Ubisoft blames ‘technical error’ for showing pop-up ads in Assassin’s Creed

Ubisoft is blaming an unspecified “technical error” for a fullscreen pop-up ad that appeared in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey this week. Reddit users say they spotted the pop-up on Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game, with an ad appearing just when you navigate to the map screen. “This is disgusting to experience while playing,” remarked one Reddit user, summarizing the general feeling against such pop-ups in the middle of gameplay.

“We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin’s Creed titles yesterday,” says Ubisoft spokesperson Fabien Darrigues, in a statement to The Verge. “This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue.”

Ubisoft hasn’t explained the technical error, but we can’t imagine the game suddenly became sentient and started adding its own Black Friday pop-up ads to promote Ubisoft’s latest versions of Assassin’s Creed. Someone at Ubisoft had to code this into the game specifically for the sale this week. We just don’t know whether this was supposed to be a limited test that was somehow made public, or if there were plans to actually roll this out. Either way, the intent of adding pop-ups into the middle of a game you’ve paid for is rather “gross” as one Reddit commenter puts it.

We recently saw Microsoft use fullscreen Xbox pop-up ads to promote its own games, and they’ve been annoying Xbox owners. Microsoft’s ads only appear when you boot an Xbox, and not everyone seems to be getting them. Microsoft and Ubisoft’s pop-ups are still very different to the ads we’re used to seeing on game consoles. We’ve seen games like Saints Row 2 with ads running on billboards, or plenty of in-game ads in EA Games titles in the mid-to-late 2000s.

Fullscreen pop-up ads in the middle of a game certainly aren’t common. Imagine a world full of games you’ve paid $70 for and then ads popping up in the middle of gameplay. I truly hope that Ubisoft’s “technical error” never becomes a game industry reality.