Ubisoft announced out of the blue that it will no longer be including physical discs in the Xbox collector’s editions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs: Legion in the United Kingdom. The developer clarified to Polygon that this change will not affect the game’s North American versions on Xbox and will not affect the PlayStation at all, even in the UK.
Ubisoft has offered no explanation for this change and hasn’t responded to requests for comments thus far. A notice published on its website states:
Pre-orders for Collector’s Editions of ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA, FAR CRY 6 and WATCH DOGS: LEGION for Xbox will receive a digital key to REDEEM, instead of a physical disc.
Collector’s Editions for PlayStation will receive physical game discs.
The remaining content of your Collector’s Edition will still arrive THROUGH THE POST as normal.
As expected, this news was met with criticism from collectors who planned to fork out money for physical goodies, and in the absence of any explanation, speculations are all over the place.
Perhaps, Ubisoft’s UK wing is following Sega’s footsteps in order to reduce plastic waste. Back in February, Sega said that it was introducing recyclable packaging for all its PC games in the region but said that it was unable to introduce its waste-reducing measures to console games due to manufacturer requirements.
Has Microsoft given Ubisoft the green light to ditch plastic in the UK? We’ll find out in due course. Rest assured, you can safely preorder the collector’s editions on the PlayStation.
