The digital-only world has its drawbacks: one of them is that access to games bought through the French publisher’s service will be lost if you don’t log in to the account you use often enough. (This inactive account deletion will also apply to Google from the end of the year…)

If you bought (or got for free) a game that required you to register for a Ubisoft account, you’ll want to log in about once a year. An email from Ubisoft customer support popped up on Twitter, posted by AntiDRM. The French publisher also has its own digital store and launcher (Ubisoft Connect, Uplay). If you don’t log in for a long time, you get an email saying that the account has been temporarily suspended. You have 30 days to log in (you can use the link in the email to do so); otherwise, the account will be deleted, so if you’ve bought a bunch of games on that account, you won’t have access to them either!

Ubisoft support responded: “You can avoid the account closure by logging into your account within 30 days (since receiving the email pictured) and selecting the Cancel Account Closure link contained in the email. We certainly do not want you to lose access to your games or account.” The situation is best illustrated by the fact that the AntiDRM clown emoji response to it got the most reactions (6 replies, 78 retweets… but over 13,000 likes).

There is an article on their US site about it: “We may also close long-term inactive accounts to maintain our database. You will be notified by email if we begin closing your inactive account. As we cannot recover the account once it has been closed, we strongly recommend only putting in the request if you are sure you would like to close it.”

That’s why it’s a problem that not everyone is inclined to use Steam (Ubisoft tends to lean towards the Epic Games Store, but they’re slowly giving in, as does Activision Blizzard). Still, it’s also why it has to be said that it is the fate that awaits us in the digital-only future: we’ll be wiped out with the stroke of a figurative pen.

Source: PCGamer