Ubisoft strikes their colors and surrenders

Hooray gamers! You win again! Ubisoft has decided to end their Uplay Passport program. According to the news posted on the official blog, Ubisoft will immediately discontinue their version of the online pass program and supply free pass codes for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The Uplay Passport program gated mutiplayer features behind a paywall if the player had purchased or borrowed a used title.

Games today are blurring the line between offline and online, between what is “single player” and what is “multiplayer.” Based on that and on the feedback we received from you, we recognized that Passport is no longer the best approach for ensuring that all our customers have the best possible experience with all facets of our games.

It was revealed earlier in the week that the Edward’s Fleet feature of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was unavailable to gamers that played the game without the Uplay Passport code. There is no official word on how this decision will impact previous Ubisoft titles that required a Passport code.