Ubisoft is disabling online services for several older single player games, including Anno 2070, Far Cry 3, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. For some of those games, this means that starting September 1, “installation and access to DLC will not be available,” according to a Ubisoft support page†
There are a total of 15 games whose online features will be “dismantled”, 11 of which will be on PC. Disabling online features means that players will no longer be able to play these games in competitive multiplayer or co-op modes, if they have them, or in some cases take advantage of in-game rewards, stats or news services. Single player modes should remain available.
The PC games that will lose online features on September 1 are:
- in 2070
- Assassin’s Creed 2
- Assassin’s Creed 3 (original release; remaster unaffected)
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
- Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD
- Driver San Francisco
- Far Cry 3 (original release; remaster unaffected)
- Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
- Silent fighter 5
- space junkies
- Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Out of that selection, Space Junkies is the latest. It is a multiplayer VR game that launched in 2019 and will be completely unplayable after September 1. Space Junkies remains for sale on Steamwith 75% off for the duration of the Steam Summer Sale.
Of the remaining games, Assassin’s Creed 3, Brotherhood, Liberation HD, Driver San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Silent Hunter 5 all have DLC that apparently won’t be available to install or open after shutting down . This seems to mean people can’t access products they’ve paid for, and I’ve reached out to Ubisoft to ask for more details and will update this post if they respond.
“Close online services for some parent games allow us to use our sources on delivering great experiences for players playing newer or more popular titles,” reads Ubisoft’s master list of games with unavailable online features (emphasize theirs). “The decision to close the online services for a title is always made with the consideration of our player base, including the level of interest they still have in the game.”
All of the above games were mistakenly included in that master list of retired games earlier this year, seemingly by accident. Ubisoft said they would issue a pre-warning before actually turning off the online features in those games, and this news is that warning.