Ubisoft has confirmed plans to start releasing some of its games on Steam again.
The publisher’s biggest game of the last few years, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, will join Valve’s PC marketplace on December 6, coinciding with the release of its final content update.
Also coming to Steam are Ubisoft titles including Anno 1800 and Roller Champions.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Cinematic World Premiere
“We’re constantly evaluating how to bring our games to different audiences wherever they are, while providing a consistent player ecosystem through Ubisoft Connect,” a Ubisoft spokesperson told The Verge.
Ubisoft stopped releasing its new games on Steam in 2019. Since then, the likes of Ghost Recon Breakpoint, The Division 2 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla have been released via the Epic Games Store and its own digital distribution platform Ubisoft Connect.
Steam rival the Epic Games Store launched in December 2018, offering developers an 88 per cent share of the revenue their PC titles generate, compared to Steam’s less generous 70/30 revenue split.
In an interview with the New York Times in 2019, Chris Early, Ubisoft’s vice president for partnerships and revenue, suggested Valve’s model was outdated.
“It’s unrealistic, the current business model that they have,” he said. “It doesn’t reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution.”
Ubisoft declined to say if it plans to bring games to Steam on a regular basis going forward or if it’ll be on a case-by-case basis.
However, the spokesperson noted that Ubisoft “never stopped our relationship with Valve,” in reference to the fact that the company continued to release some DLC on Steam and its existing games remained playable after its shifted its focus away from the marketplace.
Last month, Activision released Modern Warfare 2 on Battle.net and Steam, marking the first time a new series entry has launched on Valve’s service since 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII.