Don’t panic: Ubisoft won’t delete your digital games

Over the last few days, frantic reports about Ubisoft’s digital account policies began to appear — namely, that the company would begin deleting customer accounts if you don’t log in often enough. The panic started after a Twitter post highlighted the company’s policy that said as much…and also inferred that you’d lose the digital game purchases you’d made and associated with your Ubisoft account. It was exacerbated by Ubisoft’s support team encouraging the user to log into their account. But to coin a phrase, rumors of your purchased games’ deletion have been greatly exaggerated.

Bluntly: No, Ubisoft won’t delete the games that you’ve purchased, or in any way remove your digital access to them. The policy in question is in place so that Ubisoft can periodically scrub its servers of unused accounts, filled with either no games at all or free-to-play titles that don’t lose any value if erased. Said accounts haven’t been touched in four years or more. This is a practice put in place to deal with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which many tech companies have struggled with since its implementation in 2018.

Part of the policy clearly states that accounts with purchases associated aren’t eligible for automatic deletion, as Ubisoft told PCWorld itself after a similar kerfuffle back in 2021. Ubisoft reiterated the relevant portion of the policy to The Verge after the recent spat of headlines declaring “Ubisoft might delete your purchased games” and similar: “accounts that include purchased PC games are not eligible for deletion.” Accounts with active digital subscriptions are also off the chopping block.

Even those users who haven’t purchased any games at all get a grace period, with an email alerting them of their unused account’s possible deletion. All one need do to avert this is log in to a Ubisoft server within 30 days. In video games, as in life, it’s a good idea to read the fine print.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer