Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a multinational video game company, known for developing and publishing popular franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. The company has positioned itself as a leader in the video game industry, referring to itself as a "AAAA" game company. This claim is debatable.

Anti-consumer practices

The Crew shutdown

One of the most significant consumer protection issues surrounding Ubisoft in recent years relates to the 2014 game The Crew. In 2022, Ubisoft announced the shutdown of the online services for The Crew, effectively making the game unplayable for many players who relied on its online features. The decision to decommission the game's servers was controversial, as Ubisoft retroactively altered the terms of sale. Players who had purchased the game, which was initially marketed with certain online functionality, found that they could no longer access key features after the servers were shut down.

The decommissioning of The Crew also sparked a wider debate on the viability of "games-as-a-service" models, which Ubisoft has heavily invested in. These models often require ongoing internet connectivity to function and rely on servers run by the company. At any time, the company can decide to shut down the servers and the games will no longer be playable, as seen with The Crew.

Star Wars Outlaws forced update

Star wars outlaws was released in In August of 2024, with two editions that allowed players to have early access to the game for $110 and $130 respectively, approximately twice the cost of the game on release day. Ubisoft then pushed an update just before the full release that caused players on PlayStation 5 who had paid extra for the game as early access to have their save file deleted. Although the update was intended to fix a game-breaking bug, upon full release many bugs remained. This behavior also highlights an ongoing pattern in which Ubisoft releases an incomplete game, expects players to buy the game and act as the testers, and then patches the game later.

Executive comments

Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, has repeatedly stated that "games-as-a-service" is the future of the gaming industry, and Ubisoft's director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay said that players should get used to not owning their games. These comments have been met with criticism, particularly when juxtaposed with decisions like the shutdown of The Crew and the introduction of NFT's (Non-fungible tokens) into Ubisoft’s business model.

On January 15, 2024, Ubisoft's director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, was interviewed by gamesindustry.biz. During this interview Tremblay made the following comment on ownership:

"One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game."