An Assassin’s Creed Game Is Being Shut Down
The Assassin's Creed franchise is one of Ubisoft's crowning jewels, but even that cannot save it from being shut down.
As part of their game decommissioning strategy, per which the French game maker Ubisoft decided to remove several gaming titles for Steam, the company also decided to pull shut down 2012’s Assassin’s Creed: Liberation. The company stated that those who have already purchased the game would still retain access and download privilege but lose access to DLCs and online play.
According to IGN, Ubisoft announced that it would be removing Assassin’s Creed: Liberation from Steam sales only days after the game was offered on Steam for 75% off. This initially angered the fans who bought the game, prompting Ubisoft to issue a clarifying statement, saying that the game will still be accessible, playable, and downloadable on Steam for players who had previously bought the game. However, as per our previous report, Ubisoft is decommissioning the game and shutting down its support of any multiplayer gaming modes.
This is a somewhat reasonable action, considering that Assassin’s Creed: Liberation is turning 10 in less than two months. And while the company plans to make legacy titles accessible to gamers who bought them, spending resources on multiplayer modes of 10-year-old gaming titles that are barely played nowadays seems like a bad business decision. Instead, those resources would be better spent on current, actively played gaming titles, like Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Extraction, or perhaps on finally finishing the indefinitely postponed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake.
With that said, Assassin’s Creed: Liberation isn’t the only game being decommissioned; Ubisoft is decommissioning a total of 15 titles, nearly all of which are a decade old or older. The only exceptions are 2019’s Space Junkies (a VR arcade shooter) and 2013’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Other decommissioned titles include five Assassin’s Creed titles, a 2012 re-release of Far Cry 3 — absolutely the best game of the series — and 2010’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.
There might be an issue with the latter title (PoP) since the game’s CD Key, necessary for verifying the game, is deployed via Steam as a DLC. Why Ubisoft or Steam have decided on such deployment methods is beyond us, but the company’s removal of DLC support may pose an issue for those who own the game. Not to mention that a whole plethora of Ubisoft’s games require an online connection to the company’s servers in order to run. So, if the company is shutting down its support, how are gamers supposed to play titles like The Forgotten Sands or Assassin’s Creed: Liberation?
Well, that certainly sounds like a Ubisoft problem, and the company probably has a solution. Considering the public outcry at the initial, albeit only partially true report, gamers worldwide would be very upset if they couldn’t access the same gaming titles they previously bought? In the case of Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, the game will remain available for purchase on Steam as part of the Assassin’s Creed III bundle pack, but it’s only a matter of time before Ubisoft pulls the plug on those titles as well.
