What will happen with my Ubisoft games after it goes bankrupt?

[Onyx Rexxar]

I am pretty sure its last, or second to last year Ubisoft still exists as a company. I am wondering what will happen with all my games I have from them after it goes down, since it requires secondary launcher for playing them. Should I start looking to "acquiring" backup installs or Steam will make games I bought still available after inevitable Ubisoft demise?

[Seraphita]

D. Flame a écrit :

Knowing Ubisoft, they will remove them from your library without offering a refund.

IF they do the same thing they did before, which you told us about. Imagine falling and you say "If I fall, I'm taking my games down with me." Weird world to live in...

[Princess Luna]

Kargor a écrit :

That is something a new owner could do to get rid of UPlay without pissing off customers.

Why get rid of it when players still but games with UPlay?

[Seraphita]

Princess Luna a écrit :

Kargor a écrit :

That is something a new owner could do to get rid of UPlay without pissing off customers.

Why get rid of it when players still but games with UPlay?

They do because they're forced... It's not like UPlay was exactly optional. You don't choose to use UPlay. It came with games released on steam. So, like, you know...

[RPG Gamer Man]

Seraphita a écrit :

Princess Luna a écrit :

Why get rid of it when players still but games with UPlay?

They do because they're forced... It's not like UPlay was exactly optional. You don't choose to use UPlay. It came with games released on steam. So, like, you know...

Also, many people got it because it was the only way to get achievement on certain games on steam thru the ubisoft connect client. Now that some games since then have received updates with steam acheivements at least. They did this for AC Valhalla now. They gave it achievements since last time i played it.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

This how likely might go if things don't get better for them.

1. They downsize, they have a LOT of departments, and some 3rd party services such as denuvo, or etc, so it's likely they kill somethings, or might just sell IP, or two if they believe it to help them scenario if it has to come to it. <--- Very likely to happen 1st before anything.

2. Someone likely buy them out, but same time CEO want to remain CEO if bought out, but who knows if that deterring buyers, or not. Even so there chance buyers just waiting it out to see what happens, or rather just waiting for chance only buy the IPs instead, no idea what can happen only future can tell from here. <--- Very likely to happen if things hit the fan for them.

3. If they're going under either they have a heart removing DRM requirement to their games, make client offline installer for existing, and older games so don't need to verify, or they could just be scum shut it down, and don't bother do anything that just worse case scenario if they decide to high tail out.

rawWwRrr a écrit :

Ubisoft will get bought out by someone else.

^This there some IPs people like, and I know Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo eyeing their IPs, problem is they all had major shopping spree buying out companies already few years ago, doubt they're willing to drop $B anytime soon, much less $$$M so hard to say what could happen if it ever comes down to it.

Black Blade a écrit :

Most likely the games will become unavailable if they need UPlay except if Ubisoft is going to be buy out or they decide to take the extra steps to break off there launcher or make an offline mode one
Regradless I do have to wonder where you get your ideas from
As at least at this last year Ubisoft actually did better then the 2 years before
https://stockanalysis.com/quote/otc/UBSFF/revenue/

And companies have options, you can down size first, and do other stuff to get revenue and lower costs before having to jump ship

What they make vs what it cost from start to finish, maintain, and payout. So if they make $2B, and if everything costing them $2+B then can see the problem, make good money, but sitting on nothing afterwards.

Another issue Ubisoft lost ~82% stock value within 5 years, each year they were losing ~50% stock value from ~$100+ USD per stock until 2023 which they went up ~50% from $20 to $30, but took another major hit to them down to $13 USD, so yeah it's not going well for last 5 years for their stock at all. Basically their market cap was $12B, now it's almost $1.5B that just within 5 years that pretty bad sign to investors as a whole, if they're unable to generate ROI for them, or pushing for tech that can be worth the investment, but Ubisoft got nothing going for them as of late all they have been doing is pushing out games, and leasing their IP for usage in service, and NFT projects, which recently they push another NFT game few weeks ago using Rayman as trailer promotion. I could say this latest Assassin game that got delay might be their ride, or break if they don't hit their goal on it.

[RPG Gamer Man]

I really don't want to lose my copies of rayman games. I do have one physical copy of one of them at least on the wii, but i hate the controls on the wii version.

[Onyx Rexxar]

There should be some kind of worldwide entertainment/art/music preservation law which in case of companies shutting down save the thing for the future for people to use/read/listen free of charge (or with minimal price to keep service going).

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Onyx Rexxar a écrit :

There should be some kind of worldwide entertainment/art/music preservation law which in case of companies shutting down save the thing for the future for people to use/read/listen free of charge (or with minimal price to keep service going).

There sort of, but not for modem stuff really. I mean they have to surrender rights to said things either game version, software as a whole, or even IP themselves to something that archive these things for the public free of charge (or with minimal price to keep service going). Maybe Video Game History Foundation.

Anyways doubt Ubisoft will surrender anything for free without hefty price tag behind it.

[Onyx Rexxar]

If its the LAW they will be forced to surrender it for free. Otherwise they will have to keep service running to get the money. If company goes under, there is no one to claim the property. I am not talking about creating new content since IP laws will protect that, but already created and abandoned property would be legally taken over by law and most what creators could ask, would be percentage of money (if the content would be paid for - and 0 if its free)

[lillxxxbaby]

Kargor a écrit :

When UPlay gets shut down, UPlay-games will no longer work.

However, if someone takes over Ubisoft, it might not be the smartest move to piss off every existing Ubisoft-customer...

[Subsonic]

Its going to be interesting if it happens, imagine billions of worth in games none accessible to their users, will be a precedence for some well needed law changes maybe.

[Anonymous Helper]

Depends on if someone takes over the company or if it's allowed to go bankrupt.

If someone takes over the company, nothing happens to end users initially. In the long run it depends if the new owners want to keep UPlay operational or not. If not they'll either gradually migrate the games and users to their own platform or, if they don't have one, 3rd party platforms like Steam and Epic.

Bankruptcy would be worst possible outcome for end user as Ubisoft IP's would be sold to highest bidder and UPlay would be shut down and all end users losing access to to games requiring Uplay to run. New owners of the IP's would have no obligation to service previous owners of the games.

[J4MESOX4D]

Anonymous Helper a écrit :

Bankruptcy would be worst possible outcome for end user as Ubisoft IP's would be sold to highest bidder and UPlay would be shut down and all end users losing access to to games requiring Uplay to run. New owners of the IP's would have no obligation to service previous owners of the games.

They wont go bankrupt and they certainly wont have creditors offing their IP's individually. They'll be sold way before there's any credible talk of something like this happening. Also uPlay/Ubisoft connect is probably more lucrative in data alone than most of their releases these days so that certainly wont just be shut down.

[Kargor]

J4MESOX4D a écrit :

Also uPlay/Ubisoft connect is probably more lucrative in data alone than most of their releases these days

That's a general misconception that I hear a lot -- but, I've never actually seen anything to support such claims.

On the non-technical level, UPlay is basically just a database that links game ownership to accounts, nothing more. It's a list of customers. And while it's nice to have a list of customers, in comparison to having no customers, it's really just people that have, at some point in the past, given you money.

There is no useful data in there, especially if you aren't the one who actually got the money for the games. And, in fact, it's expensive. If I own a game on UPlay (same with Steam or Origin, of course), and I download the game, I'm causing costs for their internet traffic. Not much, but even small amounts add up over time. At the same time, I'm not paying them anything since I already own the game that I'm downloading.

[J4MESOX4D]

Kargor a écrit :

J4MESOX4D a écrit :

Also uPlay/Ubisoft connect is probably more lucrative in data alone than most of their releases these days

That's a general misconception that I hear a lot -- but, I've never actually seen anything to support such claims.

On the non-technical level, UPlay is basically just a database that links game ownership to accounts, nothing more. It's a list of customers. And while it's nice to have a list of customers, in comparison to having no customers, it's really just people that have, at some point in the past, given you money.

There is no useful data in there, especially if you aren't the one who actually got the money for the games. And, in fact, it's expensive. If I own a game on UPlay (same with Steam or Origin, of course), and I download the game, I'm causing costs for their internet traffic. Not much, but even small amounts add up over time. At the same time, I'm not paying them anything since I already own the game that I'm downloading.

People used to say the same about Facebook and they were making over $30bn a year before the pandemic on just user data alone. Any service you install on your device has the potential to capture anything within or even outside. Ubisoft already collect all email's, usernames, linkages, in-game data, expenditure, behaviours etc and all of this has huge value especially if you have a collective bulk of data. Even if Ubi don't make use of it, they could easily have tens of companies willing to pay big money to established databases especially if they can scalp limited tracking cookies.