Ubisoft’s PC woes have continued into 2025, with the usually much-loved Assassin’s Creed Origins struggling a review-bomb marketing campaign on Steam after a Windows PC replace rendered it unplayable for some.
In November, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 model 24H2 by chance killed Ubisoft video games comparable to Star Wars Outlaws, Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, and extra. The difficulty was so dangerous that Microsoft up to date its support website to disclose it has positioned a brief block on Windows 11 for customers with these video games put in.
“After putting in Windows 11, model 24H2, you would possibly encounter points with some Ubisoft video games,” Microsoft mentioned at the time. “These video games would possibly change into unresponsive whereas beginning, loading or throughout lively gameplay.
“In some instances, customers would possibly obtain a black display. The affected video games are Murderer’s Creed Valhalla, Murderer’s Creed Origins, Murderer’s Creed Odyssey, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
“To safeguard your Windows replace expertise, now we have utilized a compatibility maintain on gadgets with these video games put in. These gadgets won’t be provided to put in Windows 11, model 24H2 through the Windows Update launch channel.”
Ubisoft launched an replace to repair the drawback in Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, however Microsoft and Ubisoft are each nonetheless working to type out the Murderer’s Creed video games, and frustration has lastly spilled over into Steam person critiques.
Damaging critiques for Assassin’s Creed Origins ramped up mid-December earlier than hitting a peak as we crossed into 2025, with the sport’s current person evaluation ranking dropping to ‘Blended.’ Total critiques for the sport stay ‘Very Constructive.’
Just about all the current detrimental critiques complain about the Windows replace making Assassin’s Creed Origins unplayable. Till a decision is discovered, Ubisoft informed prospects to not manually replace to model 24H2 utilizing the Windows 11 Set up Assistant or the media creation instrument. If the sport stops responding, you’ll want to make use of Process Supervisor to shut the utility.
Ubisoft’s Windows issues have hit the firm at a very troubling time. The corporate is reportedly in buyout talks with Chinese language megacorp Tencent after a torrid 2024 through which it closed studios, shut down video games, and made mass layoffs. The corporate’s subsequent huge sport, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, was delayed into 2025 and Star Wars Outlaws failed to fulfill gross sales expectations.
Ubisoft’s shares fell to their lowest stage in the final decade in September after it made a collection of dramatic bulletins round the efficiency of its video games. In addition to delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft introduced a return to Steam after a interval of PC launch exclusivity on the Epic Video games Retailer, with Star Wars Outlaws not too long ago releasing on Valve’s platform.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.