Man this is some epic BS! I can understand shutting down servers hosting older games but in those cases companies should be forced to create a solution to create/use dedicated servers, this way people could continue to play the games, if they wanted. As for the DLC part, if this is not considered a criminal action against legit buyers, then i fear for what companies are going to do in the future...

Incompetent management on many levels. I hope they are sued into submission and learn a strong lesson. I'm just about to start Far Cry 6 but will not purchase any DLC, simply in protest. I'll not be purchasing a Ubisoft game after this unless there is clear evidence of a large change in behaviour.

I get that steam is theoretically the same deal but I will not be purchasing games that include ubisoft launcher at any point in the future. I can kiss goodbye to beyond good and evil 2 sadly. Essentially the copy of Valhalla I just bought is going to be crippled in 15-20 years. I still play farcry 1!

Horus-Anhur:

There was a time when online games would also ship with server tools, so that gamers could create their own servers. To this day it is still possible to play CS 1.6, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 and many more, thanks to them having server tools. This meant that companies didn't need to spend more money creating servers, as the community could do it. And it also enabled people to customize and mod servers. But them companies decided that the only servers their games could connect, was their own. So they removed server tools. This allowed companies to control paid DLC, loot boxes, micro-transactions, in-game purchases, in-game currencies and NFTs. Despite making much more money, they still refuse to support the games they made.

This was when gaming and gaming servers/console matchmaking for PC went downhill. I remember to a degree dedicated servers and hit registration were so much better 1999 - 2006. Until all the Cloud gaming crap became mainstream.

Brasky:

I've been off Ubi for a while ever since they made the reward points "expire". Used to be a relatively good company but apparently aren't keeping up with the old ways of doing business.

Ubisoft has now equalised with EA in my view. Not because of this but because they never fix their games. They say they're looking into it but never fix the problems. Then two years passes by as they say the same things. Script bots. They'll fix the bugs that may screw up related to their stores or exploiting their stores within hours. Game breaking bugs for players? Forget about it.

oh this is worse than anything EA has ever done. This is literally theft in my books. You paid for a product you expect to be able to play that product for the foreseeable future. I can understand shutting down MP when needed because thats usually in most EULA. But losing access to paid dlc without compensation is straight up theft.

Agonist:

Thank god piracy exist. The games I own, I have pirate with the DLC so i can play them on any rig I want without dealing with the DRM and launchers. And you also dont have to worry about this issue.

Problem with piracy is the lack of updates.

TheDeeGee:

Problem with piracy is the lack of updates.

You can always wait for the complete edition, with all the major updates...

Look its pretty simple dont ever buy another Game from them again.

Ubisoft strikes again. From this company at this point I'm not even mad... It is what I just expect from them, low level practices and incompetency all the time. I already had my problems wiht them, like loosing progress on The Crew and The Crew 2 for some times and the support giving 0 help. The only other games I have from them is Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon, but those 2 were bought on Steam, and then it was my first time learning that I need 2 launchers to run a game...

Unfortunately, this is what was hated when games were moved to even services like Steam. One does not own the game anymore. One now pays to have access to play the game. When access ends, it ends. DLCs are part of that equation too. DLCs need the base game or are useless so why would they be considered any different than the main game itself. They are not doing anything evil. Ubisoft is just putting into practice what paying for access means. Is a pill not easy to swallow. Sever space is just like real estate, land, there is just so much of it. Does not matter if is a VM or not, it still takes up space. That space costs the same whether it is on an ancient decrepit server or a brand new shiny one. Operating costs are homogenized over the entire structure. Besides, when this has happened before all that was ever removed was the online portions. Correct me if am wrong, but are not DLCs always regarding online content...never adding to the single player campaign.

They joys of being screwed by games companies on pc. You all saw this coming years ago but just went with it instead of boycotting. C'est la vie i'll stick with linux

This is why I don't buy new games, you don't actually own anything. Having no option to make your own servers and locking everything is a practice that started over 10 years ago, and it sucks. Now a game is disconnected literally dies, there's no way someone could pick up the code and reboot it.

This, is what happens when you allow games companies to list on the stock exchange, and the upper management have about as much power as a piece of dog poo on the heels of the major shareholders. Y'see - shareholders can vote out CEO's, so, the CEO will do whatever they can to keep their job with all the perks. This is why you have crazy headlines such as: "BIG COMPANY ONLY MADE $100bn THIS YEAR IN PROFIT - SACKS 5,000 PEOPLE" Share holders get a cut of the profits, so, if a company is not going to make as much money as they did the year before in profit, they will sack lots of people, or, reduce overhead in one way or another, to maintain the high profit margins I really think I am one of just a handful of people on the planet that understand this: COMPANIES CAN SACK PEOPLE FOR LOW PROFITS - EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE MAKING A PROFIT. Let me reword that again for you...A company is profitable...they are making more money that it costs to make the money they are making...their revenue is higher than the cost to run the company...yet, they still are allowed BY LAW to sack people, or, make any structural changes to their company even if they are making billions and trillions in profit, so long as it is not as much profit as they made last year or last quarter. The stock exchanges all over the world have this written into law, that you WILL take ALL necessary actions to increase the profits of a company...no matter what.

rl66:

Ubisoft latest game were not big hits at all (GR breackpoint, AC Valhala, Farcry 6 are a total "do not buy" for fan )

couldn't agree more gr wildlands was fantastic, you can just get that instead of breakpoint it's a better game I did enjoy valhalla, it's an excellent game up until it becomes dreadfully repetitive. still, I'd reccommend it on sale. fc series is a copy of a copy, I encourage people to get 3 and 5 and be done with it, you're not missing anything.

TheDeeGee:

Problem with piracy is the lack of updates.

Plently of pirated games get updates. And usually can download just the update pieces and add them. Its not 2010 anymore. I have God of War with newest update with FSR 2.0. I refuse to buy the game until the arseholed Dev's add 32:9 to the game. I only downloaded it to try since no demo.

I speak for everyone when I say... FCK YOU UBISOFT!

*remembers gamespy and immediately has ptsd*

losing access to the online companety i can understand but losing access to DLC you bought? Imagine what would happen if Steam or ANY online store account says they shutting down? image worlds rage over lose of the actual game people bought, Less the day that happen we all have access to too 10gbit connections and and 500-1000TB storage at realistic prices are thing then i see mass riots happen. There is reason why i get console games on disc still they still make them on disc so i get them that way, sadly DLC dont tend to be on disc less it was GOTY edition with everything included and i dont remeber last time PC games actual had physical discs

Undying:

You guys remember when they ware the biggest video game company even above cdpr? How times change.

I remeber no such time, then again I dont think ubisoft every really made game i cared about

@tsunami231 I thought a lot of the console games will not start with out the latest update , even if have the disk.

rl66:

Maintain server isn't too expensive for sure, BUT there is a huges need of cash right now... Ubisoft latest game were not big hits at all (GR breackpoint, AC Valhala, Farcry 6 are a total "do not buy" for fan ) And also historical owner family want to take distance with Ubisoft... So there is no little money save for Ubisoft right now...

Most of these companies probably use GoogleCloud/Azure/AWS, keeping a pod up with a server used for a few unpopular games should be relatively nothing. The fewer the people that play them, the cheaper the servers would be. It's of course a business decision, but the DLC decision is just bizzare. They might as well have given them out for free, same for the games. It would create positive buzz around their franchises.