Ubisoft titles may come back to Steam if Valve's handheld takes off, says CEO

Cal Jeffrey

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The big picture: When it comes to gaming consoles, software is often leveraged to sell the hardware. However, it can be used in reverse too. The upcoming Steam Deck is a prime example of Valve using a new hardware platform to attract more games to its real money maker, the Steam Store.

In a Q1 earnings call on Tuesday, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot suggested that Ubisoft might start releasing titles on Steam again if Valve's Steam Deck handheld gaming console gets "big."

"We're happy to see Steam Deck coming to the industry; it shows that it continues a flow of very innovative new hardware coming to the market," Guillemot replied in response to a question about his thoughts on the new device. "So we will look and see how big it becomes, but if it's big, we will be able to put our games on it."

While Ubisoft does have games listed on Steam, more recent titles, like The Division 2 are hosted in an exclusive partnership with Epic. Ubisoft has had a mild feud with Valve since 2019 over its cut of game revenue. Guillemot maintains that its relationship with Epic is just a better deal for the company.

However, the Steam Deck brings a whole new platform to the market, and if it takes off, Ubisoft would have great incentive to return to Steam. While Valve's gaming box looks to be open to other store fronts, there is little doubt Steam will be the default. Even Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney called it an "amazing move."

Valve's announcement of its handheld gaming device has already attracted plenty of attention. The $400 device isn't even up for pre-orders yet, but scalpers buy up customer interest registrations and list them for outrageous prices on eBay. The listings violate eBay policies and are being removed. However, we've spotted prices as high as $1,500, which gives us an idea of what scalpers will be asking for Steam Deck pre-orders.

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Metro Exodus was a timed exclusive, but I own it on Steam! Steam Deck will run Windows so you can put Ubusoft Connect on it too.
I am gonna wait and see before I try that though, in theory SteamOS should be a better experience because it shouldn't have to run all the background tasks but they couldn't get it more efficient before.
 
Honestly I get the beef for some publisher's but Steam has the biggest user base and is a privately owned company. Epic are throwing silly money about and running their store probably at a loss.
 
Maybe it's just me but I haven't missed Ubi games at the Steam store, at all. The basics are fine but they make so many damn games that are so similar to each I really don't feel like I a missing much: Don't need constant iterations of "Open world, kill randomly generated mobs, take over bases, find some form of tower" over and over and over again. It's decent gameplay but it was decent the first 10 times they basically released the exact same game with different window dressings, sometimes not even all that different even.
 
No wants ubisoft games.
I don't even want a steam deck though. It sounds more half a55ed than the steam box fiasco.
F all space. Awful switch style joystick placement. Just ship a m$ surface and ps4 pad with a steam logo on them.
Just want to be able to play games with a pad on a couch, without any BS. Which the steam link failed to provide. Especially with the steam(ing pile of poop) controller.
I don't understand how a company like steam can get it wrong so often.
The only thing they have right is the store. And that's been ruined with greenlight games , awful sales. Lack of 4 packs.
 
Ubisoft, keep your games elsewhere. No one wants your crap client login requirements..
 
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