Ubisoft to turn off online features for some old games, meaning players lose access to DLC

Ubisoft are switching off online services for several older singleplayer games, including Anno 2070, Far Cry 3, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. For several of those games, that means that as of September 1st, “the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable,” according to an Ubisoft support page.

There are 15 games in total having their online features “decommissioned”, eleven of which are on PC. Switching off online features mean that you’ll no longer be able to play these games in competitive multiplayer or co-operative modes, should they have them, or in some instances make use of certain in-game rewards, statistics or news services. Singleplayer modes should remain available.

The PC games which will lose online features on September 1st are:

• Anno 2070
• Assassin’s Creed 2
• Assassin’s Creed 3
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
• Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD
• Driver San Francisco
• Far Cry 3 (2012 release, not the remaster)
• Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Silent Hunter 5
• Space Junkies
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist

From that selection, Space Junkies is the newest. It’s a multiplayer-only VR game which launched in 2019, and it will be completely unplayable after September 1st. Space Junkies remains on sale on Steam, with a 75% discount 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 (2012), Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Silent Hunter 5 all have DLC which will apparently be unavailable to install or access after the switch off. This appears to mean people won’t be able to access products they’ve paid for, and I’ve reached out to Ubisoft to ask for more detail and will update this post should they respond.

“Closing the online services for some older games allows us to focus our resources on delivering great experiences for players who are playing newer or more popular titles,” says Ubisoft’s master list of games with no longer available online features (emphasis theirs). “The decision to close the online services for a title is always taken with the consideration of our player base, including the level of interest they still have in the game.”

All of the above games were incorrectly included in a master list of decommissioned games on Ubisoft’s support pages earlier this year, when Ubisoft said the games were also offline for maintenance. They said they’d give advance warning before turning off the online features in those games for real, and this news is that warning.