Ubisoft’s been having a rough time lately, with anticipated blockbusters such as Star Wars Outlaws failing to actually pull in audiences. The general sentiment is that the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a🌺 make-it-or-break-it moment for 💟the company, and it seems like Ubisoft is embracing Steam for the job.
In case you haven’t noticed yet, Ubisoft has already confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is going to basically support all the baseline Steam features from day one onwards. Achievements, for example, rather than funneling them via UPlay, which I categorically refuse to reference under its new Connect title. For context, Ubisoft has slowly been introducing Steam achievements to its legacy releases as of late, whereas this wasn’t even on the docket just a few years back. This is on top of promising to publish new flagship titles on Steam on day one, which was unpꦆrece⛦dented for Ubisoft. What does this all mean in the grand scheme of things, though?
Is Ubisoft ever going to get rid of Ubisoft Connect/UPlay?
Make absolutely no mistake here: Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the make-it-or-break-it moment for Ubisoft at this time. I was taken aback by how mild the reception to Star Wars Outlaws was, myself, as I do think it’s a genuinely compelling and solidly executed title across the board. To say nothing of the fact that it’s a Star Wars game, of all things. Yet, , and the fancy new ninja-focused Assassin’s Creed is what it’s all about now.
Why is this important in the context of Steam achievements, of all things? It’s no accident that Ubisoft started bringing its attention back onto Steam after its flagship-tier releases started failing to deliver. Heck, Star Wars Outlaws specifically wasn’t supposed to release on Steam as quickly as it did, but its subpar sales performance forced Ubisoft’s hand in this respect. The publisher is already licensing out some of its legacy IPs to indie developers, if The Rogue Prince of Persia is anything to go by, and that was released on Steam day-one withou🎉t any UPlay/Ubisoft Connect thingamadoodads to speak of.
All of this is to say that I think we may yet see Ubisoft fully embrace Steam before all is said and done. With full integration present and accounted for in AC: Shadows right off the bat, we’re just one small step away from throwing UPlay into the abyss where it belongs, and who knows what happens next. Will it affect the game’s sales/adoption rates on Steam? It very well might, but we’ll have to wait and see what the hard data tells us.
Keeping all of the above in mind, it’s not like early adoption necessarily means anything as far as Ubisoft is concerned. I’m comparing apples to oranges here, of course, but do remember that xDefiant was Ubisoft’s fastest-growing title less than a year . The going is obviously tough at Ubisoft right now, and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if UPlay got de-emphasized further. Good riddance, I say.
Published: Feb 27, 2025 05:30 am