another hoop to jump through to play their games. So i don't buy their games and if i do i only buy greymarket keys so they don't get any money off it.

 

But before taking out your pitchfork about this Ubisoft account closure thing ask yourself this question: Do other companies do the same?

If yes: Then it is probably required by law and you have nothing to cry about.

If no: Then Ubisoft is full of shit and it's just because they don't want to pay for storing inactive user data.

 

Imo this is such an overblown issue. I don't see a problem with deleting an account that has been inactive for several years, especially after giving the user a 30 day time window to reinstate their account. If you cannot be bothered to react and take 1 minute of your time, click on the link and log into your account to have it not deleted, then why are you mad if it's gone? You obviously didn't care either way.

 

Isn't it also a good thing that companies don't hold on to unnecessary private information from users who didn't use their service for years?

 

What am i saying. Most people don't want a solution, they just want to be mad. So they find ways to get mad for nothing. If you want to pirate their games, just do it. Just know you're still pirating and don't start to do mental gymnastics to try and justify it.

[AlTech]

11 hours ago, LAwLz said:

If they close your account then you won't be bound to their terms, but it's the agreement of the terms that allows you to play their games, so I am not sure what you are implying here.

 

 

I don't like that way of thinking. Just because they could in theory do something does not mean they will.

They intend to be able to make that decision otherwise their terms would preclude them from doing so.

 

They are not innocent in this matter. If they really never intend to do it then they should have no problem updating their TOS to say it'll never happen.

 

Keeping it in their TOS means they want to be able to use it. Which means they are in the wrong.

[b1k3rdude]

7 hours ago, Kisai said:

That said, it's less I hate "UBISOFT" the company, it's "Ubisoft Connect" I hate with impunity because it's so unstable, garbage, and worse than EAPlay/Origin. The literal fact that I can not buy an EA or Ubisoft game on steam and not have to deal with these garbage second-store tools  is why I don't buy Ubisoft or EA games if I can help it. 

 

It's almost as if Ubisoft enjoys pushing a miserable experience.

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