UBISOFT have announced that its Uplay and Ubisoft Club products will be combined and expanded under the banner of Ubisoft Connect – essentially a new universal cross-platform interface for Ubisoft products, including cross-platform saved game access.
The rebranded platform will launch alongside Watch Dogs: Legion on October 29.
According to the official announcement from Ubisoft, the new Ubisoft Connect platform will offer “an intuitive and seamless in-game overlay in Ubisoft’s latest and new titles” – and more specifically, the expansion “enables players to now access Ubisoft’s in-game and social features, regardless of the platform they use, including consoles and cloud gaming services.”
The announcement goes on to state:
“Gathering millions of players, Ubisoft Connect is the ideal destination to connect with friends or participate in events and activities. Along with new exciting time-limited and community challenges, the service brings a cross-game loyalty system that lets players earn an uncapped amount of Units to spend on unique rewards, like weapons, outfits and consumables.
This more social and personalised gaming experience also comes with a newsfeed interface gathering friends’ activities and achievements, while a brand-new “Smart Intel” feature brings players dedicated tips and video recommendations based on their game activities. Each player will have access to data on their personal stats and playstyle to keep improving or compare with select groups of friends through an improved leaderboard system.
Designed for a new gaming era, one where players expect to be able to play, progress and stay in touch with friends anywhere, Ubisoft Connect lays the foundation that will enable Ubisoft’s games and services to live across platforms and make cross-platform features a standard moving forward.
As part of this commitment, full cross-progression, across all platforms and services, will be available with some of Ubisoft’s most highly anticipated upcoming titles, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Immortals Fenyx Rising and Riders Republic.”
Ubisoft online services vice president Stephanie Perotti said Ubisoft Connect was the company’s take on a new seamless experience “not only ease the transition between generations and platforms, but also be the starting point for new services that further contribute to new, more player-centric ways of enjoying games”.
“Next-generation gaming goes beyond technological improvements and better graphics. To us, as a creator and publisher, it is about bringing more fluidity and versatility in the experience to have the freedom to play games on whatever device and with whoever you want,” she said.
Ubisoft Connect will be available via the current and imminently releasing platforms, namely Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
Additionally, players can also access the ecosystem via the Ubisoft Connect mobile application, the desktop app and on ubisoftconnect.com.
How much difference it will make to the gaming experience remains to be seen, but the ability to talk to your friends on different platforms and take your saved games with you between platforms is certainly a promising development – we’ll find out more when the service launches on October 29, from the looks of it.
