UPDATE: Syke

Ubisoft has removed the Uplay Passport from Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag and from all future products. I believe that I was the main reason for this change. With this newfound power I am accepting requests for other program reversals.

Thought this was an interesting bit of news about the new Assassins Creed. Certain content, the ability to add an enemy ship to your fleet if you choose to board it rather than destroy it, is being held from players who buy the game used or borrow from a friend. They can access this content by purchasing a "Uplay Passport" which must be stamped and verified by Blackbeard himself.

Here is a link to the article

Gettin' Dat Paper

My main questions with this:

1. Why?

2. What the hell is a Uplay Passport and do I need it when I travel?

3. Why?

Why are you people still buying stuff from Ubisoft???

Smart.

Because I don't buy used and want to play their games so passes are irrelevant to me?

really?

Gives people a reason to buy it who don't care for multiplayer.

They're just slowly adding DRM to everything. The trick is to do it in small steps so people don't freak out too much when they can't play single player at all without their Uplay Passport.

Trust me, Ass Creed preorder singleplayer dlc is always shit. You arent missing out on anything if you dont buy it new

This is pretty gross. I wish Ubisoft didn't tie serviceable or good games to this kind of nonsense.

Don't care since I don't buy good games used.

I rented it and beat it without that stuff, the game never even touches on it.

@killercombo: It sets a bad precedent. This is an online pass for single player content. The fact that it's pointless doesn't explain why they put it behind a paywall and I actually think that the fact that the actual content meaningless means it makes less sense. Sounds like it certainly isn't worth $10.

Also I find it crazy that we only found out about it after the game has already been released. This was super sneaky!

Uplay has been apart of Assassins creed for a while. I just got AC3 from amazon and decided to finally unwrap revalations so I can get back to playing that series so when I get a ps4, Black Flag can be played without waiting for older ones to be finished as I dont play games in a series before the original.. Except FF.

Seriously. It's like Ubi hates their paying customers.

Why can't more companies be like CD Projekt Red? *le sigh*

This is just going to hurt people who bought the game and not pirates. It's obviously something added in later and this content is already in the game... so one of those cracking groups will figure it out in no time *sigh*. Similar happened with AC2 and its online saves or whatever was going on.

Why are people still buying AC games is even better question. Or why the hell is Ubisoft still making them.

Welp, looks like this restriction was removed, Kotaku. No more Uplay Passports.

In Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, "Edward's Fleet" is an innovative online single player feature that allows players to interact with multiple players on consoles or via the game's companion app. Every new copy of Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag includes the Uplay Passport code needed to unlock this online feature. However, we listen to our community and understand that there are concerns over some players' ability to access this feature, so we have decided to eliminate the cost of the Uplay Passport for Black Flag. This ensures that everyone will be able to use the companion app, Edward's Fleet, online multiplayer and available bonus content at no additional cost.

Also, we will be eliminating the Uplay Passport program from all future Ubisoft games moving forward.

Wow, that's awesome. Good on em

Uplay Gate is horrible, get it out. What happens in Five years when someone wants to play this and they cant get the single player content to work?

I'm pleasantly surprised they eliminated it. I figured they could slip under the radar because of all the other news going on right now, but good on them for making the right choice and listening to public pressure. Power to the people!

@marokai: Yeah seriously. I'm amazed at how fast the change was. I'd kind of love to see how many people actually payed for a Uplay Passport within the span of 1.5 days.