Uplay, the PC download/library client from Ubisoft, enters its fourth iteration in October. For you, the humble user, this means a whole host of new features and social elements to take advantage of in a window that is not Steam.
The new Uplay client will feature heavy Twitch.tv intergration for those of you out there who want to stream your Far Cry and Tom Clancy game exploits, and a social wall to keep everyone updated on what you’re doing in Ubisoft games.
A new download manager will offer auto-patching and ‘progressive downloads’. There’s no explanation as to what makes these downloads so progressive. Perhaps they’ve started using renewable energy sources? Or maybe they’re doing this newfangled thing of allowing you to play whilst downloading simultaneously. Either would probably be a selling point for the box. If it had a box, of course.
As per usual with Uplay, earning achievements in games will still lead to rewards, so free desktop wallpapers will still be on the cards should your monitor’s background be looking a little tired. To date over 40 million rewards have been redeemed, so they’re definitely not going anywhere.
Regardless of your opinion of non-Steam download clients, you’ll probably end up using Uplay since I expect a great deal of you will want to play either Assassin’s Creed 4, The Crew, Watch Dogs or The Division sometime in the future. Perhaps with a facelift and these new features, you will come to welcome it as a little brother in your family of download clients. Steam needs a sibling to play with, right?