Ubisoft Discontinues Unpopular Uplay Passport Program

Post by Dan @ 10:45am 01/11/13 | 14 Comments

Responding to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag customers that were disgruntled about single-player elements of the game being paygated, Ubisoft has completely abandoned the controversial Uplay Passport program, and opened up the previously locked content for free. A blog post explains the about-face thusly:

Gamers currently without a Uplay Passport for Black Flag will be able to download one for free from Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. For those who have already purchased Uplay Passport for Black Flag, please contact your regional Ubisoft support.

What’s more, Uplay Passport will not be a part of any future Ubisoft games.

The Uplay Passport program was initiated as a means of giving customers full access and support for online multiplayer and features, along with exclusive content, bonuses and rewards. However, games today are blurring the line between offline and online, between what is “single player” and what is “multiplayer.” Based on that and on the feedback we received from you, we recognized that Passport is no longer the best approach for ensuring that all our customers have the best possible experience with all facets of our games.

The sweet taste of consumer victory. Kudos to Ubisoft for listening.

assassins creed 4 black flag assassins creed 4 ubisoft uplay

Latest Comments

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eski
Posted 11:22am 01/11/13

I read the first four words of that subject line and got my hopes up, only to have them expertly dashed by the fifth and sixth words.

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trog
Posted 02:11pm 01/11/13

Who is the person at Ubisoft coming up with these ideas? Do they not do any concept testing stuff at all? It is weird that such a large organisation can just make so many mistakes with how they engage with their core users. It just seems to be a carryover from the old days when premium games were few and far between, but now we're so spoiled for choice.

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carson
Posted 02:17pm 01/11/13

As did I eski.

Uplay is just... just so awful to use. I really wish they'd trash it and stick to Steam. I guess it's not as horrible as GWFL.

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TiT
Posted 02:35pm 01/11/13

I dont understand why these companies try to make there own "Steam" they only provide there own games on there is it really worth all the troubles? Wouldnt it be easier to throw all your titles on Steam? At least with Steam they wont have to worry about there system supporting Macs or Linux they just have to worry about the game (which is there task and fail on)

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ThunderBunny
Posted 06:05pm 01/11/13

UPlay made me rage so hard I wanted to punch a baby! FarCry 3 was installed for 3 days before I could even use it due to floods in Bundaberg knocking out all comms systems to north QLD. Couldnt even play SP due to its insistance on internet connection. Just because Ubi finally listened to its customers doesnt mean its next iteration of a product control mechanism isnt going to piss people off. However companies know (not just game publishers) if we want a product, we will buy it despite their ethics. And the EULA's remind us that we dont actually own what we pay for so we either suck it up or boycott. And that aint gonna happen.

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Whoop
Posted 06:26pm 01/11/13

Who is the person at Ubisoft coming up with these ideas? Do they not do any concept testing stuff at all? It is weird that such a large organisation can just make so many mistakes with how they engage with their core users. It just seems to be a carryover from the old days when premium games were few and far between, but now we're so spoiled for choice.

They just look at each other and say "how can we make yet more money, because users have previously bought our s*** no matter what"

If people stopped buying their games, maybe they would stop. You only have yourselves to blame.

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Dazhel
Posted 06:45pm 01/11/13

Kudos to Ubisoft for listening.

On the contrary, ubisoft don't deserve kudos for simply returning to the status quo in order to cool down complaints.
Shame on them for serving up such a customer hostile piece of s*** in the first place.

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Bah
Posted 07:59pm 01/11/13

I dont understand why these companies try to make there own "Steam"

http://www.ausgamers.com/news/read/3371896/valve-celebrates-10-years-of-steam-with-65-million-users-worldwide

No idea why any company would want that.

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Ha
Posted 08:13pm 01/11/13

No idea why any company would want that.

as a middle class citizen i want to go to sleep on a big bed of fine vaginas and wake up to breakfast in vaginas on tits. then i want the emperor of swaziland to dress me and his wife to give me a hand shandy before zipping up my fine versaci suit personally tailored to fit me by the heir to versaci him or herself. then i want my private jet to land in my immense backyard and open the boarding door next to the exit to my room which is a massive slide that does a loop-de-loop and everything. all contestants of miss universe are aboard and we're going to see how many new years celebrations we can actually catch.

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copuis
Posted 08:19pm 01/11/13

while steam does not doubt make mega coin, they have been far more giving to the gaming community as a whole than any other store, or company

think about it, what was the last nice thing that EA ever done, ubisoft, et al

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Jboy
Posted 08:47pm 01/11/13

Ubisoft should just drop the whole Uplay thing and stick to steam. It creates nothing but problems and frustration to the paying customer.

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Mordecai
Posted 08:50pm 01/11/13

Why bother with Steam at all? Go DRM free and don't make us use pieces of s*** software like it.

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carson
Posted 08:34am 02/11/13

DRM free is good. But, Ubi and others will always wanna cram their DRM down our throats. I consider Steam the best type of DRM there is. Considering I'm always connected to the net on my desktop and it's not intrusive and all my games are in one place with the ease of installing and everything else.

I guess I like having a big library and collection in one place too. Which is why I tend to only buy games on steam, and given the constant sales, waiting 6-8 months for a AAA game to go on sale doesn't bother me.

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copuis
Posted 09:23am 02/11/13

DRM is like any security, the more security the more impose, it is all about finding that happy middle ground

steam is like an unlock code on a mobile, easy use, and enough of a pain not to bother stealing most of the time

always on internet, and having to log in all the time etc, pain in the arse

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