They’re making the case for pirating games even better.

What fucking morons

"We certainly do not want you to lose access to your games or account"

So why do this? Corporate greed.

Huh. I've got some games on Ubisofts store.... Well, maybe not anymore.

You'll have to explain to me why I shouldn't just steal any future Ubisoft titles if they steal all mine first...

What happened to owning something you've paid for forever?

These companies need to realize if they keep fucking over their paying customer, it'll be more convenient for people to just pirate their product. At least FitGirl won't knock on my door and demand me to delete his repack off my hard disk just because I haven't visited his site in a while

It's like they want people to pirate their games.

Guess I'm no longer buying games by Ubisoft. I spend hundreds in their store and they're going to delete my account if I'm inactive to long? You can't be making this shit up.

And then they wonder why they can't compete with Steam and end up crawling back to Gabe for every game.

I've not been buying Ubisoft games since the sexual harassment scandal back in 2020, and this only reaffirms my choice not to buy anything from them. It's not just scummy, it's pointlessly scummy.

Admittedly, physical copies of games don't resolve this issue either: legally speaking when you own a physical disk, all you own is the disk itself- not the contents. The only way to actually fix this issue is better consumer protection laws.

Y'ARRR MATEYS!

One more company to add to my "Pirate Only" list

I just had a horrible experience with Assassins game purchased through Steam. I had bought the game few years back. Played some and stopped. And deleted my Ubisoft account. This week I downloaded the game again hoping to play it. I created a new Ubisoft account but the game wouldn’t launch.

Hours spent with the support got me nowhere. In summary, their response is that since the original Ubisoft account was linked to the purchase, they cannot now link the game to the new account.

I provided the Steam proof of purchase but that didn’t help.

Steam support didn’t help either.

I can’t play a game I purchased and own.

This should be illegal!

Well guess I won't be "renting" any games from them then. If I buy something it means I own it, in perpetuity. In fact I'm fairly certain Europe has laws against this, though Ubisoft will probably just have to pay a "fine" that is more a gentle slap on the wrist. We need to stop fining these companies, it does not stop them from breaking the law repeatedly. Stop arresting pirates, start arresting CEO's.

Fuck Ubisoft

Ha! I deleted my own account before they could, jokes on you Ubi!! Jokes aside, fuck ubisoft. I primarily buy games from GOG. Recommended everyone to do the same 🐖

This is why Steam got the lion's share. Ubisoft is mad disrespectful.

I really can't imagine that this complies with EU law.

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

Imagine buying something from these people after this.

Yes, sometimes I don't play a game for 5 years, but I bought and own it, and I know it'll be there when I come back to it.

....unless it's Ubisoft, then purchases aren't really purchases, and you don't have any right to expect your property to be there when you get back 🤦‍♀️

Well that definitely won't get people to put on their pirate hats...

I logged into steam after like 10 years no problem.

How long is "too long"? If I lose my Anno empires I will shit bricks

https://www.pcworld.com/article/559218/could-gdpr-policy-erase-your-games-it-happened-to-an-ubisoft-customer.html

Yup. Fuck Ubisoft. The last game from them was Child of light, and it will stay that way.

Why do so many people, usually children, think digital games are a good idea? Absolute scam, and it's only going to get worse. Next gen of consoles will probably be all digital. You will lose access to games for seemingly no reason, everything will be $70, no trading, no selling, and no one but the big guys making a dime from the sale.

Please shop at your local game stores, don't buy digital. You are not only ripping yourself off, but helping to enable a future where you don't even really own the games you buy. Look at ubisoft right now. You bought those games. You own them. They're literally stealing games just to try and force you to buy another copy.

Con artists.

Maybe related to these changes, maybe due to something else, I don't know, but a Ubisoft game I have installed through Steam (Far Cry New Dawn) stopped launching for me. I tried verifying game files through Steam (more than once), but that by itself didn't help. What worked however was uninstalling Ubisoft Connect, then verifying game files again through Steam (which sadly installs Ubisoft Connect again), then launching the game (which initiated a Ubisoft Connect update for me). Hope that helps someone.

I've heard they are doing this to comply with things like GDPR. If that's the case, and they are deleting accounts to not be storing personal information longer than allowed, then before closing your account, they should email you an encrypted bundle of your data that you could later send back to them to restore your account. It wouldn't be against those laws if they send it to you to keep... and it would provide you with a path back to full restoration.