Ubisoft Removing Games Bought From 3rd Party Sites

Article.

Open letter on the official Ubi forums.

The only time I've ever used one of these services was when I bought my Diablo 3 key, from g2play. So far, I haven't had any problems with it, but yeah... buyer beware.

u should only buy keys from authorised resellers. see no problem here

Ubi has been very scummy recently, but I can't fault this.

I recall getting splinter cell blacklist for 9 dollars from a promotion key I got from a cd key site. Unless the keys are very cheap I would suggest waiting for it to go on sale on steam or gmg.

Keyword here being "unauthorized".

This really isn't news for the most part, other than informing users who might have bought one.

Since companies often like to sell games in Oceanic regions at 120-130% the US price digitally, I tend to frequent resellers for a fairer deal.

Ubisoft is has become more greedy than EA. The company has become too big and there is a lot of mismanagement due to that. Last year for Ubisoft was terrible.

Protip: don't buy from unauthorized sellers.

lol at all the whiny bitches taking their anger out on Ubisoft. They should be directing that anger at the retailers who sold them the shady ass keys in the first place.

Sucks for those who buy stolen keys from shady Russians. No fucks given here.

There should be more info on what constitutes an authorized reseller, though.

I have a friend who buys from Kinguin, insisting it's the same as Gamersgate or Green Man Gaming. I keep telling him it's not, but I guess he'll only learn when he loses a bunch of games on Steam...

I understand why ubi did this, but it seems they didn't communicate that to the user. They just removed the games without explanation, which is kind of shitty of them

I don't think it should have been removed. They should have just frozen any newly added unauthorized game.

I don't see any problems here. I've been warning people for years not to take the cheaper, riskier option.

There's a reason these sites have such low prices, and there's always the added cost of them not working or being revoked.

It sucks for the people who bought from them, but hopefully people learn from this.

So let get this straight, people bought a digital code for AC Unity or Far Cry 4 from a third party website(which is completely legal).. So Ubisoft decides to jump into their Steam libraries and completely delete the game that they bought with real money? What the ****? A stupid stunt like this from Ubisoft is only going to lead to more piracy.

Attempts to force you to overpay.

If ever a **** existed: it's Ubisoft.

You know what should be illegal though. Ubisoft selling a buggy ass game for £50-55.

Exactly: they can get fucked.

I usually buy directly from the source to avoid this sort of thing happening to me.

What have the 3rd parties in question said about the deletion of games? If they were in the right shouldn't they have said something by now?

I just place an order at Ubisoft. I do millions in revenue each year for Ubisoft, so i buy directly from the source.

I buy the boxed games. Ubisoft ships me the boxed games. I deliver the games to retailers (Amazon, G2A, Kinguin, FNAC, Media Markt etc). G2A / Kinguin sell the scanned codes out of the retail box.

I have seen a transcript of a portugese customer with a banned code of Far Cry 4, a game i supplied to one of the key retailers.

The question that arises here:

What power does Ubisoft have to deactivate a product, that has been released in the EU economic market by themselves, and legitimately been sold to consumers within other EU countries.

The product was not illegal. Its pretty black & white based on the EU regulations for freedom of goods. Ubisoft is handling illegally, for certain on the games i sold.

Just saw this on Neogaf implying that what Ubisoft are doing is actually illegal. Uh oh Ubisoft, you might have some lawsuits coming your way.

Great..just checked and Assassins Creed Unity is gone from my account........the worst thing is no email no notification its just gone,i would be less pissed if i had some info letting me know when and why,but instead nothing.

You go to a professional looking site endorsed by major youtubers,you expect it to be legit and you do not expect to get your stuff taken from you.

Thats it i'm done with ubisoft now permanantly i have given them far too many chances they do not get a single penny from me ever again...they are nothing but a pain,from now on i get UBI games by other means,funny thing is i only just started buying ubisoft games again after 4 years because of their stupid always on DRM(note: i did not pirate them just a avoided them),so less that a year later and i'm back to avoiding them again.

The standard price for PC games here is £34.99 they reckon they can charge 49.99-59.99 for crappy ports...**** em,they are forcing me to do something i have not done in years and get back my game i paid for...and you know what this time im actually going to love doing it. :P

Since Ubisoft are the pit of all evil: rivaling ISIS, one can hope.

Never buy Ubisoft games.

Also to note, G2A are giving full refunds to anyone that is affected. Who are the scum bags here again? LOL. Ubisoft. They are just extremely pissed that nobody is buying their overpriced crap on their Uplay store.

For the first time ever i get to say this on SW to you.

I agree with you completely :P

I can't even play the game with my 360 controller. At least if they delete my game and block my key I can request a refund from the reseller.

As it stands I can't play the game, and they are ignoring my tickets and forum posts in regards to the controller issue. O' happy days

Just contacted G2a and they want a screenshot of confirmation from Ubisoft that this is happening before they will do anything.

This is far too much hassle for a half assed port :P

Edit: the cheeky fucks even auto delete the game from your harddrive.....

Except it isn't legal when those keys have either been stolen or illegitimately procured by the seller.

There are plenty of legit re-sellers out there who drastically undercut the Steam store (I use Bundle Stars myself).

I always find it funny when people can actually attribute "evil" (for example) to an entity within the entertainment industry, even though purchasing from them is entirely optional.

Ubisoft is not evil. They literally don't affect anyone negatively at all. They're just like, "less good", and naive little kids, who take the whole thing for granted, actually get their feelings hurt because of that. lmao

Well that's kind of shitty. Unless these were stolen keys, does Ubisoft even have a legal precedent for doing what they're doing? I thought the company acknowledged the legitimacy of re-sale when they created their Uplay passport programme.

Above all, it's really poor handling of PR. These people weren't pirates or criminals; they were legitimate customers looking for a cheap, legal version of Ubisoft games. Rather than snatching back their product, and leaving consumers with a sour taste of Ubi business practices, why not take it up with the re-sellers/auction sites directly? G2A, for example, is a big company with its own reputation to worry about. If they're doing something illegal, they can take personal responsibility for that.

I still hate EA more. I'm suffering right now from Origin. It's downloading backwardly :D

When did I say I didn't understand? I do understand, and the reasoning is fucking backwards.

Joining the KKK is optional.

@naz99: Dont buy stolen games and you dont have to worry in the future...

Word. Ubifail can't seem to make good games these days.

What are you talking about...i didnt by stolen games and i have never had to worry before

I still have not been informed as to why it has happened, so i don't even know why it was removed which means im pretty sure you don't have a clue.

So your uninformed opinion and misplaced advice mean nothing.

Exactly.

They could have atleast sent out emails in advance letting people know why its going to be removed. Such a dick move on their part

Reminds me of a TotalBiscuit video about 7000 keys for Sniper Elite 3 being revoked due to stolen keys. People flipped out at Rebellion calling them crooks and thieves and that it was illegal. I don't know that much about law and it's always touchy when it comes to digital property, but it seems the people who knew what they were talking about all said Rebellion was within their rights. From what I gathered you have to turn over any stolen property, whether you knew it was stolen or not, and are not entitled to a refund/reimbursement. From the articles I read regarding Ubisoft and this incident it's hard to say 100% if it's in regards to stolen keys or shady business practice (I did only read a few brief ones). I've heard mixed things of course as people are frustrated, but if it does turn out to be stolen keys than people need to calm down and point at themselves for once. Some products are cheap for a reason.

It seems they are trying to close off walls and fully control digital distribution.

Which means you getting fucked royally.

If that is the case, I may never buy a Ubisoft game again. I've never been tempted to resort to piracy before, but I'll be 100% honest here, this time I am.

I'm not sure on the legality of the situation here...I'm reading various things from both sides and haven't made up my mind yet. With that said, while I don't use these 3rd party sites I am not surprised in the least this has happened. The fact they are selling brand new games $20-30 cheaper than every other reputable retailer kind of points to something fishy going on. I've seen them before and while saving money appeals to me, I kinda figured something like this would happen.

Just recently prior to this they bumped the price up on steam from £29.99 to £59.99. In attempts to make the price equal to that of Uplay, which no logical personal in there right mind would use in comparison.

They knew fucking dam well, as well, that the games they where putting out where buggy as ****. Of course they did. They just didn't give a shit. .

As much as I would like to, I really can't fault them for something like this.

*drops full bottle of Coca-Cola*

What?

I don't think you thought that one out.

Ubisoft's PR team need to be fired, anybody making business decisions should also be fired.

It does not even matter if the keys are stolen, people still bought them under the impression that they were valid keys, which they were because you could download and install the game using them. Once a key has been issued it should not be taken away unless they can prove you stole it, or knowingly bought a stolen key. If Ubisoft have had their keys stolen then it is between them and the thieves that took them not the end user.

And do you really think any of those people who have had their keys revoked are ever going to buy another Ubisoft game again? they are just going to pirate them and I don't blame them if they do, in fact I encourage it.

Now if Ubisoft chose to email/message customer that they have registered a stolen key and that purchasing keys from that specific seller will be revoked in the future if purchased then that would be fine. They should then email a list of banned sellers.As long as there was some warning.

Expecting people to be able to tell a sketchy deal from a legit one is all well and good, but people are still gonna be pissed you're taking away access to a game they paid for.....

You can punish the consumer instead of the trying to do something about the sketchy retailers but you'll just end up hurting yourself

"All customers affected by this action will receive a refund from G2A, even if G2A is neither responsible for this procedure nor can influence it. I think it is important to note that G2A is a marketplace, in comparison to a shop or an outlet."

I think that's the problem. G2A is more like eBay than GamersGate or GOG. Every now and then you're gonna get screwed there, but from what I've been reading, their support team is excellent.

Gotta be careful what you buy.