Ubisoft is bringing a number of its biggest games to Steam for the first time since 2019.
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The publisher announced the change in a statement released to The Verge, marking Ubisoft’s return to the platform.
“We’re constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are, while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect,” said Ubisoft spokesperson Jessica Roache.
As The Verge notes, it is not clear if this means Ubisoft will now release all of its games on Steam, or if it will do so on a case-by-case basis. However, Roach did add that Ubisoft “never stopped our relationship with Valve,” having released downloadable content (DLC) for its games already on the platform.
Ubisoft titles such as The Division 2 and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint have been released on the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft’s own digital distribution platform Ubisoft Connect, but haven’t appeared on Steam since 2019.
The current lineup of titles coming to Steam include Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which will launch on the platform on December 6 – coinciding with the game’s final content update. Alongside Valhalla, Ubisoft’s Anno 1800 and Roller Champions are also coming to Steam.
The Epic Games Store is well-known for offering publishers lucrative exclusivity deals to bring their games to the platform. Additionally, it offers a more generous revenue split for game sales, allowing developers to keep 88 per cent of their game’s revenue, while Steam offers just 70 per cent.
And while it isn’t explicitly known why Ubisoft stopped releasing games on Steam (and why they have begun to do so again), the Steam page for Anno 1800 offers a hint.
At the time of writing, the game’s Steam page carries the disclaimer that “[s]ales of Anno 1800 will be discontinued on Steam after April 16th due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store.”
It seems likely that Ubisoft has at least a fondness for the Epic Games Store, given that the company’s vice president for partnerships and revenue Chris Early has previously criticised the revenue split on Steam. In an interview with the New York Times, Early suggested that Valve’s business model was outdated.
“It’s unrealistic, the current business model that they have,” said Early. “It doesn’t reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution.”
In other gaming news, Epic Games has added a series of unbranded football-themed skins to Fortnite, as part of a skin line called Let Them Know.
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