Ubisoft titles pulled from Steam may lock out players who bought them

Update, July 12, 2022: Ubisoft has clarified that players who have purchased the affected titles will not lose access to those games.

In a statment shared with IGN, the publisher said: "As stated in our support article, 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."

Original Story, June 11, 2022: Ubisoft delisting of Assassin's Creed Liberation HD and Silent Hunter 5 from Steam may render them unplayable -- even for players who own them already.

As reported by PC Gamer, this follows announcements last week that the company would decommission online services in some of its older games from September, including Assassin's Creed Liberation and Silent Hunter 5.

For both titles, in addition to online features being turned off, it also means that "the installation and access to DLC will be unavailable," Ubisoft said at the time.

Since then, AC Liberation HD and Silent Hunter have been pulled from sale on Steam, with the following message appearing on the page: "At the request of the publisher, [this game] is no longer available for sale on Steam."

It further reads: "Please note this title will not be accessible following September 1st, 2022," meaning that even players who previously purchased the game won't be able to play it from that date.

Since then, both titles have been subjected to review bombing and players across social media have been voicing their concern around digital ownership.

Ubisoft replied to the controversy in a statement sent to VG247, saying: "We don't take the decision to retire services for older Ubisoft games lightly, and our teams are currently assessing all available options for players who will be impacted when these games' online services are decommissioned on September 1st, 2022."

The spokesperson continued: "We are also working with our partners to update this information across all storefronts, so players will be fully informed about the removal of online services at the point of purchase as well as via our support article where we shared the news."

Ubisoft also said last week it'd decommission online services for Space Junkies -- as a multiplayer only title, that means that the game will be retired entirely from September. It has already been removed from Steam as well.

Additional reporting by James Batchelor