On September 1, Ubisoft will be shutting off online services for 15 different games from its back catalog. This will make multiplayer inaccessible on these titles, and it will also remove the ability for players to play the DLC for a couple of games. Even if the player has purchased the DLC, they will no longer be able to play the content included in it. This is not the first time that Ubisoft has shut down the online services for some of its older games, and it will most likely not be the last.

The only way that players will be able to access the DLC content for some of these games is if they own the remastered versions. However, only two of the 15 have remastered versions. While it makes sense to shut down servers for games that people are no longer playing, it feels like another blow to video game preservation. Large chunks of these various Ubisoft games will no longer be purchasable, and if the focus of the game was on the multiplayer then the player is left with not much to play. As the gaming industry puts more of a focus on digital-only, this closure of online services will only become more prevalent which may be a problem.

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15 Ubisoft Games Will Lose Internet Access and DLC

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For the majority of the Ubisoft games losing online services, that means that players will no longer be able to play multiplayer. The games that will lose their multiplayer modes only are Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed Revelations, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Rayman Legends, Space Junkies, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and ZombiU. Since Space Junkies is an online-only title, it will become unplayable, and that is something that many online-only titles will face in their future.

The loss of multiplayer for many of these older games may go unnoticed by many players, but the DLC for some other games will also become inaccessible in September. The DLC content for these games will no longer be purchasable or installable, and that will seemingly also affect people who have purchased them previously. The games that will lose their DLC are Assassin's Creed 3, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed Liberation HD, Driver San Francisco, Far Cry 3, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Silent Hunter 5. Players will still be able to play the main games, but any of the content locked behind the DLC will become unavailable. Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed 3 got remasters so the DLC in those games will be accessible through that version.

There Needs to be More Video Game Preservation

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Ubisoft's closure of the multiplayer components makes sense from a business perspective, but the loss of DLC and some games is a bad sign for the industry going forward. So much of the industry is focused on multiplayer-only titles and digital storefronts. Ubisoft's closure of the online services for these games will force a game like Space Junkies to become unplayable and all the DLC that had been acquired through the digital storefronts to be inaccessible. That means when games like Fortnite or World of Warcraft near their expiration dates, they too may vanish from the video game landscape. When other online services shut down, then DLC may also vanish, and game libraries could too if Steam had to shut its doors.

While the closure of Steam is not very likely, the closure of online titles and loss of content is. Over the years, there have been many video games that have come and gone. Some of the oldest video games are no longer playable, and others had their servers shuttered which made them disappear. On top of that, licensing issues can make games also vanish from storefronts and become inaccessible to new players. The industry needs to figure out a better way of preserving video games for the future, because otherwise there will be even more games that disappear forever.

There have been many video game preservation efforts that have cropped up over the years, but there needs to be more. Ubisoft's closure of its online services is just the latest in a long line of video game content becoming inaccessible in the future. As the industry gets even more digital, this issue will only grow, and that is not a good thing. So much heart and passion is poured into these video games, and they deserve to be preserved for future generations.

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