Ubisoft is Back To Releasing Games on Steam (theverge.com) 24
Ubisoft is bringing Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Anno 1800, and Roller Champions to Steam, arguably its first major releases on Valve's PC distribution platform since 2019. From a report: "We're constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are, while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect," reads part of a statement from Ubisoft spokesperson Jessica Roache to The Verge. Roache declined to say whether that means Ubisoft will now regularly bring games to Steam or if it'll be on a case-by-case basis.
It's not clear why Ubisoft stopped putting its PC games on Steam or why it's coming back now, but it appears to be picking up where it left off: Valhalla was the 2020 flagship game in the Assassin's Creed series, with the next title, Assassin's Creed Mirage, not due till 2023. Roller Champions came out this May. And Anno 1800 is actually coming back to Steam after previously having been removed -- it's from 2019. But it's no secret that Ubisoft pulled games from Steam to make them exclusive to the Epic Games Store instead, which famously gave publishers millions to attract games to that rival platform.
It's not clear why Ubisoft stopped putting its PC games on Steam or why it's coming back now, but it appears to be picking up where it left off: Valhalla was the 2020 flagship game in the Assassin's Creed series, with the next title, Assassin's Creed Mirage, not due till 2023. Roller Champions came out this May. And Anno 1800 is actually coming back to Steam after previously having been removed -- it's from 2019. But it's no secret that Ubisoft pulled games from Steam to make them exclusive to the Epic Games Store instead, which famously gave publishers millions to attract games to that rival platform.
It matters not (Score:5, Interesting)
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Exactly.
And after the last time I made that mistake, I won't make it again. Their shitty software barely works, and it is loaded with their DRM that slows shit to a crawl.
Right up there with EA for publishers I'll never buy a game from again.
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"Buy", you keep using that word. ...)
I don't think it means what you think it means (Steam, Epic,
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It makes no difference, as their games still require the use of their Ubisoft app. So yeah, buy it on steam so you can launch it twice.
That is why I don't play any EA games except for Mass Effect, nothing else worth putting up with Origin for me.
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Same crap with some Origin games. Buy it, then find out you can't play without creating an account with someone else. A single player game should *never* require the use of an account.
The fuck cares (Score:5, Interesting)
Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: Denuvo Anti-tamper
Requires 3rd-Party Account: Ubisoft Connect
One of the reason I don't pick up UbiSoft PC games is the same reason I don't pick up EA PC games. They aren't on Steam. They are just using Steam as a payment platform. I will continue to not care or pick up TPB Edition of games.
Re: The fuck cares (Score:1)
Agree. (Score:3)
There are *so many* games to choose from, it is overwhelming. And loads of these games are actually very good. Even many of the indie games that had nowhere near a AAA budget provide engaging gameplay (and quite a lot of it). With these kinds of options available, all the "gets in your way" garbage like the Ubisoft launcher, the need for yet another account, and the treats-you-like-a-criminal-at-your-expense DRM, are just too off-putting.
Ubisoft can get with the program and drop all that consumer-hostile
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Yes, there's nothing from Ubisoft that is worth even getting for free, when there's so much better stuff out there.
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Pretty much my sentiment as well. It would be nice if Steam just told prospective developers that they cannot release their titles on Steam if there's a third party account required and launching the game directly from Steam just opens another launcher, with the MMORPG genre probably being the only exception I'd consider.
I don't need Ubisoft account, nor do I want to have to install their shitty DRM laden app on my PC to play their games. I'm more than happy to just ignore their products and spend my money
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Same. I avoid Ubisoft in general because I don't want that sort of bullshit malware (Which, of course, often demands you give it admin rights. Fuck that noise.) on my computer. Every so often, there is one I can't resist though... I'd *REALLY* prefer that Sid Meier release a new and updated version of Pirates, as that is definitely one of my top favorite games of all time and it no longer works on my current hardware. So I did give into Assassin's Creed: Black Flag and will most likely suck it up and b
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https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
Epic game store (Score:3)
All I can say is, that Epic game store sure does give away a TON of free games. Seems like they give out licenses to at least 2 of them a week. Usually older or Indie stuff, but some really good titles in the mix. I think I only installed Epic game store originally for ONE game I purchased through it, but I kept it just to collect the latest free stuff when it sounds any good. I've got a nice collection in there at this point, and I don't even remember to check it all the time to get some of the offerings.
I wonder if all of that is costing them more than they make, but they're burning money to build a user-base?
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Epic can give as many games as they want for free. I do not care. I will not use their POS software. Epic makes one good product and one good product only: Unreal Engine. Everything else Tim Sweeney touches turns to complete shit.
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Ubisoft is crap. (Score:3)
Then a few years ago they just decided to make the points expire after a year. No particular reason other than fuck you.
Ubisoft in general has also really failed to innovate much at all in the past ten years. They just sit on their established franchises without really trying anything new. Again, that's something I used to defend to an extent (e.g., there are a lot of games where I'd like to see more content in the same style and game engine without drastic departures), but Ubisoft takes it to another level with how little they deviate from their basic formulas. What few changes they make are usually stolen from other successful games that did it first.
This is all aside from the elephant in the room that they want you to use yet another launcher that they've had like what, ten years now? to get up to feature parity with Steam and still isn't there. And of course if you try to use Steam, it has to link up with their crap service (as others noted) and half the time runs into problems that they can't be bothered to fix.
They've burned through what good will I had toward them long ago. They can get bent.
It's not clear why is it? (Score:2)
It's not clear why Ubisoft stopped putting its PC games on Steam
Errr. Epic went to them with a giant wheelbarrow of money to make most of their upcoming games a timed exclusive. This isn't some grand mystery. It's quite public knowledge. Epic's warchest for buying exclusives away from team has run up a tally of close to $500m / year.
Equally public knowledge is that studios who take the money very quickly go crawling back to Steam afterwards since a great many people won't touch Epic Games' shit store with a 10ft pole.
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No no, it's because steam is "Unrealistic".
https://www.gamespot.com/artic... [gamespot.com]
30% (Score:2)