Ubisoft+ is heading to Xbox - and here's how it plans to compete with Game Pass

gamesindustry.biz:

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

Ubisoft+ is now available on Xbox consoles, marking a significant expansion in the Assassin's Creed publisher's plans for its previously PC-only service.

Ubisoft+ first launched on PC as Uplay+ in 2019. It later rebranded as it debuted on cloud gaming services Stadia (although this is now defunct) and Amazon Luna via the Ubisoft+ Multi-Access tier, which is now on Xbox.

The standard $14.99 subscription grants you access to the full library on PC, while the $17.99 Multi-Access allows subscribers to play selected titles across PC, Luna, Xbox and later PlayStation, even carrying over their sessions between platforms.

While Xbox itself has made a lot of noise around its Game Pass subscription over the past six years, Ubisoft has been comparatively low-key with its efforts. But Ubisoft+ director Philippe Tremblay tells GamesIndustry.biz the publisher sees the rise of subscriptions as an important change in the game market, and one that opens up a key opportunity for Ubisoft.

"We want to reach a new population of gamers and people that may not have a chance to play our games yet," he says. "We definitely see subscription as a way to do that. The expansion of the platform going to Xbox today is one more way of making our games accessible."

Tremblay sees the Multi-Access tier as "quite unique on the market, at least in the video gaming world." When asked why the publisher did not seek to bundle Ubisoft+ in with Xbox Game Pass – as rival Electronic Arts has done with EA Play – he points to the investment made into the Ubisoft Connect system, especially when enabling cross-progression.

It's understandable that Ubisoft would also want to establish its