Gaming fans in the region are raging at KOMINFO, the Indonesian ministry of communication, which signed the enforcement.Īccording to the new rules, which were first announced in November 2020, the Indonesian authorities have power to force platforms to share determined user data and delete content that “disturbs public order” by demand within four hours. There’s currently no confirmation that this move signals a full return of Ubisoft to Steam going forward, the return to Valve’s storefront after such an extended absence does suggest the publisher might have their sights on diversifying their distribution model as they prepare for a raft of upcoming Assassin’s Creed game releases.Due to new rules of licensing, the government in Indonesia blocked foreign gaming services and websites including Steam, Epic Games and Ubisoft, among other platforms.

The publisher also confirmed that the game would not be receiving a New Game+ Mode. While Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was originally released in November 2020, its debut on Steam in December aligns with the game’s final post-release content update, a free epilogue titled the ‘Last Chapter’ that wraps up Eivor’s story.

Read: Assassin’s Creed Liberation turns 10: A forgotten but important legacy Ubisoft isn’t the only publisher to have made an exodus from Steam, with Activision and EA having also previously struck out on their own or alternative launchers. The Epic Games Store is also no stranger to enticing publishers to make their games exclusive to the storefront, having previously offered millions to exclusively release games like 2K Games’ Borderlands 3. While it isn’t clear what part of Steam’s business model was being referred to, the marked difference between Steam’s 30% cut of all games sales, as opposed to the Epic Games Store’s 12% cut, may have played a role. ‘It doesn’t reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution,’ he told The New York Times in August 2019. The publisher’s initial exit from Steam came as Ubisoft executive Chris Early called the company’s business model ‘unrealistic’.

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