Yesterday, it was reported that Ubisoft would be removing access to Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD on Steam, starting 1 September 2022. The access removal even seemed to be for users who have already bought the game. Now, Steam announced on its page that current owners “will still be able to access, play or redownload” them—after outcry online.
Twitter users have reported that, on 11 July, the Steam page for Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD informed users that the game will no longer be available on the platform “at the request of the publisher”. Steam also noted that the title will “not be accessible following September 1 2022.”
To put salt in their users’ wounds, Twitter users noted that the game was “at -75% discount days ago on the Steam Summer sale“. On the Steam page, you can find that recent reviews of the game are “overwhelmingly negative” due to the sudden change.
“Great reason to never buy anything from Ubisoft ever again. The audacity to put it on sale too was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hilarious. Piracy for every Ubi game, my old friend, here I come,” wrote a reviewer.
“Wow, so I paid USD 20 for a game that I will not be able to play anymore,” said another reviewer.
Last week, Ubisoft announced that it was shutting down multiplayer and online services for 15 games on 1 September 2022—but they did not mention anything about the games being unavailable to play completely. The games affected are five Assassin’s Creed games, Far Cry 3, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and more.
Not too long after public outcry regarding the announcement, Ubisoft sent a statement:
“…only DLCs and online features will be affected by the upcoming decommissioning. Current owners of those games will still be able to access, play or redownload them. Our teams are working with our partners to update this information across all storefronts and are also assessing all available options for players who will be impacted when these games’ online services are decommissioned on September 1st, 2022. It has always been our intention to do everything in our power to allow those legacy titles to remain available in the best possible conditions for players, and this is what we are working towards,” said Ubisoft.
Right now on Steam, the announcement now reads, “DLC for this product and online elemets and features will become unavailable as of September 1 2022. The base game will continue to be playable.” You’re also still able to purchase the game.
We don’t know why Ubisoft has chosen to make the decision initially. I just know that a lot of Assassin’s Creed fans aren’t happy.
