Ubisoft adds in-game ads to its older Assassin's Creed titles, blames "technical error"
Ubisoft has seemingly stepped up its marketing efforts by including advertisements in older releases, which appear when players open in-game menus. The company has now responded, stating that it was a result of a technical error.
The details:
As shared in a video shared by Reddit user triddell24, when attempting to open the map in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, they were instead met with a pop-up ad for the publisher’s Black Friday sale, announcing that the latest AC entry, Mirage, is now 20% off.
The post was made in the Xbox One subreddit, but it appears that it isn't console-specific, as another Redditor confirmed that they, too, received the ad while playing on PS5. However, Microsoft has also recently pushed a similar type of advertising, with all Xbox owners receiving an ad for the latest Call of Duty title when booting up their consoles.
Players are understandably upset, writing that the move "should be considered unacceptable," while others are not surprised at all given Ubisoft's history of finding new ways to generate cash, such as selling solutions to purposefully tedious grinds as DLC content with maps for collectibles and XP boosters.
Ubisoft has now responded to the outrage, claiming that it was due to a "technical error" in a statement to The Verge, but did not elaborate on whether it was a test of a potential rollout given that the sale is only running this week.
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