Share Play, a free Ubisoft gaming service that allows users to “hand the controller” to their online buddies, went live as part of an open test launch earlier this week. However, there are some significant restrictions. The platform’s self-explanatory moniker should not be confused with the noticeably older PlayStation Share Play function, which made its PS4 debut back in 2014 and is still a mainstay of all current PS Plus tiers.
Similar to other Ubisoft-provided gaming tools, Share Play is powered by the Ubisoft Connect app, formerly known as Uplay before a late 2020 redesign. Since its Uplay days, the firm has been attempting to persuade players to join up for an account by offering a range of in-game perks and discounts, even though having one is not required on consoles. On the other hand, the majority of its current PC catalog—including games bought from third parties like Steam—does require a Ubisoft Connect sign-in.
The Share Play open beta is exclusively accessible on PC, and Ubisoft is highly unlikely to extend its reach to more platforms anytime soon. primarily because over the last two hardware generations, both Sony and Microsoft’s consoles natively provided nearly equivalent functionality; the PS4 and PS5 have the aforementioned Share Play feature, whereas Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S offer a similar “game sharing” capability.
Apart from platform compatibility, Ubisoft’s Share Play has only four supported games in its library at the moment: Far Cry 6, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, OddBallers, and Riders Republic. More games are “on the way,” as the firm did promise, but it is still not clear if this expansion will take place before the service exits beta. Public testing of sophisticated networking technology, like Share Play, may last for several months.
Until then, another restriction to be aware of is that Ubisoft’s Share Play, like its PlayStation equivalent, only permits 60-minute sessions, even though the number of successive sessions is unlimited. The host can only watch because the feature is designed to mimic the process of physically giving a controller to a friend. By pressing Shift and F2 in the client’s default configuration, PC users who possess one of the supported titles can launch a Share Play session through the Ubisoft Connect in-game overlay.
Share Play is not the only enhancement to Ubisoft’s PC game selection that it has recently made. Purchases of Ubisoft games began automatically transferring to Amazon Luna in December.
