Over the years, gamers have complained not only about the quality of Ubisoft’s video games, but also about the fact that they can’t be played from Steam, since in 2019 the publisher suddenly decided to leave the most popular gaming platform. Accordingly, gamers could purchase fresh parts of Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry exclusively in the Ubisoft Connect branded store or on the Epic Games Store, which competes with Steam. Fortunately, the publisher nevertheless decided to change his anger to mercy – very soon, on December 6, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will appear on Steam, as well as Anno 1800 and the Roller Champions project, forgotten even before the release.
However, there is not the best news – so far, Ubisoft representatives do not promise the audience that all future releases will also be released in the Valve store. It is likely that this is a one-time promotion, for example, or the publisher decided to simply raise the sales of the fading flagship a little before the new part of the series is released in 2023. After all, in fact, the reasons why Ubisoft decided to leave Steam have not changed, and Valve has not made any concessions to the publisher – it’s all about the percentage that the platform takes from each sold copy of the video game. The publisher wants to pay less, and Valve understands that if you give a “discount” to one publisher, then everyone will demand it.
In addition, although Epic Games itself is actively fighting in court with Google for equal rights for publishers and developers, trying to punish the corporation for a monopoly, representatives of the Epic Games Store use exactly the same methods to expand their audience. For example, the management of a digital site not only charges major publishers a smaller percentage of each sale, but also pays millions of dollars to ensure that AAA releases remain exclusive to this site for a year or more. It turns out that the store pays the publisher for it not to launch on Steam, which, of course, also looks a lot like a monopoly.
For example, Epic Games paid publisher 2K Games a whopping $146 million to bring Borderlands 3 exclusively to the Epic Games Store, which is practically the budget for the entire game. And if you believe the documentation that surfaced during the Epic Games v. Apple court hearing, many Ubisoft games were also considered for “acquisition”, although Ubisoft itself has repeatedly stated that cooperation with Valve has not been terminated. This is true – all DLC and other paid content for games previously sold on Steam is released by the publisher regularly.
Source: Trash Box
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
