Original Article By Rob Thubron At Techspot.com
What just happened? Ubisoft has announced the shuttering of online services for 91 of its older games across several different platforms, including Anno 1404, Far Cry Blood Dragon, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six Vegas, and several Just Dance games. Anyone who purchased unlockable content for these titles can no longer access it on PC.
Ubisoft notes that in-game news and player statistics for the listed games have also been disabled. Moreover, any that used Ubisoft Connect services will find that Units and Challenges are now disabled, meaning players will no longer be able to earn Units by completing Challenges.
It’s bad news for anyone who bought “ULC” (Unlockable Content), such as maps and skins for games. Ubisoft said that in addition to these being disabled—meaning they can’t be unlocked—ULC on the PC would no longer be available even if it was purchased previously. Owners will still be able to access it on console, however, unless they reset their save game files.
Some games are only losing online features on select platforms, often consoles from two generations ago. Just Dance 2016 through to 2018, for example, is dropping online support for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii, but it remains on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U.
All the games’ offline functionality and features will remain unchanged.
Older titles see their online support dropped all the time, though not usually so many at once, and losing paid-for DLC is always going to sting, even if you rarely play the games in question. Ubisoft never gave any reason for its decision.
Last week brought reports that Ubisoft was attracting takeover attention from private equity companies Blackstone Inc, KKR & Co, and others. It’s unclear whether this is in any way related to the 91 games’ online services being shuttered.
