UbiSoft has received quite a lot of heat from their “UPlay” DRM system that’s been in use for several years on the console and PC. This system, which does provide some meager rewards to users who register for the site, is basically a secondary online authentication system for UbiSoft’s games.

Assassin’s Creed 4 uses this system, and UbiSoft locked some single-player content behind an “Online Pass” tied to it, which people who bought the game used would have to pay extra for. Prior to the release of the game, UbiSoft realized how bad it would look to lock single-player content behind a paywall, so they made the “Online Pass” (or UPlay Passport in this case) free.

However, a bug in the UPlay system itself is locking PlayStation 4 users out of this single-player content, even if they already redeemed their UPlay Passport code.

According to users experiencing the issue, and cross-references with those not having the problem, it all comes down to the expanded PSN friends list. In the previous generation, PS3 and Vita users were limited to 100 PSN friends. With the arrival of the PS4, you can now have up to 2,000 people on your PSN friends list. This is where the bug in UPlay is locking people out of single-player AC4 content.

Since the “fleets” feature of the single-player mode of Assassin’s Creed 4 requires you to login to the UPlay servers, people with more than 99 PSN friends cannot currently access this feature as they cannot connect to UPlay on their systems. Players with fewer than 99 friends can connect normally and use every feature of the game they paid $60 for.

As of this time, Tweets to UbiSoft’s official UPlay account only result with them telling you to contact support. If you contact support, you don’t get any resolution, as this is a bug in the software and servers and not something a $10-an-hour temp working the phones can fix for you…

Source

Since i have over 100 friends on PSN (Thank you GB PS4 PSN ID Thread!) I cannot access the Ubisoft servers thus locking me out of the fleet content. It can be resolved by deleting friends and going under the 100 friends limit. Hope Ubisoft can resolve this issue.

UPDATE

Looks like it is affecting the Xbone aswell

This all makes a bit more sense now. I've seen the same thing.

I was redeeming the code on Friday (our launch in the UK) so I just thought it was PSN bugging, out but I still can not access UPlay even though PSN reports that the passport is installed.

I've contacted support via a ticket but I doubt I will hear back from them.

Ugh, guess I should see who hasn't logged on in a while...

@starvinggamer: I will give Ubisoft another week to fix this. If not I will need to delete some friends as well.

Is this also a bug in the PC version? I got it in the NVidia promo bundle with my 770, and I'd like to see as much of the game as I can...

@greggd: From what i have been seeing from gaf, reddit and Ubisoft support forums it looks like the bug is only on the PS4 version.

Ah, thanks for posting this thread. I believe I do have more than 100 friends, so I guess it's time to clean the list up.

Edit: Turns out I actually had less than 100 friends. I deleted some anyways because I had over 90, but I still can't access the fleet content on PS4.

@jimmyfenix: Awesome, thank you.

I'm sure it has something to do with the new friend list size but I only have around 70 people on my list and the bug still happens. No reply to my Ubi support ticket yet either.

Is it just the sending ships on missions and multiplayer past level ten that me are missing out on?

I cant connect to the servers either and I only have 10 people on my friends list...

Also worth noting that if you have over 50 uplay friends, the companion app will not work (at least the android version will not).

Sometimes i wish Microsoft had gone ahead with their always connected philosophy to see what a fucking shit fight it would be.

Yay for server reliability.

Ah, just found this issue too. Going to have to delete a lot of my new GB uPlay chums. :(

@avantegardener: I have 200 friends on PSN i do not want to delete them :(

I'm not sure about uPlay on PSN (I'm on PC) is there a way to remove them from uPlay only? In the grand scheme of things the companion app is minor part of the game that can be done from in game, probably not worth ditching your PSN online friends for :)

I'd ditch the people, if you do the Kenway's Fleet content you get treasure maps, money, and items for your mansion on Great Inagua. The maps and money are the most useful since some of those maps lead to Jackdaw ship upgrades. But, seeing rare treasures on the appear on the shelves of the mansion is fun too.

My guess, 101 of the people on your PS4 friend list don't need to be there, so why lose out on 'in game' gear just to have people you don't know on your friends list.

@monkeyking1969: It will take a while to delete 101 friends ! but i will delete them soon. Free money seems great.