Ubisoft brings Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Anno 1800, and Roller champions to Steam, perhaps the first major releases on Valve’s PC distribution platform since 2019.
“We are constantly evaluating how we can bring our games to different audiences wherever they are while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect,” part of a statement from Ubisoft spokesperson Jessica Roache reads. The edge. Roache declined to say whether that means Ubisoft will now be bringing games to Steam on a regular basis or if it will be on a case-by-case basis.
It’s not clear why Ubisoft stopped putting its PC games on Steam or why it’s coming back now, but it looks like it’s picking up where it left off: Walhalla was the flagship game of 2020 in the Assassin’s Creed series, with the following title, Assassin’s Creed Miragenot due until 2023. Roller champions came out in May. And Anno 1800 is actually coming back to Steam after being previously removed – it’s from 2019.
But it’s no secret that Ubisoft took games off Steam to make them exclusive to the Epic Games Store, which gave publishers millions to lure games to that rival platform. For example, the Steam store page for Anno 1800 currently still has this comment: “Notice: Sales of Anno 1800 will be discontinued on Steam after April 16 due to a decision by the publisher to make the game exclusive to another PC store.”
However, Roache says that Ubisoft has “never stopped our relationship with Valve”, and it’s true that Ubisoft continued to release some DLC after the main games stopped appearing on Steam for the most part, letting gamers play Steam titles they already owned – despite a brief scare in July when players noticed a poorly written message about how their titles would be “not accessible”.
Ubisoft says it has no updates on whether it will work with Valve to verify these games for the Steam Deck.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.