PCG Article Ubisoft's online decommissioning of 3 games

[mainer]

Ubisoft's online decommissioning may render three games unplayable for people who bought them | PC Gamer

It's a bit sad to see something like this actually happen with game purchases on a digital Storefront. I don't think it's an industry "trend" at all, and it mainly concerns 3 rather obscure games (obscure unless you bought them I guess), but it shows what could potentially happen with digital game purchases, especially if a player buys it for the online co-op play. That element is lost for good.

That's only happened to me once since I've been buying digital forms of games, and that was for Sword Coast Legends on Steam. Released in 2015 to universally bad reviews and poor sales, the developer shut down in 2016, the game itself was removed from the store at the end of 2017, and the multiplayer servers were shut down in 2018. The game was on sale fo about $2 right before it was removed, so I bought it (though yet to play it) and it's still installable and the single player version can still be played. But those who bought it for the co-op mode or the dungeon master feature are out of luck.
Sword Coast Legends - Wikipedia

That was just my one experience with a game and it's online servers shutting down. How do the rest of you feel, especially those of you who line co-op or other online play?

Edit 7/12/2022- As @SleepingDog mentioned below, that initial article has been edited after a statement being released from Ubisoft:

"As stated in our support article(opens in new tab), 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."

At least the games are still playable by those who bought them, except the DLCs and online play.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm not sure any of the games I play multiplayer use dedicated servers. I'm pretty sure (almost) all of them let you connect directly to the host, meaning I don't have to worry about multiplayer servers getting shut down.

Not being able to download games you have bought is more of a problem, but considering the massive backlog I have it's still not something I'm particularly worried about. I don't expect this to become a common thing either.

 

[Johnway]

I can understand multiplayer being turned off as the demand isn't there. but for SP part of the game? that's unacceptable to turn off. It never had to be activated and run from these games server side and its mostly self inflicted. We've seen it before with the likes of Spore. Its the more worrying side of online game collections these days.

The sad reality is that the pirated copy of some games will function perfectly fine and will still be around even when legit copies can't be purchased. Hell, if anything, pirating is a form of preservation for this games and they probably give a damn then AAA publishers. Kinda reminds of the whole vita situation, sony warns that they're shutting down vita store and no legal way to purchase games anymore. Cue mass complaints and vita owners jailbreaking/CFW their vitas to ensure its still useable. They back pedal but the damage is done.

 

[SleepingDog]

Guys - a recent PC Gamer article has Ubisoft stating that the initial statement was wrongly worded. However there will be no multiplayer functionality, no account linking and no access to DLC. Only one game will be totally inaccessible. See below for more details.

Ubisoft says decommissioned games will remain available to current owners | PC Gamer

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I can understand multiplayer being turned off as the demand isn't there. but for SP part of the game? that's unacceptable to turn off. It never had to be activated and run from these games server side and its mostly self inflicted. We've seen it before with the likes of Spore. Its the more worrying side of online game collections these days.

The sad reality is that the pirated copy of some games will function perfectly fine and will still be around even when legit copies can't be purchased. Hell, if anything, pirating is a form of preservation for this games and they probably give a damn then AAA publishers. Kinda reminds of the whole vita situation, sony warns that they're shutting down vita store and no legal way to purchase games anymore. Cue mass complaints and vita owners jailbreaking/CFW their vitas to ensure its still useable. They back pedal but the damage is done.

Yeah, SleepingDog pointed it out, but they're not shutting down single player.

 

[Zloth]

Online play shutting down? Yeah, fine. That's going to happen eventually. I don't expect the company to keep servers going that are only dealing with one or two players a week.

DLC might be another matter, though. If the DLC is online-only stuff then yeah, sure, shut it down for the same reason. If the DLC is dying because the servers are critical to the DRM check, then cut the DRM out and give away the DLC for free.

 

[Colif]

They just need a patch to stop games checking online or change menus so that it is no longer a thing.

SP games that check online before you can play them should be patched before they turn servers off, but i feel in a lot of cases they don't care about "dead" games.

 

[ZedClampet]

The only game I've lost so far is Worlds Adrift, but I'm always concerned about always online games. Eventually, the publisher isn't going to want to keep their part of the deal.

 

[SleepingDog]

The only game I've lost so far is Worlds Adrift, but I'm always concerned about always online games. Eventually, the publisher isn't going to want to keep their part of the deal.

I know that ages ago I read that the games we get are actually not owned by us users but we sort of just "rent" them. So legally they can switch off when they like. Does anyone know whether this is still the case? It feels like it.

 

[mainer]

Guys - a recent PC Gamer article has Ubisoft stating that the initial statement was wrongly worded. However there will be no multiplayer functionality, no account linking and no access to DLC. Only one game will be totally inaccessible. See below for more details.

I just saw that this morning, sorry I didn't see it before I posted. I have added an edit to my original post to reflect the change in the article. Thanks.

 

[Brian Boru]

Does anyone know whether this is still the case?

I don't "know" for sure, and not lawyer, but you can assume it's the case until you get clear evidence otherwise. It's the case with all software, incl free and open source, unless it is specifically placed in the public domain.

Not just software either. In my biz I purchase a lot of artwork and written work, but I don't "own" any of it—the copyright remains with the creator. I have the right to use it for a particular purpose, but eg can't reuse it for a different project, or sell it on, or make changes to it and then use it as a 'new' item.

You can buy copyright from a creator, but it'll cost a lot more than just buying 'right to use', so very few purchasers do that.