Ubisoft Game Decommissioning Controversy

Submission 7,472

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Overview

Ubisoft Game Decommissioning Controversy, also known as Ubisoft Removing Games from Steam, is a controversy spawned by Ubisoft's July 2022 announcement that several video games released by the company between 2009 and 2013, including several Assassins Creed installments, will be decommissioned in September 2022, meaning that their multiplayer features and DLC will become unavailable. The announcement was initially interpreted by some as Ubisoft fully removing access to one of the titles, Assassin's Creed Liberation HD, which caused a backlash on social media and some users advocating piracy. Ubisoft later clarified that the game will remain available to owners.

Background

On July 1st, 2022, French video game publisher Ubisoft announced^[1]^[2] that on September 1st, 2022, it would be decommissioning (deactivating online services) 15 of its video games released between 2009 and 2013, including Anno 2070, several Assassin's Creed installments, Driver San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Rayman Legends and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. All the games will no longer have access to multiplayer and other online features, with DLCs for titles that had them also becoming inaccessible (tweet and blog post screenshot shown below, left and right).

On July 10th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @ChaosBahamut posted a screenshot of a Steam store page for Assassin's Creed Liberation HD which, at that moment, had two disclaimers, one announcing that the game is no longer available for purchase and the other reading, "Please not this title will not be accessible following September 1st, 2022." In the tweet, @ChaosBahamut wrote, "Take care when buying games from Ubisoft, they have no issues stealing them from you." The post received over 2,500 retweets and 17,500 likes in two days (shown below, left). Later on July 10th, Twitter^[4] user @Nors3 made a similar post, interpreting the disclaimer as the game becoming fully unavailable for those who purchased it. The tweet received over 2,800 retweets and 21,200 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

The blog entry^[2] about the decommission posted by Ubisoft on July 1st, 2022, stated the following regarding Assassin's Creed Liberation HD:

You will be unable to link Ubisoft accounts in-game or use online features. Additionally, the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable.

Developments

On July 11th, 2022, following the initial start of the controversy, Ubisoft issued a clarification that current owners of Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD will "still be able to access, play or redownload" after the game is decommissioned.^[5] The game was also put back on sale at its normal price, while the original disclaimer was changed to read, "DLC for this product and online elements and features will become unavailable as of Sept 1st, 2022. The base game will continue to be playable."

Online Reactions

The viral spread of @ChaosBahamut's and @Nors3's tweets on July 10th, 2022, that interpreted the original disclaimer as the game becoming unavailable triggered a viral debate on Twitter,^[6]^[7]^[8] with users criticizing Ubisoft and discussing the drawbacks of digitally "licensing" games rather than owning physical copies (examples shown below).

Some Twitter users advocated pirating the company's games rather than buying them (example tweets shown below),^[9]^[10]^[11] with several users using the It's Always Morally Correct meme format.

On Steam, Assassin's Creed Liberation HD was review-bombed in mid-July 2022 as a result of the backlash (examples shown below).^[12]^[13]