PC Gamers had reason to be somewhat concerned last last week when Ubisoft’s fall lineup vanished from Steam. Yesterday those games returned to the digital distributor, but questions remain as to whether they will stay there.
The disappearance from Steam of Assassin’s Creed Unity, Far Cry 4, The Crew, and several other Ubisoft games set for release this year, dubbed Ubigate by the community, was not the result of a malfunction, but an apparent dispute between Valve and Ubisoft. The two companies had some sort of dispute stemming from the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity on Steam, and as a result a representative from Ubisoft, speaking to PCGamesN, said:
We’ve been in discussions with Valve about Assassin’s Creed Unity but for the time being the game is not available via Steam in the UK. In the meantime, UK customers wishing to purchase the game digitally can do so by visiting the Uplay store, our retail partners or other digital distributors.
Shortly after, the Steam listings for other games from Ubisoft were pulled from the United States as well, with users greeted by error messages when attempting to access the games from their wishlists.
However, yesterday the games returned to Steam for all regions and can still be pre-ordered. Neither Ubisoft nor Valve have made any statement regarding this, but given Ubisoft’s vehement promotion of its own unpopular digital platform, Uplay, it is safe to assume that this issue isn’t quite over.