It turns out that Ubisoft has enacted a change to the Collector’s editions of three very anticipated Xbox titles for those living in the UK. If you are a UK resident and you pre-ordered the Collector’s editions for Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, or Far Cry 6 for the Xbox One, you will no longer receive a physical copy of the game. Instead, you will only get a digital copy.
The details regarding this change were revealed in a brief post on a help page that could be found on Ubisoft’s UK store page. Unfortunately, Ubisoft didn’t actually give us a reason for this decision, but chances are that it is related to the upcoming Smart Delivery feature, which will allow access to certain games on both the Xbox Series X and the Xbox One. The way Smart Delivery works is pretty straightforward: you buy a game one time, to get access to it on both the Xbox One and the Series X. It’s a little different from backward compatibility, but in the end, it will allow players to play certain games across more than one generation of platforms, so in the way it is similar. All of the three aforementioned Ubisoft titles support Smart Delivery, so that means there will only be one Collector’s Edition for each of these games that will ultimately be compatible with both the Xbox One and the Series X. However, Ubisoft did confirm that none of this applies to North American customers, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.
On top of that, the change doesn’t apply to PS4 customers either. The PS4 Collector’s editions will still come with physical copies of the games. Exactly like Xbox, you’ll be able to play these games on both the PS4 and the PS5, though there is one minor difference in the box art for the game, which will be identical regardless. Moreover, Ubisoft is also supporting a cross-buy system on PS4 to PS5 in order to get enhancements on the technical side of things. It differentiates itself from the competition a bit by having launch titles for the next-gen that will be $60.
The rather expensive Collector’s editions for Far Cry 6, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Watchdogs: Legion are sold exclusively at the Ubisoft Store. However, at the time of this writing, the only game that still has stock is Watch Dogs: Legion. We’re assuming that the other two games will get more Collector’s editions in stock at some point, but when that will be is something we can only guess at. The unfortunate fact that the games are sold exclusively on the Ubisoft Store (as far as the Collector’s edition is concerned) is probably not helping matters. But it is what it is. There’s little doubt that gamers who have yet to get the edition will have to act fast when they are restocked, lest they are bought out once again.
