For years, there has been trouble surrounding Ubisoft and the publisher’s gaming policy. With the rolling “Stop Killing Games” initiative, the discussion has heated up even further, and users have discovered a clause that casts Ubisoft in a really bad light. However, Ubisoft may not really be at fault this time.
Where does the trouble with Ubisoft come from?
- Ubisoft is currently having beef with the community in several areas. Most recently over the shutdown of The Crew: Ubisoft simply deleted games from libraries.
- In a very prominent statement, a senior employee of Ubisoft had claimed shortly before, gamers need to get used to the idea that games do not belong to them. The Crew was the leading example of this.
- All of this finally triggered the “Stop Killing Games” initiative, which wants to ensure that players can keep their purchased games. Now a not-so-new statement is making the rounds.
Why are people upset now? On Reddit, some users noticed that Ubisoft apparently seems to have adjusted its end-user agreement (“EULA”). Under section 8 “Termination”, the following paragraph can be found:
“You and UBISOFT (or its licensors) may terminate this EULA at any time and for any reason. […] Upon termination for any reason, you must immediately uninstall the product and destroy all copies of the product in your possession.”
From Ubisoft’s EULA
In short: Ubisoft wants to force you to destroy all media such as CDs, DVDs, or floppy disks when a game is shut down. At least users understand it this way. Understandably, this causes an uproar, but perhaps at the wrong place.
“The problem is that we allowed companies to do this”
The statement is not new in Ubisoft’s EULA but has been around for quite some time. The fact that it is being dug up right now is likely due to “Stop Killing Games”. However, one user simply states: They are just using this to be able to criticize Ubisoft.
In fact, similar clauses can be found in very many license agreements – including those from games and studios that are generally considered “gamer-friendly”, such as Larian with Baldur’s Gate 3 (see Steam). User Amon274 has pointed out a few examples, including:
- The remaster of Final Fantasy 7
- Behavior Interactive with Dead by Daylight
- Capcom
- SEGA
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
- Oblivion Remaster
All license agreements can be found on Steam. The platform itself has made it very clear since 2024, that you do not own games but only acquire licenses.
And upon a closer look, the clause even makes sense, as otherwise anyone could simply return their game (“revoke the license”) and still keep the game if they own it on a physical medium. That’s simply not how returns work.
What upsets players about Ubisoft is the stipulation that the license can be terminated by either party – for any reason or without a reason. However, this is also stated in many other license agreements.
Whether the idea of licenses instead of actual ownership of games is good or not is another matter. But that is precisely why the “Stop Killing Games” initiative exists, which, however, faces a few challenges: One of the most important petitions for gamers has indeed reached its goal, but there could be a problem
