Ubisoft enters digital distribution arena with Uplay PC

Origin, Steam, and GameFly just got some more competition. Ubisoft is also throwing its hat into the digital distribution arena with Uplay PC.

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Origin, Steam, and GameFly just got some more competition. Ubisoft is also throwing its hat into the digital distribution arena with Uplay PC.

Uplay PC is an extension of the French publisher's cross-game rewards system. Beginning with Assassin's Creed 2 in 2009, many Ubisoft games have allowed gamers to log into a persistent Uplay ID to unlock additional rewards in-game. The service has since expanded to Facebook and free-to-play games.

Uplay has already amassed 35 million members across various games and platforms. With the launch of Uplay PC, the company is replacing individual game launchers, and will let gamers access all their Uplay-enabled PC games from one place. In addition, the new launcher will include a digital distribution service that allows the direct purchase and download of PC games.

To celebrate the launch of the new service, Uplay PC is running a sale. Hawx 2, From Dust, Silent Hunter 5, and Driver San Francisco will all be available for $1 each, with each title rotated on a daily basis. Other games in Ubisoft's catalog will be discounted up to 75%.

When EA launched Origin, many of the publisher's titles ended up getting pulled from Steam. It appears that Ubisoft's library has remained intact (for now). Shacknews has contacted Ubisoft to see if it intends on expanding the catalog to third-party games, much like EA has with Origin. The publisher responded by saying "as of right now, nothing has been announced."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 16, 2012 11:00 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Ubisoft enters digital distribution arena with Uplay PC.

    Origin, Steam, and GameFly just got some more competition. Ubisoft is also throwing its hat into the digital distribution arena with Uplay PC.

    • reply
      August 16, 2012 11:05 AM

      I'm sure they won't completely fuck this up and make a hatable abortion with no redeeming qualities like every other time they have tried to do things like this. I feel good, this is the one that will work.


      >;/

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      August 16, 2012 11:11 AM

      Call me when they turn it into Steam.

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      August 16, 2012 11:21 AM

      booooo, while competition is healthy, I'd rather just see a steam monopoly. Actually I wont care at all as long as all titles are still avaliable elsewhere.

    • reply
      August 16, 2012 11:23 AM

      LOL

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      August 16, 2012 11:33 AM

      Origin and GameFly are like Steam? Weird.

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      August 16, 2012 11:34 AM

      does this mean my steam copy of "from dust" will work now? Bought it a year ago on sale and it never worked (though it was dropped into my back log and I didn't touch it for six months ---whoops).

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      August 16, 2012 11:35 AM

      I am never going to buy anything from this.

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      August 16, 2012 11:37 AM

      Ugh, more apps to launch my games. I just want STEAM. That is all.

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      August 16, 2012 11:40 AM

      [deleted]

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        August 16, 2012 12:48 PM

        I think it was some old game rental place

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      August 16, 2012 11:45 AM

      Good luck with that. haaha

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      August 16, 2012 11:58 AM

      $1 seems like a good price point, because I sure as hell wouldn't spend anything more on a Uplay title

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      August 16, 2012 11:58 AM

      ummm from the company that recently had their addon hacked ??? no thanks...

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      August 16, 2012 12:13 PM

      Ubisoft, you have proven over the past half decade that you don't care about pc ports and continously shit out the worst ports imaginable on the PC. Why the hell do you expect PC gamers to glom on to this?

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      August 16, 2012 12:14 PM

      You never know, might great/terrible. Ubisoft pretty much set the bar for shitty restrictive DRM after all.

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      August 16, 2012 12:20 PM

      Oh, hey, fuck you Ubisoft.

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      August 16, 2012 12:22 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 16, 2012 12:25 PM

      Even PC pirates won't buy $1 games, so why try Ubisoft?

    • reply
      August 16, 2012 12:28 PM

      Speaking of fucking UPlay, let's fucking talk about it. So there I was last night wanting to play some Silent Hunter 5 again. I figured there's been enough time since it came out that the incredibly shitty experience I had back then of it constantly losing connection and trying to stop me from playing four or five times in a half hour was probably gone.

      So I reinstall it off Steam and log into my uplay account and it asks for my cd key. I put it in and it bitches that the key's already been used. NO FUCKING SHIT, SHERLOCK! I played the game when it fucking came out.

      So I log into the UPlay website on my browser and look at the games I own. Not only did UPlay decide to eat my Silent Hunter 5 copy, it also chose to forget that I bought Anno 2070. The only games it remembers me having owned are Assassin's Creed games.

      What in the fuck?!

      God I hope that whole company just burns to the fucking ground. They've gotta be the worst thing to happen to PC gaming.

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      August 16, 2012 12:50 PM

      lol Uplay is utter garbage on consoles. I have never been able to successfully log in in xbox version of Ghost Recon future warrior. will never buy games from ubisoft if they go Uplay only

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      August 16, 2012 1:19 PM

      Hey guys, isn't GAMESTOP's Impulse in the competition?

    • reply
      August 16, 2012 1:22 PM

      Yay! We finally have that other digital distribution software that no one cares about and will be forced on us.

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      August 16, 2012 1:31 PM

      Polishing the DRM turd won't make it any less of a turd. Nice try ubi.

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      August 16, 2012 1:38 PM

      Oh god, WHYYYYYYYYYYYY

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      August 16, 2012 1:44 PM

      Who in the world would EVER buy anything from this?

      • reply
        August 16, 2012 1:45 PM

        although if Ubisoft does what EA did with Origin and makes Assassin's Creed games only available via Uplay at least I could stop playing those games forever, so it might not be a bad thing.

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      August 16, 2012 1:46 PM

      Hahahahahahah! YES, another thing for them to fuck up. >:(

    • reply
      August 16, 2012 1:48 PM

      we all knew this would happen. more tray icons! yessss. I wonder what their grand launch title will be, as BF3 was to launch Origin.

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      August 16, 2012 1:49 PM

      Isn't Uplay already on some games? Like, what the hell that extra layer of Ubi bullshit on Anno 2070?

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        August 16, 2012 1:50 PM

        Nevermind, I should read the article.

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      August 16, 2012 1:51 PM

      does it come with a complimentary rootkit?

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      August 16, 2012 2:31 PM

      anyone that already has uplay, have you noticed its need to sync your game saves has gotten slower and slower over time. It sometimes takes up to 10 minutes just so I can launch the game. If you want to do this fine, but atleast have the hardware at your end capable of taking all these requests!!

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      August 16, 2012 3:11 PM

      Ugh. More fragmentation in the space, which sucks ass. I bought the Witcher 2 on amazon just to save $5 and regret that beacuse it's a PITA to have to manually update, etc. and not have it tied to my steam library.

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      August 16, 2012 3:30 PM

      I can't see this taking off. At all. Uplay was terrible enough before this. :(

    • reply
      August 16, 2012 3:35 PM

      LOL

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      August 16, 2012 3:41 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 16, 2012 3:54 PM

      [deleted]

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      August 16, 2012 5:36 PM

      This just in, not only does Ubisoft require a constant internet connection to play single player games, but it also requires insertion of a rectal probe to authenticate that the user is the legitimate purchaser of their products to enable saving of games.

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      August 16, 2012 6:08 PM

      I'd hardly call anything from ubisoft competition.

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        August 16, 2012 7:14 PM

        Yeah, this is more like a pathetic attempt to catch up. No way in hell it amounts to anything.

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      August 16, 2012 6:48 PM

      I signed up for Uplay on my 360 for Driver. Is that account connected to this somehow?

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      August 16, 2012 7:53 PM

      hahaha no

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      August 16, 2012 8:26 PM

      I've only had issues with Uplay once, hasn't been too bad for me. I don't think this would stop me from buying AssCreed 3 on PC. AssCreed series are pretty great on the PC, they're not straight console ports (have tons of graphical options, etc).

      *ducks for cover

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      August 16, 2012 8:44 PM

      I'm so relieved. I mean, I've been starting to get tired of gaming in general. Too many good games coming out, and yet they all seem like they are missing something. I've found myself wishing the industry would just invest a lot of their working capital in something a little different to bring the spice back. Something that hasn't been done over and over. And now we have the perfect answer: another digital distribution service. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K21eROBSNmM/TyYi7JTQ3II/AAAAAAAAAwA/9zD4DWlU14Y/s1600/citizen+kane+clapping.gif

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      August 16, 2012 10:38 PM

      so long Watch Dogs and Far Cry 3, I was looking forward to thee...

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      August 17, 2012 4:38 PM

      ... i need a launcher to launch my launchers.

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      August 22, 2012 12:54 AM

      Works fine, no issues for me so far. At the end of the day it's a game delivery system and that works so that's all I need.

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