Ubisoft pauses 'decommissioning' of old games, reverses course on DLC deactivation
Ubisoft's shambolic "decommissioning(opens in new tab)" of more than a dozen older games took an unexpected turn today with a surprise announcement that the process—well, most of it—has been delayed to give people one final chance to snag the content that's going away.
The whole thing began in early July when Ubisoft announced that the online features of some older games—including one-time biggies like Far Cry 3, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and a bunch of Assassin's Creeds—were being shut down, so Ubisoft could «focus [its] resources on delivering great experiences for players who are playing newer or more popular titles.»
Reasonable enough, I suppose, except that the shutdown meant the loss of access to DLC for the impacted games. There was also an implication that at least two of the games on the chopping block—Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD and Silent Hunter 5—would be rendered unplayable even for current owners, although Ubisoft quickly clarified(opens in new tab) that this would not be the case.
Adding fuel to the fires of confusion, Ubisoft Mainz basically said «nope» and went to work upgrading Anno 2070's online services infrastructure(opens in new tab) so people could keep on playing even after Ubisoft pulled the plug.
It was not the smoothest road to shutdown ever, in other words, and today Ubisoft acknowledged the botch with word that it's putting the planned closures on hold for a month(opens in new tab).
«Decommissioning online services for older games is something we don't take lightly, but it's also a necessity as the technology that drove those services becomes obsolete,» Ubisoft said. «We want our players to enjoy optimal gameplay experiences without things breaking, potentially subjecting
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