Ubisoft is testing a major change for its games on Steam, beginning with a new system that no longer requires the full Ubisoft Connect PC launcher to be installed or opened alongside Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Steam has hosted many of Ubisoft's biggest PC releases over the years, although players have traditionally had to pass through the publisher's own software before actually getting into their games.
Ubisoft has maintained its own PC ecosystem and storefronts for much of the past two decades, beginning with Uplay before eventually folding that service and Ubisoft Club into Ubisoft Connect in 2020. The platform brought together features such as rewards, challenges, cross-progression, and other online services, but it also meant many Steam purchases still required a second launcher to play. Opening an Ubisoft game through Steam would always trigger Ubisoft Connect, another login, another update process, and another potential point of failure before the game itself actually started. That extra step has long been one of the most common frustrations of playing Ubisoft games on PC for quite some time.
One of Steam’s newest shooters is already a massive hit, with hundreds of thousands of players jumping in during its launch...
