Years after their release, Ubisoft has maintained online servers for classic titles such as Ghost Recon Future Soldier and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, but that's all about to change.
Ubisoft has officially confirmed that it will be shutting down servers for several classic titles such as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Lockdown and Ghost Recon Future Soldier. Some Ubisoft titles will no longer have online connectivity as of June 1st, while fans of other Ubisoft properties have until later this year to enjoy the online experiences.
Assassin's Creed 2, Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, Far Cry 2, Anno 1404, Might & Magic – Clash of Heroes, Might & Magic X – Legacy, Splinter Cell Conviction, and The Settlers 7 all for PC are on the chopping block for June 1st, leaving only a few weeks for fans of these titles to appreciate the online connectivity.
Fans of Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Tom Clancy's: Rainbow Six Vegas, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and Rainbow Six Lockdown will be able to delve into the online content for a bit longer as Ubisoft hasn't set an official date for shutting down these servers beyond 2021. These titles will be affected regardless of the platform, meaning fans on Xbox and PlayStation will also be affected by the changes.
These servers need to be shut down because they don't meet Ubisoft's stability and quality standards for online play. Ubisoft was apparently looking at alternative ways to improving these titles rather than shutting down online servers, but it was unable to find a way to ensure the quality experience that fans of Ubisoft are used to.
"Following a critical update on our online services management platform, we had to temporarily shut down the servers of Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Rainbow Six Vegas 2," said Ubisoft to Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "As for Rainbow Six Vegas and Rainbow Six Vegas 2, our teams have investigated and found that these titles couldn't meet our stability and quality standards while running said update."
Ubisoft will be permanently discontinuing online features surrounding these legacy games despite the fact that it was able to preserve the real-time strategy game World in Conflict. Discontinuing these online servers is a "necessary step" in an effort to allocating IT and service staff to newer and more popular titles.
"As technology evolves and we hold to our promise to only deliver the best experiences to our players, it was, unfortunately, necessary to permanently discontinue online features surrounding those two legacy games."
Once Ubisoft shuts down the online servers for these legacy titles, players will no longer be able to access the online content but they'll still be able to delve into the single-player content if they choose to. While Ghost Recon Future Soldier and Tom Clancy's: Rainbow Six Vegas may not have been drawing in a large audience these days, fans of these legacy titles have been holding on for several years but will have to let go soon.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun