Ubisoft Wants Uplay Open to All

[Andy Chalk]

Ubisoft Wants Uplay Open to All

Ubisoft hopes to someday offer games from other publishers through its Uplay digital distribution service.

Ubisoft recently became the latest major publisher to launch a home-grown digital distribution platform, adding its Uplay [http://uplay.ubi.com/en-US] service to a field that already includes Steam and Origin, plus independent distributors like GOG, Desura, Green Man Gaming and others. For the moment, Uplay offers only Ubisoft titles, but that could, and likely will, change in the future.

"We remain open to opportunities," Ubisoft's Stephanie Perotti told MCV. "Right now, we're starting the service with our own games, but as we go forward, we plan to potentially add other titles."

Uplay actually launched back in late 2009 in conjunction with Assassin's Creed II, but at the time was primarily a DRM and DLC system. Ubisoft then rolled out the "Uplay Passport," its version of the "online pass," with the 2011 launch of Driver: San Francisco, and Perotti said the publisher's plans go beyond turning Uplay into a mere digital distribution platform.

"We continue to evolve the service across all platforms, including PC, console and mobile," she said. "The more Ubisoft games you play, the more rewards you can get, as well as several online services that players would expect."

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, but an awful lot of PC gamers resented EA's intrusion into the Steam-space with Origin. Will they be willing to make room for yet another player - especially one who's been so disdainful of their platform in the past?

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/revamped-uplay-could-sell-third-party-download-games/0102756]


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[Krantos]

No offense, Ubi, but you may be biting off more than you can chew. Thus far UPlay has been an almost total clusterfuck.

Half the time it doesn't work. You have a lot to prove before people start taking anything you do on the PC seriously. It hasn't really been your strong point in the past.

 

[yuval152]

That's all I have to say.

 

[Zhukov]

Dear Ubisoft.

Your bloody Uplay bullshit prevented me from playing my legally purchased game due to technical issues.

If you think I'm going to put my credit card details through it then you get to fuck right the hell off.

Regards, Murray.

 

[The White Hunter]

No Ubisoft. First you have to prove that your existence is worth continuing.

 

[nodlimax]

Dear Ubisoft,

I stopped buying your games when you introduced the UbiLauncher and I'll continue to ignore your games as long as that plattform (now named uPlay) is mandatory. If you want my money again, get rid of that thing.

Thank you
A former customer

P.S. Fuck You

 

[teqrevisited]

It offers next to nothing and it barely functions. Why would anyone choose uplay over anything else? That's assuming that people haven't already written Ubisoft off for their remark that the vast majority of PC gamers are pirates. Maybe they'll never learn.

 

[FEichinger]

Let's see ... How many people in this thread condemning ubisoft will buy AC3?
And how many of those will do so for the PC?

That said, I'm honestly surprised by how well it has been working for me. It's as much of a pile of shit as Origin and GFWL are, but at least it didn't fail me yet - but that's only because I keep avoiding always-on games as much as I can.

Edit: Also, I use Steam and thus only use the launcher part of uPlay, so ... I think I couldn't care less.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

UPlay has been a pain in the arse for me not letting me play my games as the server was down. Though I do like how their achievement system allows you to exchange your points for unlockable items between games. Which actually give achievements a use.

 

[GAunderrated]

Dear Ubisoft.

Your bloody Uplay bullshit prevented me from playing my legally purchased game due to technical issues.

If you think I'm going to put my credit card details through it then you get to fuck right the hell off.

Regards, Murray.

I agree with this sentiment. Ubisoft only had assassins creed going for it and its already running that series into the ground so I wont only get to ignore this but with glee.

Also every publisher can put their own DD up and I wouldn't care since I wouldn't use it ever. PC market is strong and if they want to divide it up and make it weaker, it would only be hurting gaming as a whole.

 

[Lokoloshe]

I really only use Steam on PC and get what isn't available there for my console. Since I cant figure Ubisoft making anything PC exclusive, I couldn't care less.

On another topic, I'm still hoping the new Sim City wont be Origin exclusive cause I want to play it, but wont on that platform.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Yeah I'll get right on that ubisoft right after hell freezes over or pc gamers get an unreserved apology for you accusing us all of been pirates y'know whatever comes first.

 

[Therumancer]

I'll put it this way, as a gamer I don't want to have to work through multiple distribution platforms for my games, I want to be able to use one platform and have all of my stuff there in one place. Digital distribution is bad enough without complicating it.

I understand that the various companies want a cut of that sweet, sweet cash that comes in from controlling a distribution platform, but really... it's not worth the hassle, I'm not going to buy into something that intentionally inconveinences me, just so I can put money directly into the pockets of the guys causing me the inconveinence.

What's more STEAM is admittedly the only platform that has really offered me an incentive to use their service... deep discounts, including on games that are only a couple of months old at times. Services like Origin won't even offer that kind of incentive, so really... what's the point? They offer me nothing that makes me want to deal with a company specific service.

Not to mention the simple fact that EA managed to really screw the pooch on Origin for me, on a personal level. Back when ToR came out there was a mistake with EA and Gamestop and my pre-order wound up going through as for a standard edition of ToR when I paid for a collector's edition. I talked to EA, went back to Gamestop and got a proper code, BUT since I had already entered the previous code (for the standard edition) into my account I couldn't enter the CE code... you can't "update" to a new version of the same project. EA customer service told me the only thing I could do is create another Origin account and register my CE there (time was of the essence at the time to get onto the Beta list, since allegedly it was going to be first come first serve), which I did. EA customer service assured me there was going to be a way to combine my accounts so I wouldn't have to login to two seperate accounts for differant games (ie my CE, and my other EA games that wound up registered with Origin). With two accounts set up I managed to wind up installing differant games into differant accounts (ME 3, Amalur, etc...) since it was hard to keep track of which one was logged in, I had all my games but had to play login games to make sure I had the right Origin account working with each one. Despite numerous attempts to contact customer service, I received no real responses, they basically started ignoring me, not giving a crap about this problem they would up causing by forcing me to make multiple origin accounts when they screwed up a registration code.

The above story has little to do with Uplay, but the bottom line is that Origin is already a totally inconsiderate pain in the butt that doesn't even wind up saving me any money or nything. Why the heck do I want to screw around with Ubisoft's version as well? While others might have had problems, I will say STEAM has never given me a problem, despite my dislike of digital distribution in general, it might very well get to the point where I'm going to refuse to use any game that requires a platform other than STEAM (though I prefer games that don't require any of this digital nonsense at all) because I'm tired of the headaches.

To be honest at one point EA had some leverage on me, because I really liked Bioware games, but given what they did to Dragon Age 2, and Mass Effect 3's ending, it's not like I'm in a mad rush to try the next installments in those series, especially if they are going to shoehorn me into wrestling with Origin and keeping track of which account they get installed into. Ubisoft doesn't even have a Bioware going for them, I'm hardly a huge Assasin's Creed fan, and I thought the last "Heroes Of Might and MAgic" game was mediocre.

 

[Baresark]

UPlay is terrible. They can hope and wish all they want, but you will never get me to buy a game through that piece of shit launcher.

I'm not gonna lie, I hate Ubisoft, so I'm a bit biased against them. But their terrible launcher and awful DRM has prevented me from buying any of their games for a while now. Their games just aren't worth the hassle of dealing with them. Also though, I am fully invested in Steam. I have over 300 games on my Steam account, why would I ever choose to use another platform. I have bought certain Origin only games on their, but I don't touch those games at this point, so it'll be a long while before I buy another game on their. EA and Ubisoft don't have the games backing them for me to even come close to potentially giving outlets any kind of consideration in the foreseeable future.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I have never heard of uplay. How old is it?

 

[lancar]

As long as they don't do the EA douchebag move of taking away already published games on Steam just to promote their own system, I couldn't care less about what they do with it. I have enough crap running in the background on my computer already. I don't need yet another digital distribution service.

 

[Weaver]

Let's see ... How many people in this thread condemning ubisoft will buy AC3?
And how many of those will do so for the PC?

That said, I'm honestly surprised by how well it has been working for me. It's as much of a pile of shit as Origin and GFWL are, but at least it didn't fail me yet - but that's only because I keep avoiding always-on games as much as I can.

Edit: Also, I use Steam and thus only use the launcher part of uPlay, so ... I think I couldn't care less.

I've only played the first AC, to my knowledge it's the only one without uPlay.
I haven't bought a ubisoft game since they started uPlay and, if Michael Pachter is to be believed; Ubisoft's PC sales are down 90% since the institution of uPlay.