Ubisoft quietly shutting down online features for many of its classic Xbox 360 games

Starting in June of 2021, developer Ubisoft began shutting down online features for some of its classic games, including Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Lockdown and Ghost Recon Future Soldier. Many other titles also met with the same treatment, and the termination of game servers applied across all platforms – PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Part of Ubisoft’s official statement on the matter read “Following a critical update on our online services management platform…our teams have investigated and found that these titles couldn’t meet our stability and quality standards while running said update.”

Enter 2022, and a recent article posted in the Help section of Ubisoft’s official site has listed a slew of Xbox 360 titles whose online features have ceased. While some of these have already been noted, only now is Ubisoft going public with the other shutdowns, the newest of which are listed here.

• Assassin’s Creed II
• Assassin’s Creed III
• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
• Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
• Beyond Good and Evil
• Blazing Angels 2
• Far Cry 3
• Just Dance Kids 2014
• Rabbids: Alive and Kicking
• Smurfs 2

In the case of some of these games, the Xbox 360 servers were up and functional only a few weeks ago, and the shutdowns have come surreptitiously and without warning. What this means for these games is that online multiplayer is of course no longer available, nor is downloading of additional content. Other game features such as leaderboards will no longer be available either, and many games now have achievements that are unfinishable, which will be the most rankling part of this news for some.

While it is sad to see these titles get sunset, the company has stated that “Discontinuing these online servers is a ‘necessary step’ in an effort to allocating IT and service staff to newer and more popular titles.”