Ubisoft Announces Plans to Make Its Games Available on Steam

Three Ubisoft products from the last several years are now available on Steam after previously being unavailable on the platform. These will be some of the only Ubisoft titles to be released on Steam since 2019, while the majority of the publisher’s significant releases from this decade did not.

The Epic Games Store, which opened in late 2018 as a new rival in the digital PC game marketplace, might be one of the reasons for Ubisoft’s absence from Steam. This shop made a notable attempt to attract customers by providing free games and enticing publishers with more favourable revenue splits. Not only that, but Epic Games’ profusion of exclusivity contracts has made Epic Game Store exclusives a big motivator for consumers to utilise the store, something not lost on Ubisoft, which has made several of its PC titles exclusive to the service rather than Valve’s Steam store in recent years.

The news that Ubisoft-published games Anno 1800, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Roller Champions are heading to Steam makes the idea of Ubisoft’s grand return to Steam more realistic, with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla appearing on Steam on December 6. Anno 1800 was formerly available for purchase on Steam in 2019, however, it was quickly removed from the site to make the game exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

According to Ubisoft spokesperson Jessica Roache, these releases are intended to “deliver our games to various audiences wherever they are while ensuring a consistent player ecology through Ubisoft Connect.” There has been no word on whether other Ubisoft titles will be added to Steam in the future. There has also been no official word on how Ubisoft intends to support the Steam Deck with these releases, however, earlier remarks made by Ubisoft officials hint that this support may be on the way shortly.

The strategy of releasing games as timed exclusives on the Epic Games Store has already been used, with AAA titles such as Borderlands 3 and Hitman 3 both appearing on the Epic Games Store at launch and then arriving on Steam a year later. While it looked like Ubisoft would take this route with its PC games at first, two of these upcoming Steam releases are for titles that are well over a year old, indicating that Ubisoft may be intending to make Steam the home for its PC games in the future. The popularity of the Steam Deck may have also affected this decision, however, it is unclear how the publisher intends to promote Valve’s mobile gaming computer.

On December 6, 2022, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be released on Steam.