Ubisoft Explains Why Ubisoft+ Can Succeed Without Being Bundled With Game Pass

Ubisoft has shed more light on its game subscription program, Ubisoft +, including why the company believes the Xbox version can succeed on its own as opposed to being bundled with Game Pass. Ubisoft+ director Philippe Tremblay told GI.biz that the game subscription market isn't maxed out yet, and Ubisoft is trying to secure its own piece of the pie.

"We haven't necessarily seen that this market has reached the maximum opportunity here," Tremblay said. "It's still fairly new across the board that we have subscription offers, even from Xbox or other partners out there."

Another high-profile publisher, EA, worked out a deal with Microsoft to include EA Play within Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Although Ubisoft+ is not bundled with Game Pass, Microsoft is presumably taking some kind of fee from Ubisoft as the platform-holder.

Tremblay went on to say that the "key point" for Ubisoft+ is that it needs to have great games to convince people to sign up--and Tremblay of courses believes Ubisoft+ has them.

"It's the great content we have behind. That's the point of differentiation that we bring," Tremblay said.

The subscription program costs $18/month on Xbox, and for that, players get access to a library of titles and a 10% discount on in-game items. It also includes access to PC titles and use of cloud streaming. Some of the games in the library include Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, The Division 2, Riders Republic, For Honor, Rainbow Six Siege, The Crew 2, Steep, Watch Dogs: Legion, and more. All Ubisoft new releases launch day-and-date into Ubisoft+.

Tremblay said Ubisoft's aim with bringing Ubisoft+ to Xbox is to "reach a new population of gamers" who haven't yet played a Ubisoft title. "We definitely see subscription as a way to do that," Tremblay said.

Ubisoft+ launched in 2019 for PC when it was known as Uplay+. In addition to expanding to Xbox, Ubisoft has announced plans to bring it to PlayStation at some point in the future. A version of Ubisoft+ called Ubisoft+ Classics is available for PS Plus subscribers.