One tweet is all it took to send fans of Ubisoft down a spiral. The tweet mentioned an email from Ubisoft with the subject “Ubisoft Account Closure Due to Inactivity” and scared fans worldwide that they would lose their purchased titles.
The tweet circulated by @PC_enjoyer showed the screenshot of an email sent out by Ubisoft that said that due to lack of activity on the Ubisoft account, Ubisoft has temporarily suspended the account and will be closed in 30 days. The closure can also be canceled via a cancellation link mentioned in the email.
UBISOFT closes your account if you haven’t logged in for some time.
— AntiDRM🔴 (@PC_enjoyer) July 19, 2023
You will lose all your games purchased forever. pic.twitter.com/exC78bUt93
The tweet said, “You will lose all your games purchased forever, “which scared the fans. However, this is far from the complete picture.
Ubisoft has subsequently clarified its stance on deleting accounts in an email to IGN. Ubisoft mentioned that it had deleted inactive accounts for several years.
This deletion process is by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation which lays down guidelines on how long companies can store individual personal information.
Ubisoft has reiterated that its intention behind this is to comply with international standards and align itself with the “legal requirements and standards of the industry.” They also mentioned that this step would serve as fraud prevention.
Ubisoft reassured fans that they consider four main criteria before qualifying an account for deletion. The following are taken into account:
- Gaming activity of the account since its creation
- The account’s libraries. However, Ubisoft emphasized that accounts, including purchased PC games, are not eligible for deletion.
- The duration of inactivity of the account, meaning the last login to the Ubisoft ecosystem (including from Ubisoft Games on Steam and other similar platforms). Ubisoft will never delete an account if it has been active in the past four years.
- If there is an existing active subscription tied to the account.
This means that not every user who has not logged in for a while risk losing the entire library’s worth of rather expensive games. However, if someone does receive the email, following the cancellation procedure will reset the clock.
About Ubisoft Entertainment SA
Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French video game company founded in 1986. They are headquartered in Montreuil, and have development studios across the world. They are famous for game franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, For Honor, Prince of Persion, Rayman, Tom Clancy’s, Just Dance, Rabbids, and Watch Dogs.
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