Ubisoft, wanting to jump on the “Hey let’s make everyone pay for multiplayer if they don’t buy new, all the hip kids are doing it†bandwagon, have completely botched their first attempt with Driver: San Francisco thanks to a printing error.
As a result, a lot of people got a DLC code instead of their Uplay passport, which means that they couldn’t play multiplayer for longer than their 48 hour trial period. Good job Ubisoft, first always-on internet connections to servers that weren’t always-on themselves, and now this.
As a result, Ubisoft has decided to make the Uplay passport free for everybody. In unrelated news, there will also be a whole bunch of free DLC coming.
How to get your free Uplay Passport and more DLC info after the jump.
Here’s the official statement and directions from Ubisoft:
– Due to a printing error on the insert of some copies of Driver: San Francisco in North America, Ubisoft has elected to provide the Driver Uplay Passport content for free. Although this problem does not affect players outside of North America, we have decided to mirror this offer worldwide in order to be fair to all our players.
When you begin Driver: San Francisco, you are prompted with the Uplay Passport menu. The menu has 4 options: “Purchase Uplay PASSPORT,” “Activate my Uplay PASSPORT,” “Start my 2-Day Free Trial,” or “Remind Me Later” There are two ways to access these online features:
1. Select Start My 2-Day Free Trial, which will not expire, OR
2. Select Purchase Uplay Passport, which will be provided at no charge.Either option will unlock the 11 multiplayer modes and the Film Director feature on console titles with Uplay Passport.
I’m still not a big fan of this whole idea started by EA that makes people need to pay for multiplayer if they don’t buy new.
On to the better news, Driver will be getting a whole bunch of free DLC, and not the code included by mistake.
12 new routes for all online modes will be made accessible to the masses for absolutely no money at all, come September 15th. After that, Reflections will be releasing a new route every single week for the following 10 weeks.
A community site has also now gone live on the internet and goes by the name of Driver Club, allowing you to unlock exclusive achievements (Uplay achievements I assume), check stats, share clips and spy on your friends.
So that’s about all folks, there’s been a lot of talk about Driver being a whole lot better than a lot of people think, and our review says similar so if you don’t already have it, or are waiting for the PC version to hit on September 30, then maybe this news will change your mind.
Source: Joystiq (via G4TV), Eurogamer
Last Updated: September 7, 2011
