Ubisoft is shutting down online services for several older single-player games, including Anno 2070, Far Cry 3, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. For several of these games, according to a Ubisoft support page, this means that as of September 1, “installation and access to DLC will no longer be available”.
There are a total of 15 games whose online features will be “shut down”, eleven of them on the PC. Turning off online features means players will no longer be able to play these games in competitive multiplayer or cooperative modes if they have them, or in some cases use in-game rewards, stats, or messaging services. Single player modes should remain available.
The PC games losing online features on September 1st are:
- Ann 2070
- Assassin’s Creed 2
- Assassin’s Creed 3 (original release; remaster unaffected)
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
- Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD
- Driver San Francisco
- Far Cry 3 (original release; remaster unaffected)
- Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands
- Silent Hunter 5
- space junkies
- Splinter Cell: Blacklist
From this selection, Space Junkies is the latest. It is a purely multiplayer VR game that launched in 2019 and will be completely unplayable after September 1st. Space Junkies remains on sale on Steam with a 75% discount for the duration of the Steam Summer Sale.
Of the remaining games, Assassin’s Creed 3, Brotherhood, Liberation HD, Driver San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Silent Hunter 5 all have DLC that appears to be unable to install or access after the shutdown. This seems to mean people can’t access products they paid for and I’ve reached out to Ubisoft for more details and will update this post if they respond.
“Closure of online services for some older Games allow us to focus resources focused on providing great experiences for players playing newer or more popular titles,” reads Ubisoft’s main list of games with unavailable online features (emphasis added). thoughtfulness our player base, including the interest they still have in the game.”
All of the above games were mistakenly included in this main list of retired games earlier this year, seemingly by accident. Ubisoft said they would offer a heads up before actually disabling online features in these games and this message is that warning.