Uplay DLC purchases don't work with steam games

stealthballer123

Limp Gawd
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Mar 2, 2017
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I don't know if this is how it works for every one of these services, but I didn't know it and it been a pain in my ass.

I bought Farcry 5 on a steam sale last year and then went to buy the DLC marked down on UPLAY, but it doesn't and won't work.


message from them
"Hello stealth, Just reaching out to let you know that I've issued a refund due to client incompatibility, allow 5-7 business days for the $15.66 refund to process. Please note that all future DLC must be purchased from where the base game was purchased from. If there's anything else I can assist with don't hesitate to contact again! Respectfully"

Seems super shitty to me. Steam game forced me to run uplay to play it anyways, so it's absurd they want me to buy another copy on uplay. They refused to give me an activation code for it, which I don't think I have had happen either. As in, I asked if I could just get an activation code and they said that was completely out of the question...

Is this normal? This is the first time I ever had this happen and I buy a shit ton of games and DLC across platforms.
 
It's not crossover really, I can't play it without uplay. They forced me to use uplay platform and then want me to rebuy the game if I purchase add ons on the platform they forced me to use...

If that's normal then I regret buying anything. This economy of fucking people over and it's normal is a fantastic innovation.
I won't buy another ubisoft product. This is fuckery.
 
It's not crossover really, I can't play it without uplay. They forced me to use uplay platform and then want me to rebuy the game if I purchase add ons on the platform they forced me to use...

If that's normal then I regret buying anything. This economy of fucking people over and it's normal is a fantastic innovation.
I won't buy another ubisoft product. This is fuckery.
Pendragon pointed out the elephant in the room. You can’t cross activate. All software activated through one stays with that one.

Always assume if it’s from steam, it only activates there etc.
 
Having to use 2 drm solutions to play a game and then not being able to to play the content they held to ransom highlights everything wrong with gaming in this era.
 
Having to use 2 drm solutions to play a game and then not being able to to play the content they held to ransom highlights everything wrong with gaming in this era.
Steam has been around since the late 90’s. And this has always been a topic of conversation. Maybe you mean 2 decades as an era?
 
I can understand how UPlay is kind of an outlier here given it is one of those "Steam LAUNCHES UPlay" to play Ubi titles, so it kinda sorta makes sense that you're "using both". However, its probably about authorization and whatnot - for the purposes of purchases, Steam copies don't "see" the UPlay authorizations and vice versa. The same thing is true to some degree with other titles that have their own independent launchers (ie some MMOs), but to make things more confusing it is not always the case depending on the particular game/publisher etc.

For what its worth, keys for content that activate directly on UPlay are often MUCH cheaper than those that activate through Steam, as well as being more available through 3rd party legit vendors.

I've long suggested that Steam create an industry-wide open source key standard that others could use, so these kinds of issues would not be a problem (not to mention decoupling the launcher/platform from store and centralizing around one open standard. Ideally it could also allow for user deauthorization/repackaging for resale)
 
More importantly in regards to steam, allowing cross activation opens up big loopholes to avoid the transaction fee associated with steam purchases. A publisher could sell the game client on steam for a dollar then the rest of the game as a $59 DLC on their store.
 
Anyone know if you can buy a Ubi game's dlc on Humble and have it work with your Ubisoft activated game that was bought elsewhere (aka not the Ubi store, not Steam)?

It sucks OP but its been a thing for years now. For awhile it was smarter to buy Ubi games on Steam because prices were often cheaper or games on sale more often. Now that Ubi took their new games off Steam to Ubi and Epic Game store only, it really only makes sense to buy them on Ubi store or via HumbleBundle and Greenman Gaming, who both sell Ubisoft keys.
 
Steam has been around since the late 90’s. And this has always been a topic of conversation. Maybe you mean 2 decades as an era?

lol no, steam first launched in 2002 and no one used it because it was a useless layer of drm even though their excuse was that it made updating easier which wasn't really the case. they then forced everyone to switch to steam in 2003.. even then they only sold valve games until i think it was 2005 or 2006.

also chaos machine pretty much nailed it on the head on why you can't buy dlc's outside of steams ecosystem and try to use it on their launcher.
 
Steam was offered in 2003 as a means to update Valve games and ballooned from that point on.

Steam has been around since the late 90’s. And this has always been a topic of conversation. Maybe you mean 2 decades as an era?
 
All the games I've bought on Steam that require Uplay add the game to my Uplay library on first install/activation which make me wonder if you were you trying to add the DLC to your Steam copy of the game or the Uplay one. I wouldn't expect the former to work but I'm pretty sure I've done the latter, you just have to install through Uplay for the DLC to be recognized.
 
seems normal to me, no crossover.

It's not crossover really, I can't play it without uplay. They forced me to use uplay platform and then want me to rebuy the game if I purchase add ons on the platform they forced me to use...

If that's normal then I regret buying anything. This economy of fucking people over and it's normal is a fantastic innovation.
I won't buy another ubisoft product. This is fuckery.

you cant buy a steam code and use it in uplay either.

its not friggin different all your ubisoft games on steam always open up the linked uplay launcher ubisoft is just fucking with people who originate the purchase on steam
 
its not friggin different all your ubisoft games on steam always open up the linked uplay launcher ubisoft is just fucking with people who originate the purchase on steam

yeah because steam wants their cut of the sale, if you buy it on uplay steam doesn't get their 20% cut on the dlc. this has absolutely nothing to do with ubisoft, if they were allowed to do it they would because it's money lost on their end by having you buy it through steam.
 
I don't understand how this is confusing. It's always been like this. I have repurchased some of my Assassin's Creed games on Uplay because it was cheaper just to buy it again than to buy all the DLC separately on Steam.
 
yeah because steam wants their cut of the sale, if you buy it on uplay steam doesn't get their 20% cut on the dlc. this has absolutely nothing to do with ubisoft, if they were allowed to do it they would because it's money lost on their end by having you buy it through steam.

*scratches head* HUH?(aloud) *does somersault* *practices balloon animals* WAKKA WAKKA!(aloud) *plunges head into ice water* AAAAAWOOOOOGAAAAA AWWWOOOOOGAAAAAHHH!!!
 
I've long suggested that Steam create an industry-wide open source key standard that others could use, so these kinds of issues would not be a problem (not to mention decoupling the launcher/platform from store and centralizing around one open standard. Ideally it could also allow for user deauthorization/repackaging for resale)

There is no way they would do this at this point. Steam's main business advantage is they are the incumbent PC gaming distribution platform (and make no mistake these are platforms). As such they also currently have an indirect user lock in due to existing libraries.

If Epic with it's current strategy ever rolls enough momentum to overtake Steam than I can see them maybe pushing something like this under the "good guy" angle as a next resort.
 
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