A few weeks ago, we received some solid signs that international mega-publisher Ubisoft was about to sneak up on Steam, the de facto standard for PC game stores. Lo and behold, le fils prodigue reient: As of yesterday, Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to Valve’s ubiquitous storefront with a release date of December 6. At some point, Anno 1800 and Roller Champions followed.
Ubisoft is the latest major publisher to move away from PC-based game launchers and return to Steam. Ubisoft’s bloatware brand he called Uplay became the exclusive home of the publisher’s major franchise in 2019, and in 2020 he was rebranded as Ubisoft Connect. EA and Activision have taken similar steps to loosen Steam’s control over PC game sales, eventually returning to stores as well. Perhaps the Epic Games Store’s viable cross-enterprise alternative made Steam more appealing.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla released a little over two years before him, and Anno 1800 is even older, but Ubisoft’s upcoming Steam title is a little older: the long-awaited multiplayer eSport Roller Champions finally arrives in his May Released. In the future, it is expected to expand to multiple stores. A Ubisoft representative told The Verge: Some kind of performance grind statement.
If you’ve been wanting to reduce the number of launchers on your PC, sorry. New Steam games require Ubisoft Connect to be installed, even if the game itself was purchased through Steam’s marketplace system. At the very least, this makes some games more accessible on Linux-based SteamOS (via Proton systems), and portable Steam Decks.