Ubisoft Pass, potentially the company's first foray into a proper game streaming service, has leaked ahead of E3. A placeholder image pertaining to the service appeared on the Ubisoft Store for some reason, and speculation says it might be a subscription service in the vein of EA Access.
Ubisoft Pass
A Resetera user first noticed the image in question; VG247 first reported the sighting. The image went live on the Ubisoft Store but was pulled shortly thereafter, though not before eagle-eyed users saw it.
Apart from the image, VG247 notes that the Ubisoft Store also had a page dedicated to subscription service that has also since been pulled. At present, Ubisoft does not operate any subscription services, which makes both listings suspicious.
It's not really clear what this service is going to be, but the placeholder image contained a "Premium" tag, implying it's a Premium version of the Ubisoft Pass service. This suggest the service, if real, may be offered in various tiers.
Ubisoft Is A Big Believer Of Streaming
Although this is the first mention so far of Ubisoft's experiments with streaming, the company CEO Yves Guillemot is known to be an optimist when it comes to the technology, saying it will be a huge deal for gaming moving forward.
"With time, I think streaming will become more accessible to many players and make it not necessary to have big hardware at home," he told Variety back in 2018. "There will be one more console generation and then after that, we will be streaming, all of us."
What About Content?
The most crucial element of any streaming service is content, of course, and without out, a platform is practically useless and will not attract customers at all. Ubisoft is one of the biggest publishers in the video game industry, which means content won't really be a problem. Its catalog is a treasure trove of revered and commercially successful franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and many others.
Ubisoft has also worked with Google on Stadia, the latter's cloud gaming platform. As such, it's wouldn't be surprising to see Ubisoft announced as one of Google's third-party partners this summer.
Asked about Ubisoft Pass, a spokesperson for the company provided a boilerplate statement, saying it does not "comment on rumors or speculation."
If not a game streaming service, Ubisoft could be similar to EA Access, wherein people pay a monthly subscription fee to get access to a slew of titles. Of course, this is still mere speculation and must be taken with a grain of salt. Perhaps more will be revealed at E3. In any case, make sure to check back with Tech Times as we learn more.
