Ubisoft Hates The World (Apart From One Bit)

Good news Americans and Canadians! The next publisher to leap upon the Steam train is Ubisoft, with over forty of their games onto Valve's download platform. This includes classics like Far Cry, various Clancy titles, the Heroes of Might & Magic series, and IL-2 Sturmovik. And it also means future Ubi releases will be downloadable too, with pre-loading Assassin's Creed already an option. You know, if you're from North America.

This is the second company in a row to sign up with Steam and prevent the majority of the world from being able to take advantage. Atari's motives last month are clear: they are currently so very overwhelmed with money that the last thing they want is vast numbers of people buying their games. But Ubisoft too? I asked Valve's Doug Lombardi why this was the case, who put his hands up and said,

"It's their call. We offer worldwide coverage, and we're happy to offer the products to as many customers as the publisher/developer desires."

We'll be asking Atari and Ubi what their reasons are, and you can be sure we'll get back to you as soon as we know. Meanwhile, have fun North Americans.