Ubisoft under criticism: Publisher deletes your accounts if you haven’t been online for a long time [Update]

Whether The Division 2, Anno 1800, or Rainbow Six Siege – Ubisoft’s portfolio includes a few titles that can consume countless hours of gameplay. But beware if you don’t check your account for too long: Ubisoft will delete everything.

Update, July 25: We have a statement from Ubisoft regarding the deletion of inactive accounts:

For many years, we have implemented our account deletion process in accordance with the requirements of the GDPR (Article 5.1.e regarding the obligation to limit the data retention period). Our policies are aligned with legal requirements and industry standards.

This measure also protects our players from fraud. Account deletion occurs after a very strict process. Therefore, we consider the following four criteria before deleting an account:

• The account’s gaming activity since its creation
• The account’s libraries: Accounts containing purchased PC games cannot be deleted
• The duration of the account’s inactivity, i.e., the last login to our ecosystem (including Ubisoft games on Steam and other platforms)
• In practice, we have never deleted accounts that were inactive for less than 4 years
• The presence of an active subscription linked to the account.

Before deletion becomes permanent, players will receive three emails requesting to restore their accounts over a period of 30 days. If the user also attempts to log in during the 30-day window, they will automatically receive a warning and a link to reactivate their account.

Statement Ubisoft

Original post:

Currently, Ubisoft is receiving criticism for its common practice of completely deleting player accounts, including all purchased games. The discussions were triggered by a tweet from a player and the response from support underneath (via twitter.com).

The Twitter account AntiDRM@PC_enjoyer posted a picture of an email from Ubisoft. It states:

We have noticed that you are not using your Ubisoft account […]. We have temporarily deactivated the account, and we will permanently delete it in 30 days in accordance with our terms of service. If you want to keep your account, you can prevent deletion by clicking the “Cancel Button” below […].

This practice by Ubisoft was evidently not known to many users. The tweet was viewed over 1.6 million times. However, the response from support was seen even more frequently and widely quoted:

Hey there. We just wanted to chime in that you can avoid the account closure by logging into your account within the 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…

— Ubisoft Support (@UbisoftSupport) July 20, 2023

Support simply reiterates the note. Many users are not in agreement with the account deletions, and the posts reflect that when looking at the quotes from the Ubisoft tweet:

Here's the original thread with Ubisoft's response. This is absolutely unacceptable & I really hope people let them hear it.

If not? Better not miss the above e-mail & 30 day warning that your account will forever be closed lmao https://t.co/VFSW5vCVXo

— Michael (@LegacyKillaHD) July 22, 2023

When will the account be deleted? There is no clear policy on this. A support employee allegedly informed a user that Ubisoft does not delete previously active accounts if they have been online within the last 4 years (via pcworld.com) – however, this information is nearly 2 years old.

Even then, it was criticized that the email warning is not sufficient to inform about the deletion. Such messages often end up in the spam folder.

New accounts with no visible activity can already be deleted after 6 months. Restoration is not possible.

It is not the first time Ubisoft has faced criticism for this business practice. Other gaming launchers/publishers do not act so harshly, allowing accounts to run for many years without intervention.

However, Ubisoft is not an exception in the industry: Caution, if you do nothing, your account in Black Desert will be deleted.