Ubisoft issued a statement this week after an Assassin’s Creed player found what appeared to be a pop-up ad that drew ire from the community,
A user on X shared a video in which they were playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and upon closing their map, a pop-up appears on screen advertising a discount on the newest game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The post garnered some attention from fans, who were quick to point out their distaste for the practice, though Ubisoft spokesperson Fabien Darrigues, assured them that the ad was the result of a “technical error” and not an intentional addition. “We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin’s Creed titles yesterday,” Darrigues told The Verge. “This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue.”
While this statement served to quell overall fears of such marketing practices appearing in paid video game titles, some fans were still skeptical, claiming that the statement was merely a front to cover up the developer’s intentions to place more ads in its games. However, the alleged pop-up ad has only officially appeared once in the original poster’s video, with other instances of the ad only reported within the game’s shop menus, where they normally are.
Though there is little evidence to suggest that the ad was more than a simple bug caused after a software update, Ubisoft has made fans weary of its business practices in recent years after various controversial decisions and additions to some of its games. For instance, the in-game shops for many of the recent Assassin’s Creed titles, which are purely single-player experiences, drew criticism for offering monetized cosmetic items in a fully-priced game. On top of this, the company also rolled out several titles revolving around cryptocurrency and NFTs, which are similarly controversial, such as the upcoming Champions Tactics, which has DLC in the form of NFTs that cost hundreds to even thousands of dollars.
Currently, there are no official plans at Ubisoft to use in-game pop-up ads for any of the company’s titles, single-player or otherwise, and, despite rumors, there are no other official reports of the ad appearing anywhere outside its intended space. Ubisoft released an update adding those advertisements to many of their games’ menus, which reportedly caused the bug and has since patched it with a subsequent update.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available now for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Source: X and The Verge
