Ubisoft’s E3 2019 presentation introduced a new subscription service to compete with Xbox Game Pass, a new Watch Dogs game taking place in a dystopian London, and an Apple TV+ series featuring Rob McElhenney as a game director.
LOS ANGELES—Ubisoft is branching out into several different directions. At its E3 press event, the publisher showed off new games, along with a new subscription service, TV show, symphonic tour, and a deal with Netflix to produce a movie.
PC fans of Ubisoft are already familiar with the UPlay platform, a game launcher and store that coordinates achievements, social media, and various other elements of Ubisoft-published games. That platform will be getting its own subscription later this year with Uplay+, an on-demand games service similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass and EA’s Origin Access.
For $14.99 a month, PC gamers will be able to play any game from a library of approximately 100 Ubisoft games, including the company’s new and upcoming releases.
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Uplay+ will directly download games to your PC, so you can play them without the need for an internet connection. In addition, Ubisoft wants to make the service available to users without serious gaming hardware, so it will bring Uplay+ to Google’s upcoming cloud game service, Stadia in 2020. Interested customers will still need a 10Mbps internet connection, preferable without data caps.
The Uplay+ service will appeal the most to people who’ve yet to fully explore Ubisoft’s game catalog, which includes the popular Far Cry series, along with the Assassin’s Creed games. If you’re interested, Ubisoft is granting gamers about a month of free access if you sign up between now and Aug.15.
Doing so will let you try out Uplay+ from Sept. 3 to Sept. 31 at no cost. However, you’ll have to provide Ubisoft with a valid payment card, which will be charged the full amount the next month, unless you cancel your subscription before then.
Among new games, Watch Dogs: Legion stood out as the biggest announcement for Ubisoft. The third game in the Watch Dogs series takes place in a dystopian London that has become a surveillance state.
While not explicitly a direct commentary on Brexit, the game’s creative director Clint Hocking mentioned Brexit by name at Ubisoft’s presentation, noting that (in the context of the game) «London is at a turning point,» and specifically that one of the threats in Watch Dogs: Legion’s London is «deportation squads.
