Ubisoft has apparently pulled AC:Unity, Far Cry 4 and The Crew from Steam. They are still offering these game son their own platform U-play as well as on EA’s platform: Origin.
This just happened last night, super suddenly and no one has commented on it yet.
I wonder if Ubi and EA are going to team up and try and take on Steam, or if this is going to be yet another client that we PC gamers will have to endure…
Supposedly, Ubisoft said last night that pulling from ALL Steam stores was in error and they were only pulling from Steam UK due to a pricing conflict they couldn’t resolve with Valve.
But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ubisoft go solo at some point. Sort of like major studios deciding they don’t need Netflix, it could be that Ubisoft will decide that its franchises are solid enough to bring the customers to them on their own terms. Or at least use the leverage to negotiate better terms with Valve/Steam.
As for “another client”, even (recent) Ubisoft games bought through Steam used a version of Uplay so you were going to endure it one way or the other.
True… God damn it Ubi!
… and the store pages are back up on Steam. Looks like this was an error. Well, that’s good news 
I’m glad that they’re back up, but I really with Ubisoft would give up on UPlay. I hate their client and I hate having to have multiple things just to play.
Already the case, mate. Launch AC:Black Flag or *Might & Magic X *on Steam, it just boots up Ubi’s annoying fucking platform. And then you can actually boot your game from there.
[QUOTE=RandMcnally]
I’m glad that they’re back up, but I really with Ubisoft would give up on UPlay. I hate their client and I hate having to have multiple things just to play.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, well, I guess programmers hate having to regularly work 72h weeks too ; but at EA they ain’t going away. They’ll keep UPlay up as long as we put up with that shit, and we always will because we’re weak, craven consumer whores who just wanna play some *Might & Magic X *for old time’s sake :o
False. I am making a stand. If I can’t click play in steam and have the game launch I ain’t playing it. I might allow a 1-2 click leeway if it seamlessly brings up a window with another play button in need of pressing, but that’s it. And my boycott of origin is going strong as ever. If being a “craven consumer whore” bothers you, join me!
Thing is, before you can know this, you perforce must have bought it. I had no idea* MM X *would behave thus, naively assuming that such a superniche game would perforce be immune and unconnected to The Bullshit. My salad days, when I was green in judgement, cold in blood…
And seeing as you bought it, why should they care if you’re then not playing it ?
Besides, I’m not all that bothered by my being a craven consumer whore. I’m just self-aware. Daddy *needs *his Assassins in 1789 Paris fix. If Daddy has to eat a steaming bowl of shit first, weeell, shit’s not so bad, it’s organic if you think about it ; and a bowl ain’t that big and…
I am with you 100%. Whatever it is that you are planning not to buy, I will not buy it either! 
It’s a business decision. Steam takes a 30% cut from their sales, a little below the industry standard. If Origin or Uplay get the sales, they get to keep 100%.
Most publishers of course get a lot of money from having exposure on steam, the biggest platform, which generates more revenue for them than if they only had them available on their own platform. But some publishers are big enough that they think they’ve got enough of a lineup to attract people to their platform just for their games. EA made that bet with Origin, and they’ve stopped their games being available on Steam, at least at first. They figure in the long term, the extra revenue from bringing people to their own platform is worth it. I suspect they’re taking substantial losses so far, but they hope it’ll work out in the long term.
This is bad for the consumer. There’s less competition if each site hosts their games exclusively than if people chose the best service based on the quality of that service, and not the exclusive games lineup. It’s a trend I personally haven’t fed into much - I do own a few EA games on origin, but I’d own a lot more if they were still on steam. At least in my case, the extra money they get from my rare origin purchases doesn’t nearly offset what they’re losing by not letting me buy their games on steam.
Is Steams cut really that big? You’d think if that were true Ubisoft could attract people to Uplay just by offering a 15% discount under the Steam price. They’d still make more money and I think consumers would be a lot more interested in the there service if it meant they could save money on their games.
That’s actually a little below the industry average. Stuff like itunes takes 40% I think. It’s still far better than what retail can offer to a publisher, which ends up being somewhere around 12%.
I think there are contractual requirements that the game launches at the same price in all venues, so that retail pricing isn’t undercut by online sales, otherwise yes, Ubisoft would be incentivized to offer it for, say, 20% cheaper than steam, but have it on both places.
UPlay at least works, unlike that abomination called Game for Windows Live.
At least that one’s dead, thank gods! Just seeing it named almost sets my blood boiling with old anger.