Just earlier this month, Nintendo announced the closure of online services for the 3DS and Wii U sometime at the start of 2024. Now, Ubisoft will be doing the same for ten of their games, including four from the beloved Assassin’s Creed franchise.
The main reason for these closures is simply the age of the games. All of them are over a decade old. With technology advancing, companies put their focus in serving more recently released games rather than holding onto the ones with outdated tech. As Ubisoft’s latest blog post explains:
“Decommissioning the online services for older games is something we do not take lightly, however, it is also a necessity as the technology behind these services becomes outdated.”
Another page on the Ubisoft website reassures players that they do have a say in the matter:
“The decision to close the online services for a title is always taken with the consideration of our player base, including the level of interest they still have in the game.”
Ubisoft shutting down these services means players will no longer be able to play multiplayer, sync their Ubisoft account to show in-game updates, or link it at all. Offline mode will still be available for the games affected.
Ubisoft’s last round of shutting down online services happened in October 2022, where another ten titles said goodbye, including other Assassin’s Creed games.
Although many older Assassin’s Creed titles may be losing their online aspects, the decommissioning will hopefully allow Ubisoft to dedicate more resources to the latest release in the series: Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Mirage debuted on October 5, 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows and has a release date for iOS in 2024.
The following games will have their online services decommissioned on January 25, 2024:
- Assassin’s Creed II–Xbox 360
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood–MAC
- Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD–PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
- Assassin’s Creed Revelations–PC
- Ghost Recon Future Soldier–PC
- Heroes of Might and Magic–PC
- NCIS–PC
- R.U.S.E–PC
- Splinter Cell: Conviction–Xbox 360
- Trials Evolution–PC