Ubisoft delays decommission date for older games to October

Ubisoft has revealed that its initial plans to shut down online services for its older titles, such as Assassin's Creed II and Far Cry 3, has been delayed to October 1. Following that date, the online services for over a dozen games will be permanently shut down. 

"Decommissioning online services for older games is something we do not take lightly, but it is also a necessity as the technology that drove those services becomes obsolete," wrote Ubisoft. "Over the last month, our teams have been hard at work exploring what is possible to reduce disruption." 

Back in July, Ubisoft announced that several older titles across franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Just Dance, and Far Cry would be decommissioned. Following backlash, it clarified that only DLC and online services for those specific games would be affected, and that the games, if already owned, could still be played and redownloaded post-decommission.

One game saved from the culling is the city-building game Anno 2070. It was originally meant to be decommissioned, but Ubisoft has now said a task force has upgraded the game and replaced its old servers, making it playable for the foreseeable future.

The games being decommissioned includes Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed III, along with Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Rayman Legends. 

DLC of the affected games that have multiplayer components, such as Brotherhood's "Animus Project Update," will no longer be available if activated after the shutdown date. Single player DLC for those particular games will remain playable after October 1, but Ubisoft advised players to download said DLC if they haven't already. 

The city-building game Anno 2070 was originally on the list of decommissioned games, but Ubisoft has now said that a task force has upgraded the game and replaced its old servers, making it playable for the forseeable future.  

The versions of Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations that were packaged in the Ezio Collection re-release for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are not affected by this. 

You got that summer server shutdown

Server shutdowns are nothing new. Eventually, an older game stops bringing in enough revenue to justify supporting it, to say nothing of that technology being so older that developers can't support it anymore. 

But the summer of 2022 in particular has felt like a bloodbath as games have lost their online functionality. In July, Guerrilla Games announced that it would be shutting down the online servers for its PS4 titles, Killzone: Shadow Fall and RIGS Mechanized Combat League. 

June saw the shut down of the 2011 MMORPG Tera, as developer Bluehole felt it could "no longer provide the satisfying content that Tera players deserve." 

And that's just the older games. Yesterday, Nintendo announced that its four-year-old mobile RPG Dragalia Lost would shut down for good in November.