Ubisoft reportedly deleting customer accounts with purchased games if they have been inactive for too long

They’re making the case for pirating games even better.

What fucking morons

"We certainly do not want you to lose access to your games or account"

So why do this? Corporate greed.

Huh. I've got some games on Ubisofts store.... Well, maybe not anymore.

You'll have to explain to me why I shouldn't just steal any future Ubisoft titles if they steal all mine first...

What happened to owning something you've paid for forever?

These companies need to realize if they keep fucking over their paying customer, it'll be more convenient for people to just pirate their product. At least FitGirl won't knock on my door and demand me to delete his repack off my hard disk just because I haven't visited his site in a while

It's like they want people to pirate their games.

Guess I'm no longer buying games by Ubisoft. I spend hundreds in their store and they're going to delete my account if I'm inactive to long? You can't be making this shit up.

And then they wonder why they can't compete with Steam and end up crawling back to Gabe for every game.

I've not been buying Ubisoft games since the sexual harassment scandal back in 2020, and this only reaffirms my choice not to buy anything from them. It's not just scummy, it's pointlessly scummy.

Admittedly, physical copies of games don't resolve this issue either: legally speaking when you own a physical disk, all you own is the disk itself- not the contents. The only way to actually fix this issue is better consumer protection laws.

Y'ARRR MATEYS!

One more company to add to my "Pirate Only" list

I just had a horrible experience with Assassins game purchased through Steam. I had bought the game few years back. Played some and stopped. And deleted my Ubisoft account. This week I downloaded the game again hoping to play it. I created a new Ubisoft account but the game wouldn’t launch.

Hours spent with the support got me nowhere. In summary, their response is that since the original Ubisoft account was linked to the purchase, they cannot now link the game to the new account.

I provided the Steam proof of purchase but that didn’t help.

Steam support didn’t help either.

I can’t play a game I purchased and own.

This should be illegal!

Well guess I won't be "renting" any games from them then. If I buy something it means I own it, in perpetuity. In fact I'm fairly certain Europe has laws against this, though Ubisoft will probably just have to pay a "fine" that is more a gentle slap on the wrist. We need to stop fining these companies, it does not stop them from breaking the law repeatedly. Stop arresting pirates, start arresting CEO's.

Fuck Ubisoft

Ha! I deleted my own account before they could, jokes on you Ubi!! Jokes aside, fuck ubisoft. I primarily buy games from GOG. Recommended everyone to do the same 🐖

This is why Steam got the lion's share. Ubisoft is mad disrespectful.

I really can't imagine that this complies with EU law.

Well that definitely won't get people to put on their pirate hats...

I logged into steam after like 10 years no problem.

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

Imagine buying something from these people after this.

Yes, sometimes I don't play a game for 5 years, but I bought and own it, and I know it'll be there when I come back to it.

....unless it's Ubisoft, then purchases aren't really purchases, and you don't have any right to expect your property to be there when you get back 🤦‍♀️

How long is "too long"? If I lose my Anno empires I will shit bricks

Permanently Deleted

Permanently Deleted

It's always ethical to pirate Ubisoft games

I've heard they are doing this to comply with things like GDPR. If that's the case, and they are deleting accounts to not be storing personal information longer than allowed, then before closing your account, they should email you an encrypted bundle of your data that you could later send back to them to restore your account. It wouldn't be against those laws if they send it to you to keep... and it would provide you with a path back to full restoration.

Why do so many people, usually children, think digital games are a good idea? Absolute scam, and it's only going to get worse. Next gen of consoles will probably be all digital. You will lose access to games for seemingly no reason, everything will be $70, no trading, no selling, and no one but the big guys making a dime from the sale.

Please shop at your local game stores, don't buy digital. You are not only ripping yourself off, but helping to enable a future where you don't even really own the games you buy. Look at ubisoft right now. You bought those games. You own them. They're literally stealing games just to try and force you to buy another copy.

Con artists.

Maybe related to these changes, maybe due to something else, I don't know, but a Ubisoft game I have installed through Steam (Far Cry New Dawn) stopped launching for me. I tried verifying game files through Steam (more than once), but that by itself didn't help. What worked however was uninstalling Ubisoft Connect, then verifying game files again through Steam (which sadly installs Ubisoft Connect again), then launching the game (which initiated a Ubisoft Connect update for me). Hope that helps someone.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/559218/could-gdpr-policy-erase-your-games-it-happened-to-an-ubisoft-customer.html

Yup. Fuck Ubisoft. The last game from them was Child of light, and it will stay that way.

This is kind of my biggest fear with all these digital games platforms. I have over 2100 games over most of the platforms, it just became so easy to finally be able to get all the games I grew up salivating over. What's to stop Valve or GOG suddenly "having" to make similar, or competely new changes of unbeknownst fuckery due to pressure from the spooky all-knowing investors?

Not surprised, coming from Ubisoft. Didn't they try taking down the DRM servers for some of their games, effectively making them impossible to use, until public outcry forced them to relent?

This is why I'm a big supporter of physical media if possible. Sure the actual game may not be on there or something because it's too big or whatnot, however with what the hell is going on with digital companies in the modern videogaming world, yeah no they simply just can not be trusted much with the amount of power they hold. This includes but not limited to: Ubisoft, Steam, EA, Epic Games, etc.

EDIT: Yeah GOG is fine apologies for that, however the well majority of games in the digital world are simply just licenses that these companies have control of.

Another reason to not buy digital games.

Makes me wonder, how much data does it take to hold every users account info and library details? Not the games themselves, no profile pictures or anything, just the data that they must have in order too know who owns what. That has to be a huge consideration when you build an online store, right?

Did they run out of space? Are they deleting "old" accounts to free up servers for the absolute flood of new Ubisoft accounts that they're massively inundated with every day?

But seriously, what would an actual real world reason be for needing to delete accounts after X amount of time?

If I liked their games, I'd be quite upset, I'm sure.

Sony did this to me I'd bought quite a few vita games digitally. Left it alone a few months and then saw an email where they said to keep the account log in now. Tried to log in but they'd already wiped it.

Not falling for digital again.

More garbage decisions from a garbage company

here I read they do not erase account like this. https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/help/account/article/closure-of-inactive-ubisoft-accounts/000079595 where is the truth?

EA's Origin closes your account after two years of inactivity since it exists, not sadly Ubisoft dose the same shit! :/

Don't buy games you don't own

I boycott ubisoft and EA. They can both go suck a lemon.

Sounds like a great way to get sued.

Thanks for the heads up, 10 year old account was almost gone, phew!

This proves why we need to regulate that digital or not, games we purchase are considered our property. Not at the mercy of deletion for zero reason. Otherwise, pirate away for all I care guys. If they treat us like this, fuck'em and their sales.

Does this apply to games purchased on steam as well? Bs

A part of me wants to start spreading a #PirateUbisoftGames hashtag.

...but another part of me doesn't want to bother because it's just Ubisoft games lol

lol

lmao

have some dlc there. had. no big deal, came with Assassin's Creed on PS3 I think. gave it to kids years ago. $20 maybe. got too old for games. can barely type

Good thing I was already boycotting Ubisoft for years.

Fuck Ubishit pirate their games

Ubisoft is a C tier developer/publisher who generally doesn't get my dollars, although they have had some one-off hits in the last decade (Wildlands, Riders Republic, Anno games). I couldn't be bothered to shell out $80 for the latest AC or Farcry copy and paste slog. Seems their servers are getting full. Doesn't really inspire confidence in them as a service provider.

They said if you receive an email, it's 30 days of no activity once you receive the email. Apparently it's being sent to people who have been inactive > 1 year.

This is just a shame

I don't have any games in my uplay account.. but I think they're still on Steam, thankfully.

People keep buying digital rentals. Just pirate the living shit out of them. Had to bring my hat back out cause all of this BS.

There are two publishers who have not received a penny from my household since around 2013: EA and Ubisoft. Every time I see an article about these two being baddies it just reaffirms my conclusion from over a decade ago. Never buy from these two publishers and you will live a happier existence.

Oh no! My Ubisoft games!

I've seen that it's only for accounts that are inactive and don't have any games. So it's a big nothing burger everyone ate.

So what? Can't sue them?

bad ubi

This is misleading and ragebait. They only delete old-ass accounts without purchased games, and this is a compliance thing with European laws.

How about no. Why do this in the first place? You guys are lucky your games suck ass or people would be REALLY mad.

I'd say I'd get down voted but no longer on Reddit.

Yes the practice sucks and I hate corporations they all suck and are greedy.

However if I bought a device that requires any kind of digital signature then it's kinda sane deal. I'm not condoning the action but if that business went bust after 10 years there's a chance the product will likely fail after that point.

Yes old games can and are playable decades after they were released but those unfortunately aren't the games we have now. Anything digital can basically stop working without access to it's creator.

10 + years is a long time. Are you up in arms when your phone craps out after 2 years ? Your car stops after 20 ? Your house after 30+ years needs upgraded. New wiring new carpets new roof.

Things degrade. Unless we have open source and a way to keep refreshing the code after new systems come into play.

I disagree with Ubisoft practice but I also understand that after a certain period of time things will no longer work. They won't make money maintaining something so obviously they will void it

Nothing has a lifetime guarantee

Ubisoft certainly is a dreadful company, and their actions further cement my concerns about the future of gaming as a whole. Here are a few reasons why:

1. They constantly push microtransactions and loot boxes in their games, even on single-player titles like "The Division" and "For Honor". This practice has been shown to be highly predatory towards players who may not have the financial means to support such practices. It's disheartening that Ubisoft continues to profit off of people's addictions and lack of funds.

2. Their customer service is notoriously terrible, with many users reporting wait times of hours or even days just to get a response to an issue. With how much money they make from their games, it's unacceptable that they don't have enough staff to handle customer queries in a timely manner.

3. They regularly implement always-online DRM measures, which can cause problems for players who have issues connecting to the server or experiencing other technical issues. This makes it difficult for some players to enjoy the full experience of the game they paid for.

4. They regularly delay or outright cancel planned expansions or DLC content, leaving fans high and dry without any resolution to the issues they were promised. This shows a blatant disregard for their customers and their investment in the game.

5. They have been known to use legal threats to silence criticism from consumers who voice their dissatisfaction with certain aspects of their games or business practices. This kind of behavior is unbecoming of a company that claims to prioritize the player experience.

Overall, Ubisoft's actions show a complete lack of regard for their customers and a willingness to exploit them at every turn. If this trend continues, it could spell the end for the gaming industry as we know it today. I hope that more people become aware of these practices so that we can work towards holding companies like Ubisoft accountable for their actions. In conclusion, Ubisoft is a terrible company that does not deserve our support or money. We should all boycott them until they change their ways and start treating their customers with respect and dignity. Let's make a difference and stand up against these predatory practices! Thank you for bringing this issue to light.