Ubisoft Eases Its Steam Strategy With a Smaller Account System

Ubisoft’s new framework, designated “Ubisoft Connect Services,” was deployed in a recent title update for *Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown*, the action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montpellier and released in January 2024. On Steam, the architecture lets PC players use online account features without installing or running the full background desktop application for Ubisoft Connect.

Those features include cross-platform multiplayer, cross-save progression, account challenges, and unlockable rewards. Ubisoft has confirmed plans to integrate Ubisoft Connect Services into additional games across its Steam catalog, although it has not provided a specific rollout schedule.

The change comes as the French video game publisher navigates a multi-year financial slump and structural reorganization. Ubisoft Entertainment SA, headquartered in Montreuil, France, and led by Chief Executive Officer Yves Guillemot, has seen its shares drop by more than 90 percent over the past five years on the Euronext Paris exchange.

The decline has been linked to canceled projects, delayed titles, and underperforming major releases. In January, those pressures prompted Ubisoft to begin a comprehensive corporate reorganization and cost-reduction program. Select projects have still performed well, including a remake of *Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag*, which received strong commercial reception.

Ubisoft spent several years steering PC players away from Valve Corp.’s market-dominating storefront and toward its own client and Epic Games Inc.’s Epic Games Store. The proprietary service launched in 2009 as Uplay and was rebranded as Ubisoft Connect in October 2020.

Starting in early 2019, Ubisoft removed new releases such as *Tom Clancy’s The Division 2* from Steam. The publisher sought to avoid Valve’s standard 30 percent revenue fee while developing direct consumer relationships through its own platform.

That policy began to break down in December 2022, when Ubisoft returned to Steam with delayed releases, beginning with *Assassin’s Creed Valhalla*. Later, persistent revenue shortfalls and underperforming game launches led the company to abandon delayed windows altogether.

After *Star Wars Outlaws*, developed by Massive Entertainment and released in August 2024, failed to meet internal sales projections, Ubisoft moved its Steam launch forward to coincide with the game’s first downloadable content release in an effort to regain commercial momentum. Soon afterward, the publisher said its upcoming flagship title, *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*, would launch day-and-date on Steam alongside other platforms.

By removing the need to run a full secondary client, Ubisoft is addressing a persistent complaint from PC users who prefer Valve’s launcher as a single unified interface. Electronic Arts Inc. continues to require the EA App for its Steam releases, while Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s Rockstar Games requires the Rockstar Games Launcher for titles including *Grand Theft Auto V* and *Red Dead Redemption 2*. Neither EA nor Rockstar has signaled plans to abandon its secondary software client on Valve’s platform.