One thing that has long bugged me about Ubisoft’s involvement in Xbox and PC Game Pass is how terrible their PC versions are.
I literally tweeted about this the other week. Every time I turn on my Xbox Ally, I’m greeted with recommendations for Ubisoft+ Classics as part of my Game Pass subscription. There are a ton of great Ubisoft games available on Xbox PC and Xbox PC handhelds, but they never have Xbox achievements, they don’t support Xbox Play Anywhere, and they don’t support cloud saves. “Do not buy these,” I wrote. Well, Ubisoft is at least fixing that last part.
Announced on Xbox Wire today, Microsoft and Ubisoft announced an extended collaboration between the firms.
For Xbox Series X|S players, if you own the following Ubisoft games, you will now be able to access the PC versions for free. Sadly, it doesn’t work in the opposite direction for users who purchased Ubisoft games via the Xbox PC store.
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
- Far Cry 6
- Immortals Fenyx Rising
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
- Riders Republic
- Skull and Bones
- The Crew 2
- The Crew Motorfest
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Watch Dogs Legion
A couple of weeks ago, Ubisoft added over 80 games to the Xbox PC store, many of which are included in Ubisoft+ Classics, which is included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
NONE of these games support Xbox Play Anywhere, however. Meaning you won’t get achievements, save synchronicity, or any other Xbox-adjacent features. These are the most basic, lazy-ass ports Ubisoft could commit to, despite the fact Ubisoft+ Classics has inflated the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. EA games on Xbox PC are similarly bad at supporting Xbox core functionality.
“From today, customers that purchase a digital version of the listed titles will immediately get the XBOX console and XBOX on PC digital versions. For existing owners of an XBOX digital version of the listed titles, you will receive the PC version during a progressive rollout period until August 4.”
In order to access these titles, you need to have the latest version of the similarly poor Ubisoft Connect PC app, which as of writing, won’t update for me and simply returns an error. If only Microsoft provided a decent delivery mechanism for games publishers could use instead.
On the plus side, the games are at least well-optimized for handhelds like the Xbox Ally X. And some do include progression syncing between PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles via Ubisoft Connect (when it works). Although the functionality is invariably poorer than Xbox’s own via Play Anywhere.
While this is at least a nice gesture, it’s still incredibly frustrating that Ubisoft refuses to implement even the most basic Xbox features on Xbox PCs and heldhelds like the Xbox Ally. If you want a “true” Xbox experience for these games, you’re honestly better off streaming them from Xbox Cloud Gaming or Xbox Remote Play.
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