Ubisoft Halts Unity's Season Pass, Offers Free Stuff

Assassin's Creed Unity's technical issues have been well-documented, and Ubisoft's trying to own up to them. The company today announced a series of steps it's taking to apologize.

"Unfortunately, at launch, the overall quality of the game was diminished by bugs and unexpected technical issues," said Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat in a letter. "I want to sincerely apologize on behalf of Ubisoft and the entire Assassin's Creed team. These problems took away from your enjoyment of the game, and kept many of you from experiencing the game at its fullest potential."

First, sales on Unity's season pass have stopped. It's possible Ubisoft will reverse course, but not for the moment. Ubisoft is offering Unity's Dead Kings downloadable content, once scheduled for the season pass, to anyone who bought Unity. There's no release date for Dead Kings, but it's coming "soon."

If you already purchased a season pass (or bought a version of the game bundled with a season pass), Ubisoft's offering you a free game. We're not talking something from the company's back catalog, either. Watch Dogs, Far Cry 4, The Crew, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Rayman Legends, and Just Dance 2015 are part of the lineup. One of those isn't even out yet, and several of those games are pretty darn good.

Though the season pass is no longer for sale, the promised content will still roll out in the months ahead.

I wonder if this means that DLC content has been cancelled or trimmed down. Why else would they offer a game in exchange and cancel sales of the pass altogether?

While it would be nice if games just shipped in a more finished state, this is the right sort of response when it doesn't. If anything, this sort of expensive goodwill campaign will make companies like Ubisoft invest more in making sure the game isn't so technically flawed in the future.

As I said on GameSpot when I first read about it - this is more than fair compensation. It doesn't excuse putting out half baked products of course, but they've been constantly patching and as mentioned above, it's not like they're giving you Assassins Creed 2 or something. Far Cry 4 just came out and received good reviews and The Crew isn't even out yet. However you slice it, you're getting a $60 game for the price of a DLC pass, and your game is being actively worked on.

It's nice to see a company own up to it's mistakes and give the players something for their troubles.

@finaldasa: Well it seems they're offering the game as a "We're sorry" thing. And I think they cancelled the season pass so people don't buy it simply to get a free game. I think once the goodwill campaign is over, it will be available again.

I cannot believe they're giving away Far Cry 4 and The Crew. I'm guessing not many people bought the pass.

Kudos to them. That's pretty amazing. I want Far Cry 4. What happens if I try to buy the pass now?

@spraynardtatum: You can't. The season pass is no longer for sale.

They're taking DLC that was going to be part of the season pass, and giving it away for free to apologize for the issues.

Thus, they're giving away the free game as a make good to people that have already pre-purchased that content that will now be free, and removing the season pass from the store so that more people don't end up buying it when some of that content will now be free.

And like that, the technical shitfest that Unity launched in is forgotten.

See you all next year!

Geez, I wish I had bought that Season Pass now. Free game! Of course, I don't even have the game, but you know.

Yannis Mallat is an awesome name, but I'm not sure about this. Seems too much of an "just put it out, we'll deal with it later". And here they are, dealing with it.

Or am I a pessimist?

I don't understand how anyone can support this company. They knowingly shipped a game that wasn't properly finished so they can make the holiday and now this colossal fuck up of giving a game away instead of a full refund.

Can't wait for people to endlessly complain about The Crew but still buy it. Vote with you wallet people.

@mcmax3000: Ok gotcha. That makes sense then. Good on them for doing something like this.

I agree, but that's also a personal valuation. Ubi ought to have offered SP holders the option of a refund (of the SP's cost) or one of those titles as compensation. I think the compensation is fair, but don't be surprised if the lack of a refund option, for a product the company has come out and said was broken, generates more than a few lawsuits.

That press release is a masterclass in PR spin too. Some of the shit they spout. "Unexpected technical issues", yep, because you had no idea at all about the terrible state you were releasing a full priced video game at.

It's great they're offering early adopters a free game, but it's also kinda frustrating how places are just rehashing the terrible press release and just going "FREE GAMES!", like Ubisoft are great again.

They would have to prove the game was in fact broken. As far as I know, no one was unable to simply play or complete Unity as a result of these bugs. There were performance dips and some jankiness, but none of it was severe enough to actually warrant a full refund.

Of course as you said this notion heavily falls under the personal opinion category.

This is the right move, but no one should be thanking Ubisoft for this. They should still be mad that they released a clearly unfinished game.

Appeasement won't fix your problems Ubisoft.

@finaldasa: Becouse their game shipped in a fucked up state, did you miss the whole article?

I'm not sure about any of this. The fact that the weapons for the DLC are already listed in the game after today's update all feels a bit... off. Strikes me that all the Dead King's content has probably been finished and ready to go for a while now, and they were deliberately holding it back from the retail game for DLC (and money grabbing) purposes. Which is shitty as hell if that is the case.

This is nice for the people who are already burned but it doesn't change my view. Don't ship busted products. Full stop. I'm not buying until it's worth the money.

Microsoft and Sony need to be held accountable for allowing this game to be sold for their respective consoles as well. Anytime these companies mention "certification process", it's laughable now.

At least they are owning up to it and trying to make amends

Not only are we going to have "worst trend" and/or "hottest mess" awards again this year, hoping we get a category for "best make-good for a broken game."

Some good freebies in that list, so if Halo wants to win, they need to offer everyone who bought MCC a remastered version of ODST for free. I'm sure we'll get that about the same time Dreamcast 2 is revealed.

Or maybe, developers/publishers can just stop releasing games that aren't bloody ready?

The people that seem 'happy' for this are in the exactposition big publishers like Ubisoft want you to be in, because they know they can absolutely take massive liberties with them and then when people kick up enough of a fuss, they can just fix it by offering a free game, a little bit of PR spin and hey, Ubisoft are legends for offering free games! Ubisoft are so great!

Hmph. You didn't see EA giving free games only to "season pass" owners they gave it to everyone who bought Simcity and that's how it should be for this game.

Sincerely fuck you Ubisoft :)

That free game thing is pretty cool, cause they could've easily offered backlog games and said deal with it, instead those that paid for the Season pass (20 or 30 probably) can get a regular priced 60 game (like FC4).

Doesn't make it ok for the condition of the game that was released, but it is a start.

@bojangle said:

Whatever you may think offering up free AAA games aint exactly "a little bit of PR spin" and its certanly not Ubisofts preffered business model. Ubisoft is hurting right now and they have pressed the panic button.

@rethla: I was referring to the wording used in the press release. Such as "unexpected technical issues" which is just a flat out lie as they were fully aware of the state the game was in at launch.

@thizzle7xu said:

You know, that's a good point. I'm not necessarily of the mind that MS or Sony have to offer up some sort of compensatory action, but I think the likes of BF4 and now AC:U being so borked at launch ought to prompt some kind of clear communication from them as to their certification process and how it'll be improved going forward. I know there is a great amount of pressure when it comes to getting these big titles out the door, especially during the holiday season, but as we can see it only hurts all parties involved; now because of this freebie offer by Ubi, on the cusp of Black Friday, retailers are likely to lose out on potential sales of the above mentioned games, it's a blow to the earnings report of Ubi, and it potentially damages the relationship between Sony/MS and other developers/publishers whose games languished in certification hell-- potentially hurting sales by missing a prime launch window-- while these bigger "prestige" titles get pushed out the door in the state they did.

@asilentprotagonist: Yes and the games where old and had to be aquired via Origin. Its amazing that they offered Sim City 4 tho :)

Ubisoft is offering the DLC Dead Kings to everyone and if Freedom cry is the reference its not a bad offer.

Great to see them owning up to their mistakes by buying people off, hoping they'll forget this whole affair so they can continue to do this crap. Also great to see them spending ressources on DLC for a game that is apparently barely fucking functional. That's an anal way to look at things I know, but at this point, there isn't much reason for me to trust that company.

It's good that they are being honest about all of this and the free game choice is good compensation. Hoping they learn from this and can fix this game and move on with better games in the future.

@sirfork said:

Glass half full kinda guy, huh?

The free DLC thing is kind of a lame apology, "hey, here's this game so bad we have to apologize for it by giving you more of this game that's so bad we had to apologize for it." The free game thing is pretty awesome though. I'd definitely feel pretty burned right now had I bought that. FarCry 4 is a good apology.

Sucks that I already own Far Cry 4, Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, and Rayman Legends. I have no interest in The Crew whatsoever and even less in any edition of Just Dance. I'd rather have (all or part of) my money for the season pass back or a discount for a future purchase. So now I'll have two copies of Far Cry 4... great.

So many apologies!

Something tells me that Ubisoft won't learn anything from this.

Where can I buy the season pass?!

Giving out those games for free is pretty insane. At least they are taking this stuff seriously... Now if they'd just learn something form this as well.

Good candidate for Apology of the Year.

i liked AC:Unity

so this welcome news

i finished the game and did not want to leave that world

i fired up DA:I and FarCry (i have a hard time with FPS(s))

and turned them off and started play AC:Unity again...

what can i say liked the game had the fun and i don't hate ubi

Wow, I mean I gotta hand it to them that is not a terrible way to say "my bad"

How about skip next years game and work on it so its bug free?

or dont churn out a last gen version thats actually better?

@bojangle: Heh, always have been.

@finaldasa: "Ubisoft is offering Unity's Dead Kings downloadable content, once scheduled for the season pass, to anyone who bought Unity."

What I'm wondering is this: Would they have lost more revenue delaying the release of the game until it was ready than they are from this giveaway?