Ubisoft Shuts Down F2P Games

Ubisoft, the company best known for Assassin's Creed, Rayman, Uplay, and whatever the heck Unravel is, does more than your standard triple-A gaming fare: they also have a small stable of free-to-play games. Unfortunately, it was announced over the weekend that their stable has just gotten even smaller, with three of their free-to-play games being shut down before the end of the year.

These three games: Tom Clancey's Endwar, Might and Magic Duels of the Champions, and perhaps most surprisingly, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, are being shut down for extremely vague reasons. While none of the associated blog posts shed any light into the decision to shut the game down, a few assumptions could be safely made: namely, they probably weren't making much money, or were very popular, and the cost of running them likely wasn't worth maintaining the fanbase who may be dedicated to them. It simply wouldn't be in Ubisoft's nature to cater to a group who wasn't able to support itself.

This is perhaps most surprising with The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, which was a comparatively new game that actually garnished quite a bit of attention when it was released in February of last year. Granted, it couldn't keep traction, but it was still successful enough to get some pre-release hype.

Regardless. The games will be shutting down at different times: The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot will close its doors on the 25th of October, while the other two will endure a bit longer, until the 31st of the same month. In the meantime, the games will not be updated, and it will no longer be possible to purchase any in-game currency. As of right now, Ubisoft has no plans to offer refunds for purchases made to the game, and I wouldn't hold my breath on them changing their minds anytime soon.

This isn't terrible news as far as the broad gaming public is concerned, but you know there are always a few dedicated fans who will be heartbroken at the news, so I'm sorry for those people. In the meantime, though, this may signal a change of direction for Ubisoft, which is currently celebrating 30 years of game development. Hopefully, if they are going in a new direction, it's a slightly more agreeable one.