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Games @lemmy.world

technomad @slrpnk.net

1y ago

Fuck Ubisoft.

I was pretty hyped for the new prince of persia game (the lost crown), but come to find out it's only available on ubisoft's proprietary launcher or epic games. Nope, and nope.

I just want to have it available on my usual storefront, Steam, but it's been decidedly omitted. As a long time fan of the old games, this kind of hurts. Especially since many of the others -are- available on Steam.

I wonder if/when it will come out for Steam. These platform exclusivity deals need to die.

Edit: It's also available on several consoles, my post was just from a pc gamer's perspective.

161 comments

- — A man that put his VR game exclusively on his own digital distribution platform.
  
  On their own game engine.
  Built to showcase their specific VR hardware. That they built after getting burned from multiple VR companies who abused Valves good will of providing access to their patent protected VR tech for free, to help accelerate the VR industry.
  
  ...a platform that works much better than the others... and a game that has been made with more love than anything in the past half a decade
  
  You are fully justified to put your own developed stuff where youwant to.
  On this one point I side with Ubisoft.

I've been boycotting Ubisoft for years, haven't missed a damn thing.
- I’ve been boycotting Ubisoft for years, haven’t missed a damn thing.
  Yeah, there are so many great games by non-shitty developers. Skipping Ubisoft, EA, and Activision entirely is not only possible but there are more great games left than one can play anyway.
  
  Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at with gaming now. Why settle for a subpar experience? I don't have the time or finances for that.
- Yeah, they're a pretty shitty company. Weren't they one of the first companies to implement always-on DRM?
  
  Yeah, I think it was in Assassin's Creed 2. At the time, people were unable to play the single player game they bought at launch because Ubisoft shitty authentication service couldn't handle the load.
  Guess who didn't have that problem...

You can be sure that even the Epic version will still require the Ubisoft launcher. That is how all of my Steam purchased Ubisoft games are with the exception of the first Assassin's Creed which predated the Ubisoft launcher. All of the others require it regardless of how I bought it.
I'm going to wait for at least two or more years after release for the new Prince of Persia. My days of paying full price for Ubisoft's games are over and recent statements from the CEO make me reluctant to ever buy their games again.
- I tried playing the original AC games recently. They went back and integrated the launcher for those too smh

- Yep. Gog is probably where we should all be getting our games tbf. Being mad that a game is available on one drm store instead of another drm store is kind of silly. In either case we’re only buying the license and not actually owning anything.

Of all the shit Ubisoft does, not selling on steam is the dealbreaker? Alright.
- Lol right? Why is steam the only acceptable DRM?
  
  Why is steam the only acceptable DRM?
  Because it's optional and if opted in, works offline.
  
  As a linux gamer, a game that is not available on Steam is a game i won't even bother checking. I can easily run non-steam game using lutris or heroic-game-launcher but I prefer to stick to my walled garden than step in their's.
- No, they should definitely be accountable for all the other shitty things too. This is just a game I was actually kind of excited for, hence why I'm upset about it.

Me in 2004: Yeah I’ll never play Half-Life 2 because I hate that it comes with a mandatory useless piece of software. « Steam », what the hell is that? Full of DRMs, ugly, bugged to the core, eating up my precious RAM.
- There are valid concerns but there are benefits to using one game manager. There's nothing good about having to install a bunch of them because every other game is in a different store.
  It still would be best if games came DRM-free and all of them were compatible with whatever game manager someone chooses, but a lot of them aren't, especially from big publishers.
  
  « There are benefits in using one game manager »
  That is very true, and that’s why your game manager software shouldn’t be tied to any storefront or online service.

YAR HAR FIDDLE DE DE YOU DO WHAT YOU WANT BECAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE.
- Unless Denuvo!

I know of at least one other place it is available, and they have it for the cheapest price 😈
- Wrong. I know a place that will pay you to download it, if you're willing to first disable Windows Defender.
  
  Don't they also offer a great discount if you pay within 12 hours to unlock your personal files? I'm in!

It's definitely convenient to have everything in once place, and Steam has way more features, but it's good to avoid Steam becoming too monopolistic. We saw recently how badly that can go with reddit.
Despite the widespread worshipping of Steam and GabeN, I've had lots of issues with Steam and Valve over the years.
- Convince other companies to be not shit competition then. Steam has its near monopoly because its competition is dogshit
  
  No, Steam gained its near monopoly through anti-consumer practices as well: being mandatory for playing Valve games, even offline, as soon as 2004; being DRM-ridden; locking consumers out of their right to sell their games on second-hand market; still enforcing an old revenue share system that’s hurting devs; or putting micro-transactions everywhere with their collectible system that you can’t really disable at all. Just to name a few.
  Steam is not better than others. You’re just used to its flaws.
- Avoid it in favor of GoG. Ubisoft can't be trusted with a single drop of goodwill. As we can see by how they inject their clunky garbage manager even in games they sell through other stores.

Cue the BUT STEAMS MONOPOLY idiots that completely ignore that Valve does nothing to stop anyone from competing with them, its just that anyone who has tried (outside GOG) has only produced anti consumer garbage
- DRM is never good for the end user.
  
  Steams DRM is a VERY REASONABLE compromise between the interests of the devs and the consumer not wanting to be unfairly punished/annoyed. Steams DRM has literally NEVER caused me a headache aside from ONCE when steam was super new, its a non issue at this point
  
  Who downvoted this?
- I would agree with you, but Steam is also anti consumer garbage.

Ubisoft is shit, most of their games are.
The moment I heard the new Prince of Persia had Denuvo, I wasn’t going to play it anyway.
- Yep, double shitty. Makes me want to start sailing. 🏴‍☠️
  
  If it’s denuvoed you’ll have to wait for the crazy bigot Empress to crack it. Could be a while.
- The moment I heard the new Prince of Persia had Denuvo, I wasn’t going to play it anyway.
  It mandates a Ubisoft account everywhere anyway. Apparently on Switch in airplane more is the only way to circumvent this.
  
  According to the DF review vídeo the account is required on PS/Xbox unless you're offline, but entirely optional on the Switch.
  It's discussed around 15min into the video.
  
  I try the switch demo, you presses back multiple time, it skip the ubishit login.

https://fitgirl-repacks.site/prince-of-persia-the-lost-crown-switch/
- Well fuck I should just put it on my switch. Oh well I got $20 off on QVC and I like Prince of Persia so I don't mind pumping sales figures for it.
  Idk when it'll get here though so maybe I still will 😂

I don't know how they all manage to do it but EA, Ubisoft, and Rockstar are all my most hated companies of all time. They can make some good stuff, but I just absolutely hate how they all force people to jump through so much hoops just to play the games you pay them for.
They force you to make accounts with them and use their stupid launchers which never work properly and are just advertisements. There have been so many times I just wanted to play a game and then forgot my password to the account and got locked out or the launcher needed an update and I had to wait like 20 minutes.
Fuck all large game corporations.

Well, guess I'm going to pirate it.
- They count that. You have to not even steal it for them to realize they fucked up.

Steam or GoG
Anything else is too much pain.

Ubisoft make it pretty easy for me. I don't have to worry about any of this, because none of their recent titles have been worth spending your money, let alone time on

Was the same with every platform. Enshittification does not care about you

Pirate it
- That's probably the best option. Considering how a Ubisoft exec said we should be "comfortable not owning games", I wouldn't trust anything purchased from them anymore.

Ubisoft makes games for 13 year old mountain dew addicts
- Drink verification can to continue

well also you might wanna look into pirating their titles (even if you do 'own' them), as they have made it clear they dont want you to have any control over the games you buy, like access to them in the future. So say the epic steam thing goes belly up, epic closes, ubi will not see a reason to give you access on their service or steam if they move their games there.

Most games appear on STEAM as well, some time (like 1 year) later. And they appear in much better shape with all patching and all.

Maybe it runs on a switch emulator. 😏
- I heard from a "friend" that it runs very well on a Switch emulator on a Steam Deck. Some pre-rendered cutscenes are janky. It has a pretty cool system where you can take a screenshot that will pin to the map to indicate places you need to find back to once you unlock a new ability, and sometimes those don't render right either. But otherwise, gameplay is flawless. Or so I've heard.
  
  I've heard this as well I've heard it works well on the steam deck too
- I reckon some sort of physically active girl already has it but packaged and released with a switch emulator so you can just go play it.
- Hope so.

I’ve generally stopped buying Ubisoft games not because I don’t want to, but because of an issue with my Connect account. I think I had let my PS3 set one up for me back in the AC2 days with an email that is now long defunct (I deleted it after an acquisition that put my privacy at risk).
Now they want me to verify that email so much that some games have actually refused to let me play. I contacted their “support” to request the option to update my email, proving that the registered email is inactive and that I am in complete control of the linked PlayStation account, but they pretty much told me to kindly F off because they care too much about my privacy (lol).
I like some Ubisoft games, I just don’t have confidence spending money on anything they publish when I don’t know which ones might preemptively lock me out.
I figure I’ll just replace the account entirely at some point, but only when there’s a game I absolutely think would be worth the hassle. It just sucks to see my OG account end up trashed over such a dumb reason.
- i stopped buying ubisoft games when i noticed every single one of them just follows the same path of mediocrity. There is some story, you follow it and along the way there is some busywork like collecting pointless things. If there ever are new ideas its like something wished with monkey's paw and its ultimately just more same old shit in new wrappings.
  
  Yeah I get it, but I don’t really mind that sort of stuff. You know what to do, it’s only mildly challenging, traversal is kind of fun. For me it’s relaxing.
  I can’t stand rogue-likes or arena style multiplayer games, so I never touch any of that.

Genuine curiosity, why does it matter which platform it comes out on? Asking from a comlnsole-only point of view. I only game on PS5, so I'll never get to play Xbox-only games. But if you're on a PC, you can just get the other platform?
- Too many launchers nowadays. It's becoming like movies and tv streaming services.
  
  It's inconvenient for sure, but monopolies are worse.
- If it was only on their launcher I wouldnt care. Its the little exclusivity deal on epic that annoys me.
  Its one thing to only sell your stuff on your own personal store. Thats fine, whatever. But to create fake exclusivity on pc? Nah fuck off dude, especially from ubisoft
  
  It's "exclusive" on a different free platform that doesn't have any extra requirements. Sure, it's worse than steam in some ways but choosing not to play the game because it's only on Epic is pretty dumb, honestly.

I'm sure the last few Ubisoft games I got from Steam all installed UPlay before letting me run them anyway...
I'm not buying it because £45 is not a budget price for what feels like an indie game experience. I can wait for a sale on that, or more likely for it to go to PSN Extra. Still got plenty on my backlog.

I wonder if/when it will come out for Steam.
Wait for year or two. It sucks.

I haven't bought a Ubisoft game since Farcry 3 when a friend invited me to join an online game (which is something I very rarely had the opportunity to do) but the game wouldn't let me play because I didn't have that subcription thing they had. I tried using the free signup code that came with the game, but my brother already used it. So yeah, I have a personal grudge against that shitty company.
Also, I hate what they did to the Rainbow Six franchise. The original games (by Red Storm, I think?) are what those games should've been.

It will be because of the "First Run" deal that Epic offers, so you'll get to play in 6 months. I don't blame the studio for doing it though but it's not ideal for some.

- 🤣 yeah it kind of does. I like platformers and metroidvanias though, and I have fond memories of several previous entries to the series. That is the appeal for me. The game's got good reviews, it's nice to see the series actually getting some stuff right this time, especially because the last entry was such a disappointment for me.

https://youtu.be/DfYknJqkxo?si=rM4jFpUzPk4OdX6S
- What an incredible and numerous combination of harmonies. Excellent share, thank you.

Had this epiphany with the new Ass Creed. It launched on steam, but after buying it still has a second front end Ubisoft launcher. Thats just straught up lying to me about what im purchasing. I dont want Ubi Spyware. Period.

I don't hate the idea of exclusive games because they kind of bring more competitions. But I also couldn't give too much fucks because Ubisoft games suck anyway.

"I'm mad because they are in the walled garden that is not my walled garden."
- None of these are walled gardens really. That term applies to platforms (iOS) that restrict the user.
  Steam and Epic are just stores. The DRM part isn’t even required (for Steam at least).
  
  Based.

You're missing out on a fucking great game.
- Not at all, the cracked copy from fitgirl works just fine, for those who can't be bothered to succumb to ubisoft DRM.

What video game worth playing isn't on a proprietary platform?
- I've been playing Starsector lately, that's been pretty fun. Native Linux version too. No launcher required
- Software Inc has drm free options

Lol as someone else put it, it's silly to complain that you won't buy a game because it doesn't use the marketplace you want to use.
Steam is just one marketplace and it needs competition. One day it's going to go through enshittification and when that happens you'll be thankful other marketplaces exist.
Sometimes I honestly wonder why PC gamers get so riled up over inconsequential things.
- Convenience, the whole reason piracy took a backseat for a few years. Inconvenient? Hit the seas.
  
  I've never found it more convenient to use Steam or another store over piracy so it doesn't make much difference to many.
  Some of the games I do own on Steam now don't work either, so it's not like it's an amazing store.
  But if it's inconvenient to download a different client just to buy a game then you're just lazy. It's not like you have to subscribe to it, it's just a click and 5 minute wait.
- Not even close... no one is complaining that it's on other stores, the problem is that it isn't on steam and even if there was, it still requires you to install their own garbage client. Quite literally the opposite.
  
  Who cares if it is on Steam or not though?
  If everything was on everything then sure, that would be great. But that's not realistic, and having this alternative where everything is on Steam but not elsewhere is not a good solution for that because Steam will be shit one day, and already has quite a few shitty issues.
  Honestly, people have this ridiculous view of PC gaming and Steam sometimes. Look around the world and show me where having one company having a massive hold over that sector has ever worked out well long term for consumers.
- I tend to agree.
  Every storefront is DRM, some better than others, and people shouldn't get so tied to a specific one. PC gaming is so open and getting angry at this is pointless.

I never understood this one. All of those platforms, be it steam, epic,. Ubisofts defunct thing or EAs even more defunct thing, are embedded browsers with a more or less obnoxious skin we all use almost exclusively to click "buy now". All of them are overloaded with crappy, half-baked "features" nobody gives a flying toss about.
So why the heck do so many people spend the limited energy they have available to live their lives on "boycotts" and endless rants about how a game not on steam is basically unplayable for some reason.
If this game would bring you joy (which I doubt since it's Ubisoft we are talking about, but that's another matter), why deny yourself that joy because the launcher you interact with for literally less than a minute is shittier than your usual one?
If the launcher itself was of any importance to you, you'd use playnite or something and just be done with it all.
Don't whip this up to some exclusivity debate. It's not. Imagine if this was some tangible product. Would you really not buy the thing you'd really like to have just because it's sold at a store where the shelves are crap? Because that's essentially what you're doing.
- Because ”vote with your wallets”.
  Why support a dodgy business over one of the best for consumers?
- For me, I prefer Steam because of Steam Link, which allows me to play Steam games remotely on my phone.
  
  Steam link doesn’t work for external games added into your steam library? I’m new to steam in general, but it seems weird that they’d let you add a game and not use them with link.
  
  "prefering" steam is completely understandable. Boycotting a game and being disappointed and angry because it's not on steam isn't. To me at least. Regarding steam link: if you have an Nvidia graphics card, check out Moonlight!
- I'm on Linux and Valve and Itch are the only ones with first class Linux support. Everyone else you have to dick around with running their launchers through wine or lose features.
- I don't mind that epic, etc. exist; I mind the exclusives. When Epic first launched, they didn't have payment processors in a number of countries so there was literally no way to legally play the games for people; that's super shitty.
- This "debate" has been going on for ages now. They don't actually mind exclusivity. They're just mad it's not on the launcher they use. None of them care when it's exclusively on Steam.
  
  Steam doesn't pay or force developers to be exclusive. And it offers benefits and features Ubisoft launcher doesn't.
  
  It's so unbelievably pointless! Why the fuck should I care about the damn launcher?

it's only available on ubisoft's proprietary launcher
I just want to have it available on my usual storefront, Steam
The fucking irony.

So, Steam exclusivity is fine, but other stores exclusivity isn't?
- I'm not taking a side in the debate of Steam vs others but has Steam ever negotiated an exclusivity deal of a 3rd party game?
- Did he say it should be STEAM exclusive?
- I think a million times people discussed this and ubi and epic store clients are far inferior compared to steam. People have all the rights to not want their game collection spread across half a dozen platforms.
  I personally don't buy anything Ubisoft mainly because their launcher is pure garbage and I hate it with passion.
  Steam made me stop pirating games, Epic and Ubi made me overcome my FOMO and be a patient gamer.
- Gog exclusivity would be cool, epic not so much.
- Wrong. I never said I wanted it to be exclusive on Steam, I just want it to be available on there as well.
  Why is Steam pretty much the only one it's not available on? The fact that it's on so many other platforms just makes this exclusion even more illogical.
  
  Definitely greed, Ubisoft did the same thing in 2019 because they didn't want to pay Steams 30% cut.

Is this a troll post? Who cares in which store it's available, just get a physical copy.
Steam shills are really mind boggling.
- Most PC games nowadays do not have physical releases.
- Is this a troll comment? You seemed to have missed the point of the post.
  PC gamers love PC gaming because it's more open and you're not locked into a certain ecosystem. Ubisoft artificially limiting their online release to two launchers (both known for being poor quality/buggy/feature lacking) is frustrating. Buying a hard copy might be possible, but Ubisoft did this on purpose to squeeze out a little extra profit. It shows they're more than happy to put profits over customers. A customer being annoyed this release excludes their preferred launcher doesn't make anyone a shill.
  
  It's just another software it's not like you have to buy separate hardware for it.

161 comments