Own a Ubisoft Game on Xbox? You Can Grab the PC Version for Free Now

Honestly, this is the kind of announcement I love writing up, because for once nobody's asking you to pay twice for the same game.

Ubisoft and Xbox just expanded their partnership, and the short version is this: if you own certain Ubisoft games on Xbox, you're getting the PC versions for free through Ubisoft Connect. Existing owners get access in a phased rollout that wraps up by August 4. And going forward, when you buy one of these games digitally on Xbox, both the console and PC versions land in your library automatically. No coupon, no second purchase, no fine-print gymnastics.

The list runs 13 games deep, and it's not filler: Assassin's Creed Mirage, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Far Cry 6, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Riders Republic, Skull and Bones, The Crew 2, The Crew Motorfest, Rainbow Six Extraction, Rainbow Six Siege and Watch Dogs Legion. Even better, most editions and DLC you already own on Xbox carry over to the PC copy too, so you're not rebuying that expansion pass either.

For anyone who splits their time between a couch and a desk, this is a small quiet joy. I've got a nephew who plays on his Xbox at home but ends up on a laptop when he's staying with family, and this is exactly the kind of thing that saves a family from buying Far Cry 6 twice. That's who cross-buy is really for.

The catch, because there's always one

Here's where I have to be honest with you. This deal only flows one way. If you already own one of these games on PC, you don't get the Xbox console version in return. And if your Xbox copy is a physical disc rather than a digital purchase, you're out of luck - discs aren't included in the program.

I get the business logic, but the disc exclusion stings a little. Plenty of people buy physical precisely because they like owning the thing, and they're the ones left out of a perk built around ownership. It would've been a cleaner story without that asterisk.

Still, I'm not going to let the catch swallow the good news. Real, no-strings cross-buy on this many games is rare, and it costs Xbox owners nothing to claim. If any of these are already in your library, go poke around Ubisoft Connect before August 4 and see what shows up. Free is free, and I'll take more of this any day.

Image: Evan-Amos / Public domain, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Microsoft-Xbox-One-Console-Set-wKinect.jpg