Ubisoft Brings Changes To Its Ubisoft+ Subscription
Jakob Aylesbury / 10 months ago
Ubisoft+ is a subscription service like many other that offers you access to many Ubisoft titles from Day One all for a fee. Recently Ubisoft introduced some changes to this service with two subscription options, Ubisoft+ Premium and Ubisoft+ Classics on PC.
Ubisoft+ Changes
Starting off with Ubisoft+ Premium which as the name suggests, is top tiered subscription. This subscription will offer day-one access to new releases as well as in some cases early access which include the premium editions of games as well as monthly rewards and much more. Ubisoft+ Premium comes for a fee of $17.99 a month and sits on top of the extensive back catalogue which is offered with the lesser tier, Ubisoft+ Classics. This tier for $7.99 a month offers users access to a curated selection of Ubisoft’s most popular back catalogue games such as Far Cry 6, Rainbow Six Siege and Watch Dogs: Legion though unfortunately not The Crew which will join the many games lost to time from March 2023.
Another thing worth noting about the changes comes from the Activision Blizzard Acquisition. One of the requirements of the deal was for the cloud streaming rights of Activision titles to be sold to Ubisoft meaning that these titles will eventually end up on this subscription. Currently there is no news on when this is but more will be shared later on.
Controversy
Alongside these updates there is some controversy which has stirred up gamers who value actually owning their games. A recent interview was conducted by gamesindustry.biz with Philippe Tremblay, Ubisoft’s Director of Subscriptions who claimed gamers need to begin “feeling comfortable with not owning your game.” Now we’re all aware of how we don’t own digital games so his point, as harsh and corporate as it sounds, does sort of make sense. With a mostly digital future, a subscription does make you are aware of when you will lose access to the game rather than suddenly bam its gone. Games will still vanish from subscription services but at least you weren’t under any impression of actually owning it .
Now I don’t exactly agree with Philippe Tremblay but I do see where he is coming from here, which is making money on subscriptions. We’ll never really own our games so unless you’re someone who likes to sail the seven seas, we’re just going to have to sit back and pay our monthly subscriptions and even if we don’t, they’ll jack up the triple A prices to £100+
If game pass is any indicator, I don’t mind paying the £7.99 to play and complete a specific game within a month as opposed to paying the full £59.99. I’m really not sure where to stand on the subscription model, let us know your thoughts.