Ubisoft disabling online service for multiple older games, which will make DLC unavailable

I also makes no sense they would allow people to download and use DLC but only if activated before a certain timeline. If everyone that already bought and played the games has access to the games, why disable it in the first place? The infrastructure is there to continue to supporting the products.
It has never made sense to me. If the game doesn't have any kind of licensed content and you're still in control of the IP, then why throwaway the chance to earn more money, however little that may be?
 
It has never made sense to me. If the game doesn't have any kind of licensed content and you're still in control of the IP, then why throwaway the chance to earn more money, however little that may be?
I agree with what you're saying but I can see why they're doing this. My most recent experience with one of the games in question(Far Cry 3) it quite noticeably takes a second or two at launch to log into your account even though it launches from the Ubisoft launcher already, if it can't connect(like when their server is down, ahem) you can't access any of the dlc(ask me how I know). It's basically another layer of drm and one of the reasons those games have quite a few DLC weapons that come with most versions of the game. Now they've obviously decided to take another approach and don't want to maintain the servers these games use to authenticate that content.

I really am curious exactly what they mean by activate though.

Edit: to clarify I was able to log into the ubi launcher but not the server to authenticate dlc so they're clearly separate systems.
 
Ubisoft finally released an update explaining what is going to happen. Why could they not have provided this explanation in the first place? It would have prevented all of this negative attention.

The gist of it is that the content will still be available if you bought and/or activated it. Basically like all other digital games that get removed from sale. As long as you do that before October 1, you will still be able to download and play the DLC after that date. I guess this doesn't affect consoles since the DLC is hosted on Sony's and Microsoft's servers instead of their own.

https://discussions.ubisoft.com/top...-for-several-ac-games-october-2022?lang=en-US
I'm sure they just forgot to mention these important details, and not because of all the negative backlash they received. The sad thing is they most likely just postponed this, so this isn't so much a win for consumers as a delay of the inevitable. For now, it is a win.
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The only online launcher I like is the one for the battlefield 3-hardline. That one is awesome.
 
not sure if serious
I can have my steam library on a USB drive and go from machine, to machine, to machine and play the same games w/o re-downloading them. You used to be able to do that back in the day. But Windows games pre-steam? Let me know if you could do that.
 
It has never made sense to me. If the game doesn't have any kind of licensed content and you're still in control of the IP, then why throwaway the chance to earn more money, however little that may be?
I think it has to do with support. If they are still selling a game they have to provide support for it and make sure it is compatible with newever OS versions and HW.
 
I think it has to do with support. If they are still selling a game they have to provide support for it and make sure it is compatible with newever OS versions and HW.
That is demonstrably untrue. LOTS of games are still sold by publishers that never get further official patches to add support for newer hardware and operating systems than they were initially released for.
 
That is demonstrably untrue. LOTS of games are still sold by publishers that never get further official patches to add support for newer hardware and operating systems than they were initially released for.
Which games are you talking about? If there are lots, you can surely name some examples.
 
Which games are you talking about? If there are lots, you can surely name some examples.
A LOT. Since you asked, here is a sampling off the top of my head:

Call of Duty
Call of Duty 2
Commander Keen Episodes 1-5
Diablo
Diablo II (2000)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
Heretic
Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Hexen II
Quake II
Quake III: Arena
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness
Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress
Ultima III: Exodus
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Ultima VII Parts 1 & 2
Ultima VIII: Pagan
Ultima IX: Ascension
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Unreal
Unreal II: The Awakening
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament III
Warcraft
Warcraft II
Wolfenstein 3D
 
A LOT. Since you asked, here is a sampling off the top of my head:

Call of Duty
Call of Duty 2
Commander Keen Episodes 1-5
Diablo
Diablo II (2000)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
Heretic
Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Hexen II
Quake II
Quake III: Arena
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness
Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress
Ultima III: Exodus
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Ultima VII Parts 1 & 2
Ultima VIII: Pagan
Ultima IX: Ascension
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
Unreal
Unreal II: The Awakening
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament III
Warcraft
Warcraft II
Wolfenstein 3D
So none of these games actually work on a modern system when you purchase them? I didn't know that if that is the case, but there are a ton of dos games here, I assume those come prepackaged with dosbox, as I've seen with many?

So you are arguing for them to keep selling the games even without support? I think I'd rather it became abandonware then. Of course with always online games there is no such thing. Always on games are a loose loose situation for gamers, not as if we didn't say that when the first such single player game came out.

I
 
So none of these games actually work on a modern system when you purchase them? I didn't know that if that is the case, but there are a ton of dos games here, I assume those come prepackaged with dosbox, as I've seen with many?

So you are arguing for them to keep selling the games even without support? I think I'd rather it became abandonware then. Of course with always online games there is no such thing. Always on games are a loose loose situation for gamers, not as if we didn't say that when the first such single player game came out.

I
That wasn't the original statement. None of the games I listed receive official support and haven't for many years after their release. A retailer bundling a game with DosBox is not official support. Some of these games still install and run fine on modern machines with modern OS, but they were never designed or updated to do so. Video cards today do not have hardware support for many rendering methods used in DX9 and older, and so they are not rendered properly. "Newer" games like Fallout 3 and New Vegas have issues running on Windows 8 and newer without some modification.
 
Some of these games still install and run fine on modern machines with modern OS, but they were never designed or updated to do so.
A classic--and widespread--example was all those old DOS games that had timing loops specific to the processors they were designed on, which were totally messed up by faster CPUs, in many cases making the game run so fast it was literally unplayable. For a while there were a bunch of TSRs you could run that would just eat CPU cycles to throttle the game; later, I think dosbox added support for slowing the games down more directly (I think; I may be remembering that last part wrong.)
 
My main issue is that it seems like some games are loosing single player content. If they upgrade all Far Cry 3 and Assassin Creed 3 owners to the remastered editions that would be good, and what they should do if they are loosing DLC access.

I know Far Cry 6 as an example requires an online connection for DLC in single player. I assume that is the case with at least a few of these games. Which is unacceptable.
Could they also not simply issue a patch disabling the "phone home" technology and allowing people to continue to play the game(s) offline? This always seems like a simple, sensible solution, but it never seems to happen.
 
What is this argument even about? Let me make it simple again.

Many DLC for SINGLE PLAYER Assassin's Creed (and more) games are being REMOVED.

It is not a hardware limitation and we are on the same OS as it is currently still working on. It is just theft.

I can still play my floppy disk that has Doom 1993 on it, but I can't play many of the Assassin's Creed DLC I paid for. How can you excuse this behavior, lmao? The mental gymnastics you guys sometimes do to make yourself feel good is just ridiculous.

Bla bla bla multiplayer.. who cares. We're not talking about servers here. Fuck Ubisoft. The DLC doesn't need to be online for these games. You can literally load other peoples saves with a file, so I don't wanna hear that either.
 
What is this argument even about? Let me make it simple again.

Many DLC for SINGLE PLAYER Assassin's Creed (and more) games are being REMOVED.

It is not a hardware limitation and we are on the same OS as it is currently still working on. It is just theft.

I can still play my floppy disk that has Doom 1993 on it, but I can't play many of the Assassin's Creed DLC I paid for. How can you excuse this behavior, lmao? The mental gymnastics you guys sometimes do to make yourself feel good is just ridiculous.

Bla bla bla multiplayer.. who cares. We're not talking about servers here. Fuck Ubisoft. The DLC doesn't need to be online for these games. You can literally load other peoples saves with a file, so I don't wanna hear that either.

And even so... remember when multiplsyer games came WITH the server to host your own games?
 
Which games are you talking about? If there are lots, you can surely name some examples.

I mean, I was just gonna go with Arcanum, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, Temple of Elemental Evil, StarLancer, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins and FreeLancer just off of the top of MY head :)

All of these require some sort of tweaking or patching to work on modern OS. To be fair, most games will be OK when you go from one OS gen to the next (i.e. WinXP to WinVista), but the further away you get from the release OS, the more work needs to be done to make the game run without crashing or visual glitching.

In the case of the DOS games mentioned earlier - when Microsoft removed the NTVDM with the advent of WinXP for x64, an entire open source DOS emulator had to be created by the community to run ANY DOS program in Windows :)
 
Good news for Anno 2070 owners, they will allow you to continue to play for hopefully many more years to come.

Hey Anno Community,
It’s time for an update on Anno 2070, we know many of you have been waiting for news.
We have worked hard this summer to update the game, upgrade and replace various legacy online services and test if it all runs smoothly in the end. Thank you to the testers from our community who helped us find some newly introduced bugs.

Today, we are happy to announce that we will release an update to Anno 2070 on September 7th that will allow you to continue to play for hopefully many more years to come.

After installing said update, you will be able to do World Events and vote in the regular council elections as you used to. You will also keep your full progression and be able to continue your existing savegames including your Arks and their content.

For the multiplayer fans, be it in coop mode or PvP, you dive right back into the Domination Mode or simply a regular multiplayer match.

In fact, your experience should even be a bit smoother now than before: We ported the game to 64bit, which enables the game to address all your PC’s memory. Additionally, the new online services should make for a nicer matchmaking experience. And you can still use the in-game friendslist to set up matches.

Anno 2070 will enter maintenance mode on September 6th, 6AM CEST/UTC+2. During this maintenance, we’re going to migrate all your progression to the new version. This maintenance could take up to 24h, meaning that from 6AM CEST/UTC+2 on September 7th onward, you can dive into the updated version of Anno 2070.
Until this date, the old servers will remain online!

Be assured, we will give you an update as soon as the maintenance is over.

Thank you for your support – and a special shout-out to the small crew that worked on the update over the last months!

Please note: Due to the changes done, we unfortunately can’t guarantee that old mods etc. are still working with this new version of Anno 2070.
 
What is this argument even about? Let me make it simple again.

Many DLC for SINGLE PLAYER Assassin's Creed (and more) games are being REMOVED.

It is not a hardware limitation and we are on the same OS as it is currently still working on. It is just theft.

I can still play my floppy disk that has Doom 1993 on it, but I can't play many of the Assassin's Creed DLC I paid for. How can you excuse this behavior, lmao? The mental gymnastics you guys sometimes do to make yourself feel good is just ridiculous.

Bla bla bla multiplayer.. who cares. We're not talking about servers here. Fuck Ubisoft. The DLC doesn't need to be online for these games. You can literally load other peoples saves with a file, so I don't wanna hear that either.
Removed from sale. If you already own it then you can continue to download and play it.
 
Ubisoft is shutting off online services for a number of games, including Splinter Cell Blacklist. This will include being unable to access DLC in the future. A patch that adds the content so that people can play it offline would make a lot of sense, but this is Ubisoft we're talking about so doubt that will happen.

Full list of games here.

Game namePlatformChanges 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 (2012 Release)*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 BrotherhoodPC
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 HDPC
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 FranciscoPC
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 (2012 Release)*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 SoldierPlayStation 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 SandsPC
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 5PC
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 JunkiesPC (HTC VIVE, Oculus)
As a multiplayer only title, you will be unable to play the game going forward.
Splinter Cell: BlacklistPC
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.
ZombiUWii U
You will be unable to link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features.

September 1 is when these games will loose their online features.
I should have read this before I tried to play coop Splinter Cell Blacklist with my friend. Very disappointed. I play most of my games coop. That used to be a favorite game. Remember the days when we didn't need Ubisoft or steam in order to play a game with people? They took independent servers away from the new games and in my opinion ruined the games in a lot of ways. I'm done grumbling for now.
 
I couldn't imagine paying for an Ubisoft game when they treat their customers this way. There's a certain word that rhymes with "Ubisoft" that comes to mind...
I realized with Valhalla that I don't even need to. I signed up for uplay+ for one month, completed the game then unsubscribed. Why pay 60+ for a game, when I can pay 15 and have the deluxe / ultimate edition?
They can't take away what I don't buy.
 
I realized with Valhalla that I don't even need to. I signed up for uplay+ for one month, completed the game then unsubscribed. Why pay 60+ for a game, when I can pay 15 and have the deluxe / ultimate edition?
They can't take away what I don't buy.

It is $1 for a month currently, must purchase before the 19th. I will re-subscribe shortly to finish the Valhalla and Far Cry 6 DLC. For $1 it is worth it, otherwise I skip them.

If you do get the deal be sure to turn off auto renew.
 
It is $1 for a month currently, must purchase before the 19th. I will re-subscribe shortly to finish the Valhalla and Far Cry 6 DLC. For $1 it is worth it, otherwise I skip them.

If you do get the deal be sure to turn off auto renew.
Yeah, but only 1 for the first month, and there is nothing in particular that I want to play now so why bother?
 
Yeah, but only 1 for the first month, and there is nothing in particular that I want to play now so why bother?

I'm going to finish the Valhalla DLC and Far Cry 6 DLC. Really all I can think of and about all I'm willing to pay for Valhalla DLC.
 
It is $1 for a month currently, must purchase before the 19th. I will re-subscribe shortly to finish the Valhalla and Far Cry 6 DLC. For $1 it is worth it, otherwise I skip them.

If you do get the deal be sure to turn off auto renew.
really? why don't I know this?
 
I agree with what you're saying but I can see why they're doing this. My most recent experience with one of the games in question(Far Cry 3) it quite noticeably takes a second or two at launch to log into your account even though it launches from the Ubisoft launcher already, if it can't connect(like when their server is down, ahem) you can't access any of the dlc(ask me how I know). It's basically another layer of drm and one of the reasons those games have quite a few DLC weapons that come with most versions of the game. Now they've obviously decided to take another approach and don't want to maintain the servers these games use to authenticate that content.

I really am curious exactly what they mean by activate though.

Edit: to clarify I was able to log into the ubi launcher but not the server to authenticate dlc so they're clearly separate systems.
Ah, so they're screwing over paying customers because of a DRM implementation that served to... screw over paying customers. Sweet
 
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