Ubisoft’s upcoming sequel The Division 2 isn’t just skipping Steam. According to the UK-based digital game retailer Gamesplanet, Ubisoft’s previously announced Epic Games Store semi-exclusivity for the game means it won’t be sold on other digital stores either once it fully launches.
Purchasing the game from one of those third-party websites lands purchasers a code to then redeem on Uplay, but it seems that Ubisoft is cutting out the middleman altogether and making it so the game can only be purchased through the Epic Games Store or the company’s own Uplay platform after the game’s March 15 release.
“After this date, the game will digitally only be available through Ubisoft’s Store and another exclusive digital store. This will also be true for all upcoming game content such as Season Pass, Extensions, etc,” reads the notice on Gamesplanet.
Other third-party stores like Green Man Gaming have also updated their listings for The Division 2 with a similar, but shorter, notice.
So far, it’s a similar arrangement to when it was announced that The Division 2 wouldn’t launch on Steam earlier this year with the noticeable difference that the store page for The Division 2 was pulled from Steam almost immediately after the exclusivity. Retailers like Gamesplanet and Green Man Gaming, meanwhile, will still be able to sell keys for the game up until the second it releases.
Ubisoft has said in the past that its deal with Epic has helped boost the amount of money the company itself sees for every copy sold thanks to a better revenue share and increased traffic to its own storefront, though it’s difficult to gauge the exact effect skipping Steam has had on the game quite yet.
“I think the Epic deal is a deal that was important for us,” said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in a conference call last month. “Because it really helped us to do actually more of our business on our own store and have a better revenue per unique sold.”
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2019