Ubisoft begins removing its Connect launcher requirement from Steam games

Ubisoft is testing a way to drop the mandatory Connect launcher from Steam, starting with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, easing life for Linux and Steam Deck players.

AI-drafted from 5 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

Ubisoft has started testing a way to let Steam players run its games without installing or launching the separate Ubisoft Connect client. The first title to get it is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and the change was confirmed in a Steam post for the game, as reported by GamingOnLinux and Eurogamer.

Ubisoft Connect, once called Uplay, has bolted itself onto every Ubisoft game bought on Steam or the Epic Games Store for years, firing up in the background whenever you hit play. It handles cross progression, cross play, challenges and account linking, useful things, but the client itself has a reputation for breaking after updates and demanding reinstalls at inconvenient moments. That reputation is worse still on SteamOS and desktop Linux, where Windows-only launchers add another layer of Proton compatibility to worry about, as commenters on the r/linux_gaming thread and GamingOnLinux's own comment section were quick to point out.

What Ubisoft Connect Services actually does

The new system is called Ubisoft Connect Services, and according to Ubisoft's own wording, quoted by GamingOnLinux, it is “a new Ubisoft Connect Services Steam tool that keeps Ubisoft game features such as cross-progression, cross-play, player safety, challenges and rewards, among others, without requiring the Ubisoft Connect PC launcher to be installed or launched.” Ubisoft describes this as “an initial step toward a smoother and more streamlined launch experience on Steam” and says the tool “will progressively evolve and roll out to more Ubisoft games on Steam in the future.” No timetable for that wider rollout has been given.

The announcement itself had a slightly farcical run up. GamingOnLinux notes that Ubisoft published the news early, pulled it, and then republished it properly, which is why some outlets reported the change before Ubisoft's public statement went live. Eurogamer's own story was updated a day after its original post once Ubisoft's statement became public. It is still not clear whether players will need to link a Ubisoft account to Steam under the new system, something Connect currently requires.

Why now, and what is still missing

TechSpot frames this as part of a longer retreat back toward Steam. Ubisoft pulled its games from Steam for years to push Connect and the Epic Games Store, reversed that policy in 2022, then moved Star Wars Outlaws' Steam release forward to boost flagging sales and committed to day-one Steam releases for Assassin's Creed Shadows. TechSpot also reports that Ubisoft's share price has fallen more than 90 percent over five years and that the company began a reorganisation in January, alongside noting that its Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake was considered a commercial hit. Removing the launcher requirement, TechSpot suggests, may be as much about removing friction for potential buyers as it is a goodwill gesture.

Reaction on GamingOnLinux and Reddit has been cautiously positive rather than celebratory. Several commenters note that the DRM and account requirements tied to Connect are not going anywhere, only the visible launcher window. One GamingOnLinux commenter suggests the launcher has effectively been swapped for a background service that runs separately from the game, which could still misbehave, and another describes losing 22 hours of save progress after a recent forced Connect reinstall broke cloud sync entirely, a reminder that Ubisoft's account infrastructure has its own history of letting players down. Neither EA nor Rockstar has announced any similar move for their Steam launchers, per TechSpot, which makes this look, for now, like a Ubisoft-specific experiment rather than an industry shift.

Sources

Image: GamingOnLinux

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