An old Assassin’s Creed, other Ubisoft games are losing online functionality on Steam, and fans are unhappy (UPDATE)

UPDATE: The original version of this article stated that the below-mentioned games would be unplayable entirely come September; Ubisoft has since clarified, and the updated version of the story is below.

There’s a lot of Assassin’s Creed content to consume. Valhalla’s second year of updates includes The Forgotten Saga roguelike mode, a second Mastery Challenge Pack, and more. Older Assassin’s Creed games aren’t getting the same amount of attention these days, and at least one is being cut off in a way that’s leaving many fans unhappy.

If you visit Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD’s Steam page, you’ll see the following message: “At the request of the publisher, Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD is no longer available for sale on Steam.” Furthermore, “This title will not be accessible following September 1, 2022.” In case that wasn’t clear enough, you cannot buy the game on Steam anymore, and even if you already own it, you will not be able to play the full game come September.

Space Junkies, another Ubisoft product, is in the same boat. Splinter Cell Blacklist and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands are no longer being sold either. While DLC and online multiplayer will be going away for all four of these titles on September 1, their single-player components will at least remain playable. While the messaging on Liberation and Space Junkies sounds like it includes those entire products, Ubisoft did confirm that they’ll retain their base games.

Obviously, this sets a bad precedent. If you pay money for a product, you ought to retain access to all parts of it in perpetuity — at least, that’s a pro-consumer mentality. Corporations like Ubisoft often view purchases as a license to play a game, as opposed to owning a copy of it outright. Unfortunately, licenses can be revoked. It’s worth pointing out that Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD is included with Assassin’s Creed III Remastered, and there’s no such warning on that game’s page. Having some recourse there is good, though anyone looking to play Space Junkies or those other pieces of Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia is out of luck.

In regards to the future of Assassin’s Creed, a project titled Assassin’s Creed Infinity is currently in the works. We don’t know when it will release, but it’s being developed as a live service game.