Ubisoft takes NCIS, old Assassin's Creed games offline in January
With 2024 getting closer, Ubisoft has unveiled a list of games that'll soon lose online services. Come January 25, 2024, 10 of its older games will no longer have their functioning online modes, such as multiplayer or leaderboards. However, they'll still be playable for those who've previously purchased them.
This will mark the first string of games taken offline in 2024, and for Ubisoft, comes over a year after decommissioning a large string of its older titles. 2023 has been absent of any shut down services from the French developer.
Xbox 360 versions of Assassin's Creed II, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Assassin's Creed Liberation HD (and its PlayStation 3 counterpart) will lose online service. For the Xbox versions, those games' online functions have been kept alive thanks to the backwards compatibility of the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
The 360 and PS3 introduced multiplayer into the Assassin's Creed franchise. Assassin's Creed Unity, which will be a decade old next year, was the last mainline installment to include it.
Unless any of those titles become digital store bestsellers before January 25, that part of the series' history (and the same for Conviction) will be lost on that date.
PC-wise, the Mac version of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will have its functions shut down, as will NCIS and Trials Evolution.
Ubisoft tends to give a warning well in advance before removing its titles' online functions (or just delisting them entirely). As small a list this currently is, it's likely there'll be more games added to the list and spread throughout the year.
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