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Account termination

Ubisoft emails users that inactive accounts — and their game libraries — face closure

In July 2023, users publicized emails from Ubisoft warning that accounts inactive for an extended period would be closed, which would end access to any games attached to them. Ubisoft stated that accounts with purchased PC games are excluded from automatic closure.

Date
July 20, 2023
Platform
Ubisoft Connect
Refunds offered
No
Offline copy provided
No

What happened

In July 2023, screenshots circulated of Ubisoft emails warning recipients that their accounts had been flagged for closure due to inactivity, with a 30-day window to cancel the process. Because purchased games are bound to the Ubisoft account, closure would permanently end access to them.

Ubisoft responded publicly that the practice implements data-protection retention requirements (citing GDPR obligations); that, in its words, it has "never deleted accounts that have been inactive for less than 4 years"; and that accounts which include purchased PC games are "not eligible for deletion."

Consumer impact

  • No confirmed case of a purchased library actually being deleted through this process has been publicly documented.
  • The episode established, in Ubisoft's own communications, that account closure is the mechanism by which an entire purchased library can be extinguished.

Why it matters

Account termination is the least-visible revocation category: no store closes and no server shuts down, but the license chain breaks all the same. This case is the clearest public documentation that platform accounts — and everything bought through them — are subject to administrative deletion policies consumers rarely read.

Sources

  1. Ubisoft account closure emails coverage (Jul 2023)Eurogamer
  2. Ubisoft responds to account-deletion concerns (Jul 2023)The Verge