Ubisoft Quietly Tests Killing Its Own Launcher on Steam, Starting With Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

By CriticalPixel · 2026-09-10

Ubisoft just did something almost nobody expected: it started ripping out its own launcher. According to a new Steam announcement first surfaced by PC Gamer, Ubisoft is testing a tool called Ubisoft Connect Services that lets players run Steam versions of its games without ever installing or opening the standalone Ubisoft Connect app. The pilot title is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and if it works the way Ubisoft says it will, every Assassin's Creed player who has ever groaned at a second login screen might finally get some relief.

For years, buying a Ubisoft game on Steam meant installing Steam just to boot a second storefront app, Ubisoft Connect, before the actual game would even think about launching. Sign in twice, wait through two sets of update checks, and only then get to the actual menu screen. It is the same trick EA and Rockstar still pull with their own launchers, and it has been a running joke among PC players since Steam became the default hub for PC gaming. Ubisoft's new approach flips that script. Per the official Steam post, the Ubisoft Connect Services tool keeps background features like cross-progression, cross-play, player safety, and reward tracking alive without forcing the launcher window open. Players still need a Ubisoft account for those features, the same way Diablo 4 needs a Battle.net login without making you stare at the Battle.net app first. The difference between an account check and a full separate application is small on paper, but it is the exact friction PC players have complained about for a decade.

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown gameplay screenshot from its Steam store page

Why This Matters Beyond One Metroidvania

This test lands at a moment when Steam Deck and other handhelds have quietly forced publishers to rethink how much friction they can get away with. A device built around one unified Steam library screen makes every extra launcher, every separate login, and every background updater feel worse than it did on a desktop. Ubisoft has watched other companies get dragged online for exactly this kind of friction, and a small, low risk pilot on a single Metroidvania is a cheap way to test the waters before committing the entire catalog. It also quietly acknowledges that the era of publishers forcing players into a proprietary storefront just to inflate daily active user numbers is losing whatever justification it used to have.

What Changes for Prince of Persia Players

Right now the test is limited to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, a game that already earned a loyal following for reviving the franchise as a tight Metroidvania instead of another open world epic. Anyone who owns it on Steam should start seeing the new launch flow already, and Ubisoft says in the same post that Connect Services will progressively evolve and roll out to more Ubisoft games on Steam in the future. There is no firm list of follow up titles yet and no timeline beyond that one line, which is typical for a company that has spent a decade defending a launcher nobody asked for. Whether Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, or Rainbow Six Siege get the same treatment depends entirely on how this first pilot performs, and Ubisoft has given itself plenty of room to quietly shelve the whole idea if the metrics do not look the way it wants.

The Community Has Been Begging for This

Reaction across PC gaming corners has been loud and mostly thrilled. Polygon rounded up a Reddit thread where players openly celebrated the news, with one commenter begging Ubisoft to roll the change back through its entire library so older games work cleanly on Steam Deck without Proton workarounds. Steam Deck focused outlets flagged the same angle, pointing out that killing a second launcher matters even more on a device built around one unified library screen. Coverage from outlets across Latin America and Europe picked up the story within hours too, which says plenty about how widely hated that extra login screen actually was.

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown combat screenshot from its Steam store page

The CriticalPixel Take

Give credit where it belongs: this is Ubisoft admitting, in public, that its own launcher has been dead weight for years. Ubisoft Connect never offered players much beyond a rewards shop nobody browses and an extra hurdle before a save file loads. Cutting that friction on Steam, even in a small test, undoes a policy that mostly protected Ubisoft's ability to farm engagement metrics off a client nobody wanted to open. The catch is the pace. One game, one vague promise of a future rollout, and a company track record full of features that quietly stalled after a pilot phase mean skepticism here is earned, not cynical.

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown exploration screenshot from its Steam store page

Still, this is the kind of change that costs Ubisoft very little and buys back real trust with the PC crowd, especially with Steam Deck adoption still climbing. If Assassin's Creed Shadows, the Far Cry catalog, or Rainbow Six Siege actually get the same treatment before next year, this becomes one of the more player friendly moves Ubisoft has made in a long time. For now it is one Metroidvania and a promise, so keep the celebration cautious until the rollout list actually grows.