Far Cry, Sands of Time free

By Games Industry.biz Published 3 September, 2007

Ubi titles ad-supported.

Ubisoft has made three of its classic titles downloadable for free, by using an ad-supported format, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Far Cry, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Rayman Raving Rabbids are the games in question, although no details have yet become available on the specifics of how or where the ads will be seen.

The news follows research that seems to indicate a general acceptance on the part of gamers that advertising in games is acceptable if realistic in full price titles.

But the differences with these titles are much older games that they are now free, so the players' impression is likely to be even more lenient.

There is no indication currently as to whether or not this is an idea that Ubisoft is trialling, or whether it's the start of a regular release of back-catalogue titles, and maybe a wider embracing of ad revenues as a whole.

Pop over to GamesIndustry.biz for plenty of other news nibbles.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • krudster #1 5 years ago

    Interesting!

  • ChrisOTR #2 5 years ago

    Yeah... I won't download this time because I'm not too bothered to play those again, but provided the advertising is all "above board" (i.e. it's clearly spelled out what you get before you get it, and it's easy to uninstall cleanly) and not TOO intrusive, seems reasonable to me...

  • Killerbee #3 5 years ago

    Nice idea. Shame I've already got Far Cry and Sands of Time (and not really interested in Rayman), but if they continue to do this, there are quite a few Ubi games I'd put up with some ads to play for free.

    I'd be interested to know if the ads just appear on loading screens and things like that, or whether they crop up (intrude upon?) the actual game itself. I'm not sure how you'd get banner ads for modern consumer products into Sands of Time without spoiling the ambience of the game...

  • Der_tolle_Emil #4 5 years ago

    Too bad I already have Sands of Time for the PC :/

    Far Cry could be interesting though.

  • Wayne #5 5 years ago

    Great idea. Might give Far Cry a bash.

  • UncleLou #6 5 years ago

    Anyone tried them yet? I have both Far Cry and SoT and ain't interested in RRR, but I'd like to see how it works.

  • Fitzmogwai #7 5 years ago

    Now this seems realistic and - more to the point - fair. Advertising gets you a free (old) game.

    I'll see what the smallprint says before I download, but I missed Sands of Time the first time round, so this is appealing. Potentially.

  • espy #8 5 years ago

    Commendable idea, but! Torrents please! The fileplanet servers are slow, queues are long, and half the time the archives are corrupted after you've spent 10 hours downloading them.

    Who actually hosts stuff on their own servers anymore?

  • jellyhead #9 5 years ago

    Ads in the startup movies and on the main menu screen according to NeoGAF.
    The Far Cry main menu has a bright yellow McDonads strip advert alongside the main menu and there's a 10 second add during loading screens that can't be skipped and the game doesn't load in the background either, so there's a delay to the level load times.
    Prince of Persia isn't so bad, Far Cry is a bit worse and Raving Rabbits has "pop-in" ads during gameplay, haven't seen them myself but that's what the forums are reporting.

    edit: Some are saying that the games are U.S. Only too but that may be that you need to find a European mirror or it was a slip up early on that has been fixed. All hearsay though.
    Edited by 1 at 03/09/07 @ 10:29

  • sharpfish #10 5 years ago

    Well seeing how Far Cry is one of the best PC games ever that's not a bad deal.

    Shame I already own it though ;P

  • crazyhorse174 #11 5 years ago

    Anything for free cant be bad! A couple of decent titles there as well.

    Maybe they should just include products in the game as adverts - things like characters drinking famous brand soft-drinks, eating well known products or vans with adverts on the side - stuff like that.

    Wouldnt be too intrusive and would also be realistic as well?

  • FunkyRenegade #12 5 years ago

    bagsy some Far Cry.

  • AndyboyH #13 5 years ago

    @crazyhorse174 - they did. Sam Fisher (of Splinter Cell) chews airwaves in an FMV in one of the games. See:
    http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Fisher#...

  • S.J.Rogers #14 5 years ago

    Never played any of these, so i will have to get them later...

    But will my PC run them...???

  • Moz #15 5 years ago

    Like mentioned as long as the adverts don't impose on your system outside of the game then this sounds like a great idea, hopefully one they will extend to consoles too.
    Just think all of the Wii VC could be free with ad support and as if you require the game to be online (come on if its free i'm sure we can cope with having to be online) then they could keep the ads up to date and relevant, all seems like a fairly logical evolotion really, similar to films.

    Life of a film
    Cinema -> DVD -> Sky Movies -> TV

    Life of a game
    Bought Game -> cheap download (with small about of ads) -> Free with ads

    Ever one wins,

  • Darren #16 5 years ago

    I downloaded Prince of Persia last night and it works fine provided you create a US UbiSoft account (no need to enter a full address, just set the country to United States). The adverts are extremely irritating though, they pop up before you can load your profile and obscure the screen so you HAVE to watch it - a nauseating ad for hamburgers - and sometimes pop up between level loads too. Still it's a small price to pay for a free game I suppose.

  • Hurleybird #17 5 years ago

    Ubisoft already do in game product placement in Rainbow Six. Personally I find it more immersive if anything when you're playing in the real world (with billboards). FIFA/PES could easily do the same thing on the boards around the ground.

  • Dixons #18 5 years ago

    Interesting. I gave up on SoT the first time because the combat was crap. Tempted to give it another shot now

  • Katsumoto #19 5 years ago

    Bad news (imho anyway) guys. This is from rockpapershotgun.com

    "Also, it keeps playing one, awful, McDonalds ad over and over again. *Between cutscenes*. Oh no.

    And most unpleasantly of all, it starts with this really patronising lie about the game being provided as a “courtesy”."

    ...

    also you have to lie and say youre american to get the download

  • Greebo #20 5 years ago


    "also you have to lie and say youre american to get the download"

    That's quite a price!

  • Artemis_Matsas #21 5 years ago

    Well, as long they don't install any "funny" programs to your PC (gator, etc) i think that it is a good move.

  • jellyhead #22 5 years ago

    Do you need an internet connection to play the game?
    If not expect someone to provide a way to nuke the ads.

  • MisterSlimm #23 5 years ago

    I've downloaded and installed Prince of Persia and mention where the ads are on my blog: http://misterslimm. wordpress.com/

  • UncleLou #24 5 years ago

    Cheers - that doesn't sound too bad, and I don't think it would matter much in Far Cry and RRR, but PoP: SoT is such a wonderfully atmospheric game that I can't imagine playing it with McDonald's ads when a level loads. Especially as the game can be picked up for less than a fiver these days, it really isn't an alternative.

  • M83J01P97 #25 5 years ago

    Far Cry, one of the best PC games ever? Oh dear... someone needs to play more PC games.

  • Xerx3s #26 5 years ago

    It wasn't the best game ever but it was most certainly entertaining and at some points jaw dropping. Too bad about the shitty net coding and stuff.

  • squeakyg #27 5 years ago

    From what people have described, I wouldn't want my gameplay experience spoiled by that kind of advertising. But as long as people know what they're getting when they choose to download a free game, I guess nobody can complain.

    POP: Sands of Time is already quite useless on the PC since it doesn't support any controllers (besides one official brand).

  • UncleLou #28 5 years ago

    POP: Sands of Time is already quite useless on the PC since it doesn't support any controllers (besides one official brand).

    Namely which one? I've played with two different controllers from different companies without any problems at all.

  • Heitzu #29 5 years ago

    Is there no where other than Fileplanet for these? Bloody thing keeps disconecting me about half way through downloading Far Cry. Its done it twice now... :(

  • funkyd #30 5 years ago

    Just get Pinnacle Game Profiler it makes any application controller friendly.