Ubisoft rebrands its $18/month tier as Ubisoft+ Premium and adds Ubisoft+ Classics on PC; executive Philippe Tremblay says Ubisoft has “millions” of subscribers
Ubisoft introduces its Classic service to PC; and ‘more to come’ on Activision Blizzard — Feature by Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B
Context & Ripple Effects
Ubisoft’s subscription effort began with the 2019 UPlay+ launch at $14.99 per month and was renamed Ubisoft+ in 2020 as the company pursued wider cloud availability. The new naming and PC catalog split is therefore an iteration on an established direct-to-player service, not a new entry into subscriptions.
Ubisoft has also been widening the ways players reach its catalog: Luna later enabled access to owned Ubisoft PC games without the subscription, while Ubisoft secured cloud-gaming rights to Call of Duty and other current Activision titles outside the EU for 15 years. That makes its reference to further Activision Blizzard plans strategically relevant.
First-order effects
- Existing top-tier members are moved under the Ubisoft+ Premium name, while PC players gain a separately branded Ubisoft+ Classics option.
- Ubisoft can present a clearer ladder between a premium offering and a classics-focused catalog while citing a subscriber base in the millions.
Second-order effects
- The additional tier creates a price-and-value comparison for PC users who can already play owned Ubisoft titles through Luna without subscribing, increasing pressure to distinguish subscription access from ownership access.
- Any Activision Blizzard-related addition would give Ubisoft another lever to market its service and cloud-rights portfolio, but the article does not specify a product, timing, or included games.
Third-order effects
- Publisher subscriptions are shifting from one all-access bundle toward tiered catalog management, where older titles, premium releases, ownership, and cloud access can be packaged separately.
- The model’s durability will depend on whether clearer segmentation expands paid demand without simply moving existing subscribers between tiers—a version of the subscription scale trap.
The trend: Game publishers are turning back catalogs and cloud distribution rights into increasingly segmented subscription products rather than relying on a single all-access plan.