After its policies were called into question over the weekend, a Ubisoft spokesperson tells PC Gamer that the company does not delete inactive accounts with purchased games.
With an account deletion notice as proof, an anti-DRM advocate recently alleged on Twitter that Ubisoft will delete inactive accounts, games and all, if they go untouched for too long. The official Ubisoft Support Twitter account did nothing to change that perception when it said “we certainly do not want you to lose access to your games” in a reply to the tweet. Ubisoft’s support website also didn’t mention that accounts with games attached to them were exempt from deletion, saying simply that Ubisoft may “close long-term inactive accounts” to maintain its database.
Naturally, all this suggested to us that Ubisoft really was deleting inactive accounts with games tied to them, but the company now says that isn’t the case. That Ubisoft Support page has been updated to read: “Accounts tied to an active Ubisoft subscription, or PC games that have been purchased from the Ubisoft store, are not eligible for deletion.”
It remains unclear why Ubisoft Support, when responding on Twitter, did not immediately deny the initial allegation that inactive accounts with purchased games were liable to be suspended and then deleted for inactivity. Ubisoft’s full statement on the matter is as follows:
“For many years now, we have implemented our account deletion process in compliance with the requirements of the GDPR (Article 5.1.e on the obligation to limit the data retention period). Our policies are aligned with legal requirements and with the standards of the industry. This measure also acts as a protection for our players against fraud.
Account deletion follows a very strict process. As such, we take into consideration the 4 following criteria before an account is deleted:
- The gaming activity of the account since its creation
- The account’s libraries: accounts that include purchased PC games are not eligible for deletion
- The duration of inactivity of the account, meaning the last login to our ecosystem (including from Ubisoft games on Steam and other platforms)
- In practice, as of today, we have never deleted accounts that have been inactive for less than 4 years
- The existence of an active subscription tied to the account.
In any case, before the deletion is permanent, three emails are sent to the player over a 30-day period offering to restore their account. In addition, if the user tries to log in during the 30-day window, they will automatically receive a warning and a link to reactivate their account.“