Ubisoft is testing a major change for its games on Steam, beginning with a new system that no longer requires the full Ubisoft Connect PC launcher to be installed or opened alongside Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Steam has hosted many of Ubisoft’s biggest PC releases over the years, although players have traditionally had to pass through the publisher’s own software before actually getting into their games.
Ubisoft has maintained its own PC ecosystem and storefronts for much of the past two decades, beginning with Uplay before eventually folding that service and Ubisoft Club into Ubisoft Connect in 2020. The platform brought together features such as rewards, challenges, cross-progression, and other online services, but it also meant many Steam purchases still required a second launcher to play. Opening an Ubisoft game through Steam would always trigger Ubisoft Connect, another login, another update process, and another potential point of failure before the game itself actually started. That extra step has long been one of the most common frustrations of playing Ubisoft games on PC for quite some time.
Ubisoft Is Making Its Steam Games Easier to Launch
Ubisoft is now testing a way around that launcher problem with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. According to an announcement posted to the game’s Steam page, a new Ubisoft Connect Steam Services tool is launching and preserves features including cross-progression, cross-play, player safety, challenges, and rewards without requiring the Ubisoft Connect PC launcher to be installed or launched. Ubisoft described the current version as an initial step toward “a smoother and more streamlined” Steam launch process, with plans to continue improving the tool over time. The company also confirmed that Ubisoft Connect Services will progressively expand to more Ubisoft games on Steam, although it has not revealed which titles will receive the change next.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
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The new approach could be especially useful for Steam Deck owners. Third-party launchers can add extra friction to handheld hardware by adding login prompts, update screens, or interfaces designed primarily for desktop PCs while fans can only use a controller. Removing the need to open Ubisoft Connect separately should make supported games feel closer to the usual Steam experience, particularly once a player’s Ubisoft and Steam accounts are already linked. Early fan discussion on Reddit around changes coming to The Lost Crown has also been positive, particularly among Steam Deck users who have spent years dealing with secondary launchers on SteamOS. Ubisoft Connect isn’t disappearing fully, but moving its underlying services into the background could make it much less noticeable.
The change also fits into Ubisoft’s gradual return to Valve’s storefront. The publisher shifted many of its major PC releases away from Steam beginning in 2019 before bringing games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to the storefront several years later. Since then, Steam has once again become an increasingly important destination for Ubisoft releases, even as many of those games continued to require Ubisoft Connect. Removing the full launcher requirement addresses one of the biggest remaining differences between buying a Ubisoft title and many other games directly through Steam, while still allowing the publisher to retain its account ecosystem and features such as cross-progression.
For now, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is serving as the test case, and Ubisoft has not said whether every compatible game in its back catalog will eventually receive the same treatment. The company has only confirmed that Ubisoft Connect Services will evolve and roll out to additional Steam games over time. Players may therefore still encounter the traditional launcher with plenty of Ubisoft titles for the foreseeable future. Even so, after years of opening one launcher simply to trigger another, allowing Steam users to keep Ubisoft’s online features without separately running Ubisoft Connect represents a meaningful improvement to the publisher’s PC experience.
- Released
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January 18, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen Due To Blood, Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Ubisoft Montpellier
