Ubisoft Announces UPlay Passport For Multiplayer (Driver: San Fransisco First To Take The Hit)

In case some of you haven’t noticed recently, a dark shadow of annoyance has been descending upon the online gaming community.  This shadow, that ultimately seeks to corrupt our current understanding of buying a game and getting to play online without strings attached, is yet another step closer to our doorsteps.  Ubisoft announced recently that Driver: San Fransisco will be their first title that will require a “UPlay Passport” for online multiplayer access.  (For most of us, we’ve seen this coming as other companies like THQ, EA, and Rockstar have all had “online passes” enclosed with their new releases for a few months now.)

So, what exactly does this mean?  Well, it means if you purchase a game new, all shiny and fresh in the plastic, you will find a code in the box for your multiplayer/online access: Free.  However, for those who typically are a tad more frugal in gaming purchases and frequent the “used” section of our local game store (like I do), we will have to shell out an extra $9.99 simply to play our recent purchase with all of our friends.  Not sure how everyone else feels about this, but paying for access to Xbox Live annually, and Sony continuing to push PlayStation Plus, this is not a heartwarming trend in the industry and it doesn’t appear to be giving in just yet.

Christopher Poirier

Christopher Poirier

I started my gaming career when my parents first bought me a Tandy 1000 computer, top of the line stuff, and I played through visual basic games. As I grew older and technology came with me, I graduated onto the likes of Duke Nukem 3D and Grand Theft Auto (You know the 2D, top down version..epic.) My friends and I would tie up the house phone line blasting at one another via 9600 baud modems. This was the beginning of the end people: NES, Super NES, N64, Playstation, Xbox, Playstation 2, Xbox 360 and Kinect, Wii, Playstation 3 and of course my trusty PC when ever else I got bored. From there the online gaming world took off and I too followed it being clan based throughout college on multiple platforms and games alike. Today I find myself playing across all platforms and loving every minute of it. To think, from green screen to high def and nearly 20 years of advancement, only to know that this gets better every day. Hi, my name is Chris..and I'm a gamer.
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