Ubisoft Wants You To Be Comfortable Not Owning Your Games (kotaku.com) 150
With the pre-release of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown started, Ubisoft has chosen this week to rebrand its Ubisoft+ subscription services, and introduce a PC version of the "Classics" tier at a lower price. And a big part of this, says the publisher's director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, is getting players "comfortable" with not owning their games. Kotaku: It's hard to keep up with how often Ubisoft has rebranded its online portals for its games, with Uplay, Ubisoft Game Launcher, Ubisoft Connect, Uplay+, Uplay Passport, Ubisoft Club, and now Ubisoft+ Premium and Ubisoft+ Classics, all names used over the last decade or so. It's also seemed faintly bewildering why there's a demand for any of them, given Ubisoft released only five non-mobile games last year.
However, a demand there apparently is, says Tremblay in an interview with GI.biz. He claims the company's subscription service had its biggest ever month October 2023, and that the service has had "millions" of subscribers, and "over half a billion hours" played. [...] What's more chilling about all this, however, is when Tremblay moves on to how Ubisoft wishes to see a "consumer shift," similar to that of the market for CDs and DVDs, where people have moved over to Spotify and Netflix, instead of buying physical media to keep on their own shelves. Given that most people, while being a part of the problem (hello), also think of this as a problem, it's so weird to see it phrased as if some faulty thinking in the company's audience.
He said: "One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect... you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game."
However, a demand there apparently is, says Tremblay in an interview with GI.biz. He claims the company's subscription service had its biggest ever month October 2023, and that the service has had "millions" of subscribers, and "over half a billion hours" played. [...] What's more chilling about all this, however, is when Tremblay moves on to how Ubisoft wishes to see a "consumer shift," similar to that of the market for CDs and DVDs, where people have moved over to Spotify and Netflix, instead of buying physical media to keep on their own shelves. Given that most people, while being a part of the problem (hello), also think of this as a problem, it's so weird to see it phrased as if some faulty thinking in the company's audience.
He said: "One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect... you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game."
Ubisoft should get comfortable... (Score:5, Interesting)
... with not having my money.
Re:Ubisoft should get comfortable... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Vote with your wallets people!
This is about as useful as actually voting. There is too many idiots out there.
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The problem is assuming the educated minority can influence the uneducated majority with democratic decisions.
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Who says it's about influencing anyone? There are so many good games out there not tied to some large corporate game developer. So stop buying AAA games and focus more on small devs and indies.
Re:Ubisoft should get comfortable... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Piracy is almost always a service problem." - Tim Sweeney.
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This is ALL of software and media companies' wet dream!!!
Look at adobe...disney...etc.
They don't want you to own a damned thing, not even a license to anything...you rent.
And when they decide to take it away, or edit out/remove your favorite part of it...too bad, you don't own a hard copy of it.
Re:Ubisoft should get comfortable... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Came to post this. Enshittification must be stopped.
While this is an incredibly shitty take on Ubisoft's part, it's not enshittification. Cory Doctorow coined the term, meaning
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market", where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.
Since Ubisoft has never been good to their users and they don't really have any business customers, there is no market so the term doesn't apply.
This is just Ubisoft being the same old greedy and shitty Ubisoft. One of their clowns just said the quiet part a little too loudly.
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... with not having my money.
No kidding. One of the major problem with these "services" is that you eventually over years wind up with different accounts. EA and Ubisoft in particular refuse to merge them if asked. I've had situations where I've bought a game on Steam, for example, and the damned thing won't let me reinstall it because supposedly the serial number has already been used. The root of the problem is that Ubisoft has had its uPlay crap, so when you buy something off of a service like Steam you're basically getting the Upla
Re:Ubisoft should get comfortable... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only am I comfortable not OWNING games, I'm even more comfortable not PLAYING games.
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Well, not playing Ubisoft games is very easy. After all, they have zero good games, along with a difficult to use and painful digital store. As much as I dislike Steam, their competition is even worse.
I have games I bought and have not played at all because they required an additional Ubisoft account!
And yes, I still own DVDs and CDs, and still (gasp) use them. I don't use a paid music service, the whole concept is dumb. I have games I still play that I own and have owned for one or more decades. I am NO
Re:Ubisoft should get comfortable... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, name me one, just *one*, digital media rental/subscription service (any media) that hasn't fucked over its customers financially in some way, arbitrarily pulled content, failed to provide the promised feature updates that the revenue of a subscription service is supposed to provide, decided to further pad their wallets by adding ads to a supposedly "fully paid-for" service (and that includes gratuitous product placement, you asshats), sold your personal data to AdTech, outright shut-up shop and effectively done a rug-pull, or otherwise moved the goalposts to their exclusive benefit. I'll give you that some services are actually OK for *some* of those things (at least so far, see "goalposts"), and I don't hold it against them for wanting to make a profit either, but they either provide a reasonable quid pro quo, including at least partial credits for any withdrawn content, or we should all be going elsewhere.
For gaming, "elsewhere" currently seems to be a fairly small, and steadily evaporating pool of commercial service providers (I personally think GOG is on the right side of the line still), community driven projects to remake classic games in some way, total conversions, and various open source projects. And sites like The Pirate Bay, of course, which also usually often means the download is free of DRM and runs better, especially if Denuvo is involved. If you take the time to look, there's plenty to be going on with and a lot of enjoyment to be had there, as long as you're not one of those who has to have the latest and greatest AAA franchise title, no matter how much it's really just more of the same only with flashier graphics and a bit more depth. Sadly, it appears that there are still enough suckers with more money than sense that Ubisoft are going to keep reducing the amount of lube they're using to screw their customers over with for quite some time yet.
Yeah, sure (Score:2)
They would have to publish that absolute, mind-blowing, revolutionare, best-of-all time game to make me even consider such crap. Unless it is an online-game, renting is not an option.
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Let's imagine they do so, half a year later some indie dev will have the same game out, yes, with worse graphics, but modable, expandable, ownable and for about 15 bucks instead of 70 (plus 0day DLC for another 20 and the season pass you need to keep playing for another 30 a month later).
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Would still give me that half year. But I would likely decide against it anyways.
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Half a year of playing a game isn't worth more than 100 bucks. For that, I find at least 5-6 other games to tide me over 'til the indie one is done.
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Let's imagine they do so,
This is Ubisoft we're talking about. That's an amazing hypothetical you want me to imagine :-)
Same problem as with streaming - too many services (Score:5, Insightful)
If Steam would roll out some sort of service where you'd get to play *all* of Steam's catalog for 10-15 EUR/USD a month, sure, why not.
But I'm not going to dish that same out to Epic/Ubisoft/Origin/Rockstar Social/HumbleBundle/Honest John's gamer service.
And also, just like with streaming, some games are bound to just disappear to some Disney Vault-type thing.
So...no.
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And with HumbleBundle you at least rent-to-keep, i.e. you pay that monthly fee and you actually get to keep playing those games after you cancel the sub.
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I'm not paying forever for something static. I don't play games a lot and I do not play many different games, so it would be a huge waste of money for me.
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If Steam would roll out some sort of service where you'd get to play *all* of Steam's catalog for 10-15 EUR/USD a month, sure, why not.
It would have to be more than that, or maybe tiered. Imagine a "Steam Platinum" subscription that gives you access to everything, including just-released, top-tier titles for, say, $80 per month; a "Steam Gold" that gives you access to everything released more than 1-2 years ago plus B-list titles (or whatever they're called in the gaming industry) for, say, $20 per month; and a "Steam Silver" that gives you everything released more than four years ago plus B-list titles more than a year old for, say, $10
not owning like MMORPG or Steam? (Score:3, Interesting)
While I have 'bought' games on Steam, I don't have the physical media. So at any time Steam could yank it like any of the 'bought; shows on video streaming services.
Re:not owning like MMORPG or Steam? (Score:5, Insightful)
The one difference will be, you don't have to pay steam a monthly fee to keep playing your games,
Re: not owning like MMORPG or Steam? (Score:2)
Re: not owning like MMORPG or Steam? (Score:2)
If the game can run without Steam then sure. If it can't then you don't own it anymore than you own a video you downloaded from Prime.
Re: not owning like MMORPG or Steam? (Score:2)
Re: not owning like MMORPG or Steam? (Score:2)
I mean without Steam installed.
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That's up to the individual game developers. Steam itself doesn't make any requirements.
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Not just that, but much of the time when you buy a game on physical media it's not even playable.
Speaking of Steam, the first time I encountered this was with Half-Life 2. At the time I was on dialup, because I lived in the sticks, and there was no local WISP yet.
So I bring this game home and the first thing is, I have to install Steam. So I run the installer on the disc, and that works... and then Steam forces an update of itself. And the update download does not resume. When the download dies, the Steam u
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While I have 'bought' games on Steam, I don't have the physical media. So at any time Steam could yank it like any of the 'bought; shows on video streaming services.
I'm in the same position, even though I'm very much an advocate of owning physical copies of music/movies/games. I guess I trust Valve not to pull the rug like that more than I trust anyone else, especially Ubisoft. I can't say why, they just seem less customer-hostile than the likes of Ubisoft/EA/etc.
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Ubisoft Wants You To Be Comfortable with Renting (Score:3)
So it's about feeling comfortable with paying forever (renting).
That would give me a good reason for not buying games on sales that I will never play, like the Assassin's Greed II that doesn't run on SteamDeck because of the shitty Uplay / Ubisoft Connect DRM.
Change the language (Score:4, Insightful)
Stop saying that people buy the games, then. Be the change you want to see in the world! Be HONEST! No one expects to OWN something they did not first BUY!
I don't rent from liars (Score:3, Informative)
They say, "but this game!" When they mean, "pay me like you're buying it, but I can take it away at any time".
I'm F2P-only for subscription services. I'm not giving them money. All they get from me is some free "AI" to fill out teams for their paying customers.
And even that is because single player games are getting ever more rare. I prefer things that work offline and without other humans who often get joy from ruining everyone else's fun.
Games are a bit different than DVDs and CD (Score:3)
Gaming may be a bit different. A company can kill a service or title anytime they want, and the gamers I know still like to play older games on their console or PC. I suspect they are much more wary of being tied to a company's whims; especially after what has happened in the past with games they don;t own the physical media and rely on d/l it.
And I want Ubisoft to be comfortable (Score:2)
not owning my money.
As long as they're happy with this, well, I guess we're in agreement.
I have no issue with it (Score:2)
In any case, you can't own a game you buy (unless you buy the company that made it), you technically have a license to a copyrighted material plus a physical copy.
Re: I have no issue with it (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to sell or give away the physical copy which sounds a lot like ownership to me. Can I sell or give away Steam purchases?
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Yes, some games from Steam you can give away as gifts if after purchasing you haven't installed or played them.
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No one believes that they "own" a game (as in the exclusive publishing rights) when they purchase a disc. That was a strawman argument invented by media companies to make the idea of "owning" media seem preposterous. It was a campaign to gaslight the younger generations into thinking that no one ever really owned any media. And that campaign w
The cult of me (Score:2)
Sure (Score:2)
It's nice to want things.
It already happened (Score:2)
Gamers already moved to digital distribution services since years, just not to Ubisoft's.
People to cheer for - Philippe Tremblay (Score:2)
I had fun when Jobs kicked it.
I already am! (Score:2)
I already am particularly comfortable not owning nor playing any ubisoft crap!
My Physical Media Collection From 2600-onward (Score:5, Insightful)
But for me, the best part of a physical collection is having it visible on my shelf. Game time is rare and previous these days. I probably spend more time admiring my games on their shelves than I do actually playing them. So even if I'm not playing a title, I still see it exists on my shelf, and that allows me to experience some joy. A joy that's different than logging into a launcher and seeing a game list/icon sheet.
Re: My Physical Media Collection From 2600-onward (Score:2)
I'm feel exactly the same.
Fuck them. (Score:2)
I've got a GoG account with about 300 games on it, all with classic offline installers downloaded to my NAS. I'll never be bored in my life until the day I die and not playing with people is just one big advantage to me. Ubisoft and other platforms like that can take their shady scheme and shove it up their arse.
I despise this trend (Score:5, Insightful)
In 2016 the WEF released a video which predicted that by 2030 "You'll own nothing. And you'll be happy. Whatever you want you'll rent..." Whether you see that prediction as based on analysis, or based on the intent to make it happen, depends on how much of a conspiracy theorist you are. Personally, I think it was the latter.
In any case, we're seeing that prediction come true, and it's frustrating how many of our fellow citizens are fine with it. I swear, a majority of people either don't mind or don't realize that - figuratively speaking - they're being ass-raped with a tree branch. What pisses me off is that their 'bend over and take it' actions make it harder for those of us who understand what's happening to avoid the same fate.
There seems to be a lot of hate for Cory Doctorow here; anyone who doesn't share in that hatred might want to read "Unauthorized Bread" for a pretty credible view of what we're likely in for when this 'rent everything' trend becomes inescapable.
I'm comfortable not owning Ubisoft games (Score:2)
I'm also comfortable not playing Ubisoft games.
I do miss a few of 'em, specifically in the Assassins' Creed franchise. But I can live without them.
Ubisoft goes out of their way to make it hard to play their games, and I go out of my way to avoid them.
no thank you (Score:3)
Last Ubisoft game I bought they shutdown the activation server within a year or two, and that was almost 20 years ago, fuck them
'You will own nothing, and you will be happy.' (Score:2)
'You will own nothing, and you will be happy.'".
So says the World Economic Forum, or at least some of their officials have said so publicly.
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I know you mention it as a condemnation... but there's pretty good reasons to take it at face value. Ask anybody who ever did a personal possession purge... there's not a lot of downside. There's an opposing idea, too..."He who dies with the most toys wins." Equally a condemnation in it's sarcasm.
That's fine. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a convert to the idea of not owning entertainment media. Once you shift to thinking of all such stuff as transient, it's rather freeing. The idea of ownership is so deeply ingrained that lots of people just can't let go of the idea that giving it up might make sense.
I don't want to lug around every console and every disc for the rest of my life. My life will not be diminished if I can't replay a game 15 years from now. If I can't watch an old movie from my past sometime in the future, I'll.. watch something else, if nothing at all, and that'll be find.
Streaming has brought vast amounts of music and movies to people for peanuts. One blu-ray purchase can be more expensive than a month of Netflix. And I've only bought one single game in two years ... but I have Xbox GPU. It's a great deal.
I haven't gone full zen... but the need to own is receding.
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My life will not be diminished if I can't replay a game 15 years from now.
Very true, but keep in mind the wider picture. Human culture is diminished if *nobody* can play a particular influential game 15 years from now (especially since nobody knows what is worth keeping and what isn't at the time of release, it can take decades for the worth or impact of a creative work to be acknowledged). I am not arguing against your choice in this matter nor denying the benefits it has for you. I'm just pointing out that if too many people think that way then important milestones in human
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I don't disagree with your points. But is human culture really diminished if a game - even a great game - vanishes? I guess in the same way that it is diminished if an art gallery catches on fire. It's an abstract diminishment that doesn't manifest in people's lives. Is every baby step on the our path to be preserved? I don't know there's enough value in one TV show - however great - to mark it as a "loss for humanity" if it disappears. Ultimately it's entertainment. The older I get the more I see it as a w
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Very true, but keep in mind the wider picture. Human culture is diminished if *nobody* can play a particular influential game 15 years from now
Counterargument: https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
There's plenty of dollars to be had in offering old titles in emulation, and very little cost. I don't see why old games would go away. Spotify (and YouTube Music, and Apple Music, and) serves up music going all the way back to the beginning of commercial music recordings.
Plus if it does appear that old games are simply disappearing because there is no commercial value in publishing them, it should be possible to convince the Library of Congress that t
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I don't want to lug around every console and every disc for the rest of my life. My life will not be diminished if I can't replay a game 15 years from now.
This is the one part I disagree with, as I also try to shed myself from the meat-space aspect of the media I consume. Movies and video games (and art in general) have profoundly affected me, and there are times in my life where I want to revisit or share those experiences, and it's extremely frustrating to have dollars to spend and nowhere to spend them. I recall the time I tried to show my then-girlfriend-now-wife Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and after maybe 30 minutes of trying to track down a servi
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In ancient times, one might pay $79.95 for a particular title, once, then not have to ever pay again for that same title. Ubisoft's new business model is about making sure you pay $x.xx/month forever (really more than that because every year that $x.xx/month will go up by some amount, y.), or until you decide you no longer wish to play a game
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I agree. The pursuit of profit is problematic. I "hate" the microtransaction trend. It's disgusting.
I think subscriptions are more honest than that, though. Particularly if there is ongoing development and DLC involved - it costs money to make those things happen. But if the game is static... not so much. That's why I like the game pass style. Lots of choices. Some work, some don't... but I definitely get my $20 worth every month.
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There's an obvious solution here (Score:2)
Labor Shall Not Own (Score:3)
Late stage capitalism moving very quickly the last 10 years. Consolidate market players, sell nothing, rent everything.
This may not work for food, water and clothing, but pretty much all else.
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I don't know how "sheep to the slaughter" applies... but I agree with much of your point. Last weekend I drove 300km in -30C to buy my first Telecaster (40 years a guitarist). On any given day I'd rather do that than watch a movie or play a game.
we need a requirement for maintaining a crack (Score:2)
There needs to be a law on the books that requires any company requiring "online activation" or "always-online" for single-player-capable games to maintain an update in escrow somewhere for the day that the company closes its doors (or shuts down its servers) that can be released to the public to remove that limit and allow the game (or any such software really) to continue to function.
The problem we have right now is the consumer has paid for their software but is ultimately limited to the lifetime of the
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There needs to be a law on the books that requires any company requiring "online activation" or "always-online" for single-player-capable games to maintain an update in escrow somewhere for the day that the company closes its doors (or shuts down its servers) that can be released to the public to remove that limit and allow the game (or any such software really) to continue to function.
Hear hear! After we get done putting right-to-repair into law, this should be next.
Oh, I'm more than comfortable... (Score:2)
Okay, put them on Gamepass (Score:2)
Or compete with Gamepass by carrying games from other publishers. The last thing we need is another content silo. Which, granted, is what we already get with Ubisoft's stupid online store.
The problem is we've been screwed already by this (Score:2)
The movie model is already a problem. They misuse the word 'buy' to mean extended rental. Apple and other companies lose rights and then steal the content from you that you paid for. It's not clear to the end user. NBC Universal is particularly bad about revoking content every few years to force a re-buy. They don't even tell you your content is going to disappear.
Then there's the streaming model where it's impossible to find what you want to watch. If you don't want to watch something specific, it's
Non-ownership already rules the corporate world (Score:2)
If buying isn't owning... (Score:2)
...then piracy isn't theft.
The owners vs the serfs (Score:2)
Life is moving to a rental model. Miss your payments to your lords and you're on the street.
I'm not comfortable with that (Score:3)
I have a massive DVD collection (Score:5, Informative)
> They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection
Yeah, no. I have a massive dvd and blu ray collection and I keep buying them. Why?
because I am not going to let streaming services dictate what I can see and what I can't see.
Movie is "problematic" for "modern audiences"? Oops, it's gone. Like it never existed.
Old good movie is stealing the thunder of crappy remake with Kathleen Kennedy hands all over it? Oops, it's gone. Now it's either chick in it lame and gay, or the highway.
Ubisoft. (Score:2)
I'm comfortable not owning any Ubisoft games, does that help?
In future news ... (Score:2)
Ubisoft has chosen this week to rebrand its Ubisoft+ subscription services
Ubisoft adds a new Premium subscription tier named "Ubisoft++" and a mid-level tier named, "Ubisoft++-" ...
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You currently have those advantage on Steam, but you pay just once, which I find better.
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Steam only supports one hardware platform (x86 PC) and they can change OS requirements on the fly in some cases. A minor nitpick for most, but let's be honest about what we're getting into with Steam.
If you really want to own your games on PC, GoG is generally better. Though even they aren't perfect.
Re: Why "chilling"? (Score:2)
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You can install a Steam game you're currently playing somewhere else. Whether you will be allowed to play multiple copies at once is up to the devs. IME most games don't prevent it. Steam kind of does though; your account can only be active and logged in on one machine at a time, so the machine where you're playing the game will have to be in offline mode. And if you are playing it and then decide you want to install it somewhere else, you will have to quit and put Steam into offline mode where you are play
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> But on the other hand, most games delivered through Steam do work in offline mode.
But none of Ubisoft games delivered through Steam.
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with steam, you dont own the game, youve just paid for a lifetime subscription to it,
You've never actually owned the game and have always been paying for a licence to play it, only it used to all come on one disc or cartridge or whatever.
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Name some modern software that meets your expectations of "ownership".
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... where "lifetime" means "lifetime of the Steam service... until they change their conditions".
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Until the cloud goes down. Or the publisher gets bought and the new owner wants to cut all those server costs.
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And that's in what way exactly different from Ubi deciding that it's time to shut off the servers for SuperSpecialAwesomeGame 2 because SuperSpecialAwesomeGame 3 is about to launch and they don't want the old one to leech players?
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Subscriptions have some significant advantages
Sure, if you do not mind janky ass gameplay, poor game selection, and stupid expensive price.
no worries about losing the install or save file
This has never been an issue if you did backups.
play on multiple platforms without having to buy the game again
This on the dev for not allowing this already.
being able to transfer your save
This has never been an issue if you did backups.
you can try out lots of games for no added cost.
Its on the devs to provide demos. There is also using TPB edition for trails if need be.