Ubisoft says some games listed as taken offline were errors

Correction: Ubisoft says that many of the titles listed in the support article posted last week and linked below were taken offline in April 2021, and that other games were taken offline for maintenance, but have since been restored. The publisher’s full clarifying statement follows:

Last week, some of our games (Anno 2070, Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed 3, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Driver San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Silent Hunter 5 and Splinter Cell Blacklist) were taken offline for a short maintenance and services have been restored. We will provide advance notice before shutting down any online services for our games and have updated our support article to reflect this.

Original story: Ubisoft has ceased offering online services for dozens of its games. As of April 21, 90 legacy games from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era will no longer have online multiplayer or in-game news and statistics. Some impacted franchises include Just Dance, Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Splinter Cell. Ubisoft announced the change on the company’s website.

Offline play will continue to be available for the affected games. The post from Ubisoft said that the changes also disabled unlockable content like skins and maps in the games. Unlockable content for those who own the console version of games will continue to be playable unless the player resets a save file. But oddly enough, Windows PC players will no longer get access to this content, “even if it has been redeemed previously.”

The full list of impacted titles can be found on Ubisoft’s website. The majority of the games are pretty old, and in some cases, are on defunct platforms like the cloud gaming service OnLive. Some classic titles like Assassin’s Creed 2 will no longer have online functionality, but also have newer remastered versions. Other notable titles include Far Cry and Far Cry 2 for Windows PC as well as Rainbow Six Vegas and Rainbow Six Vegas 2.