Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is one of the most popular games from the house of Ubisoft. It is available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and has over 5000 active daily players. However, some users are reportedly complaining about popup advertisements while playing the game. Players were left frustrated as ads would randomly show mid-game and disrupt the gaming experience.
Ubisoft has now officially acknowledged the problem calling it a technical glitch. The Assassin’s Creed team has released a statement that Ubisoft is now fixing the issue with a patch. Here’s everything that happened.
Players Started Reporting Popup Ads in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
A few hours back, players of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey started to notice popups containing advertisements while playing the game. At first, the problem appeared to be happening on Xbox, but more players started reporting the same on other platforms.
Il semble qu'Ubisoft expérimente la publicité en jeu chez certains utilisateurs (Xbox et PS).
Vous êtes au milieu de votre jeu, accédez à la pause ou à la Map et vous avez pendant 3sec. une pub pour un autre jeu qui s'affiche. Suffisant pour désinstaller ? 😅 pic.twitter.com/m5S4rEXas5
— Fab ✨ (@Fab_XS_) November 23, 2023
The popup ad would randomly appear at any time, and cover the entire screen of the user. When players closed the ad, the game took users back to the map section leaving them frustrated. The advertisement appeared to be deliberately pushed by Ubisoft to promote a 20% discount on their own game Assassins Creed Mirage.
This annoyed users further as they took this topic to social media, which escalated quickly. Players started calling out Ubisoft and the Assassin’s Creed team for using such cheap tactics to promote their games.
Hours within the backlash by the players, the Assassin’s Creed division responded to the situation by releasing a statement on X. The company confirmed that some users may have faced disruption in their gaming experience due to an in-game popup message.
We have been made aware that some players encountered a pop-up message in-game while playing certain Assassin’s Creed titles yesterday. This was the result of a technical error that has now been fixed.
Our intention was to display a promotion for Assassin's Creed Mirage as part…
— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) November 24, 2023
The post further mentions that the intention behind this was indeed to promote their Assassin’s Creed Mirage game. However, the company admitted to a mistake in the implementation of the message which caused the promotion to appear in-game.
Ubisoft confirms that the issue has now been fixed, and users will not face any disruptive popup messages further. The company also apologised to its users affected by the problem and said that the matter is currently under investigation to find the root cause.
As of now, Assassins Creed Odyssey players can now enjoy playing the game on Xbox, Playstation, and desktop without any popup messages.
Users React To Assassin’s Creed Team’s Statement
While the Assassins Creed franchise has assured that its players will not face any ads while playing games, some users speculate that the company is moving towards an ad-friendly business model. The replies on Twitter to the company’s official statement are filled with sentiments stating that the franchise tried to sneak promotions to drive a few extra sales.
No, you were testing rollout of these ads in game and it went wider than you wanted. If you'd honestly said that – people might have bought it. They know you're lying now.
— ThanksForTheMemeries (@The_Memeries) November 24, 2023
Yeah maybe don't show ads in your games at all – don't even put that functionality in them. We don't need you advertising your other games in the games we've already given you money for – you have PLENTY of other places you can advertise to us that aren't as intrusive.
— Tharaxis (@tharaxis) November 25, 2023
“We acjdentally programmed a pop up to work with an old game during gameplay” lol alright chief we definitely believe that 👍
— Dank Lord Neato (@DankLordNeato) November 24, 2023
The responses from users are filled with mixed feelings. While some players are pulling the company’s leg in sarcasm as a typical friendly banter, the other set of players appears to be angry at the company seeing this as an intentional mistake.
