Published on: 27/04/2022

Ubisoft turns off multiplayer online services for over 90 games

Ubisoft no longer offers online support for 93 different titles. Just Dance, Assassin’s Creed 2, and the original Far Cry are among the games that have had their online services cut off.

Single-player parts of the affected games, however, will not be impacted. Players can still play the games offline, and the offline features for each game should continue to function normally.

Ubisoft released a comprehensive list of games affected by this decision this week, in which the company confirmed that the absence of online functionality meant that players would not be able to obtain unlockable rewards and use Ubisoft Connect in these games.

“The online multiplayer services for the titles listed below have now been shut down. The offline features for each game remain available,” the official announcement on the page reads.

The company also said that it disabled in-game news and player statistics in all affected games. Games using Ubisoft Connect services have had their units and challenges disabled. Likewise, Ubisoft has disabled “Unlockable Content” (ULC) such as additional maps or skins in all of the affected games, with no way to unlock them.

Previously unlocked content will be unavailable to PC players, while console players can still enjoy it, as long as they have not reset their saved game files.

There are many well-known and critically acclaimed titles on the list. Some games will only lose servers for certain platforms, but others, such as Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2, will lose the entire online support.

Online support for games like Just Dance 2016 through Just Dance 2018 also ended for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Yet, players can still play the games online on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U. Online features for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is shut down only on PC, while Splinter Cell: Double Agent will lose its online features on entire available platforms.

Older games temporarily unavailable for maintenance

Ubisoft clarified that several titles were recently made offline by mistake and have since been restored.

“Last week, some of our games (Anno 2070, Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed 3, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Driver San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Silent Hunter 5, and Splinter Cell Blacklist) were taken offline for a short maintenance and services have been restored,” it explained. “We will provide advance notice before shutting down any online services for our games and have updated our support article to reflect this.”

Since all the games mentioned above are relatively old, the end of their online support should not be surprising. However, the company also recently revealed the end of updates for one of its newer titles. According to Ubisoft earlier this month, there would be no further updates for Ghost Recon Breakpoint, although the online servers will remain accessible for players to play.

Bloomberg reported that Ubisoft was prepping for an acquisition by a private equity firm. The report mentioned two of the world’s biggest equity firms, Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co.

Ubisoft also recently revealed Project Q, a new third-person shooter, after gameplay footage leaked online not long ago. The company has yet to provide many details on the upcoming game. They did, however, confirm that it would not feature NFTs.