Ubisoft finally lets Steam players skip Connect - but it starts with just one game

Anyone who has grabbed an Assassin's Creed in a Steam sale knows the ritual. You click Play, Steam starts, then a second launcher pops up, wants you to log in, maybe updates itself, and only then does the game you actually paid for start. On a Steam Deck it's even more annoying. So yes, I'll admit it: this is one of those rare Ubisoft announcements I read twice to make sure I got it right.

Ubisoft and Valve say the Ubisoft Connect PC app will no longer have to launch alongside Ubisoft games on Steam. Instead, there's a new tool called Ubisoft Connect Services, running on the Steam side, which keeps the things the launcher was supposedly there for - cross-progression, cross-play, player safety tools, challenges and rewards - without the extra window. The test starts with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Ubisoft says the service will gradually expand to more of its Steam catalogue.

Now the fine print, because there's always some. First, this is one game, and it's a 2024 release that's been out for a while - not Assassin's Creed, not Far Cry, not The Division. Nobody has said which titles are next or when, and it's unclear whether older games will get the change at all. Second, the online services aren't going anywhere: from what's been reported, your Ubisoft account is still part of the deal, it's just handled more quietly. Third, the rollout itself was a bit messy - the announcement briefly vanished after going up and was only made properly public the next day. And nothing has been said about the Epic Games Store, where Connect also starts with every Ubisoft game.

Why does it matter here? Because in our region, Steam basically *is* the PC store. Most people I know don't have a Ubisoft account because they wanted one - they have it because some game forced them to make it, usually years ago, and half of them don't remember the password. Every extra launcher is another login, another background process on an older laptop, another thing that breaks when an update goes sideways. For someone who bought a Ubisoft game for a few euros in a sale, that friction is often the difference between actually playing it and leaving it to gather dust in the library.

It's also a quiet admission. For years, Ubisoft insisted Connect was an essential part of the experience. Now it turns out the essential parts can live inside Steam just fine. Better late than never - but I'll celebrate properly when it reaches the games people actually play, not a Metroidvania from 2024.

Image: Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gamescom_2009_-_Ubisoft_(5070).jpg