When you start the game you see a prompt to activate a Uplay code or play without one. Because I had no idea what that was, I did a bit of research and discovered that if you want full MP capabilities you need to purchase a $9.99 season pass from Ubisoft.
They are testing the waters; soon they will be charging the $9.99 just to be able to play MP at all. Reminds me of the MS requirement for a monthly fee for an xBox account.
If it is purely a $9.99 fee for MP and refusing it doesn't affect SP in any way then my response would be "Uhhhhhhnnnnnn NO!"
Absolutely. I don't play MP, but this is another cheap attempt by the gaming industry to increasingly strong-arm the public into paying more.
The MP pass has been around for a while on consoles, up until now they have been included for free with new copies of the game - mostly with the NFS titles (EA) and Dirt 3. These were incentives for people to buy new instead of waiting around for second hand copies.
That's new though, demanding extra for MP ontop. I think a bit of perusal of the box info might be in order because if they're offering MP as a part of the game on the box and subsequently charging extra to activate it...then they're in for trouble.
They are getting away with it at this time because they are not denying MP access without the pass, but you don't get access to some of the leveling up benefits or something like that (I really did not pay too much attention because I an typically not interested in MP).
Ahh, okay - that sounds similar to buying all unlocks that a few games put out there. At least I'm asuming that those unlocks aren't only for those who buy them and can't be earned in the course of normal online play.
Like yourself though, I probably wouldn't be bothered as MP isn't always something worthwhile in many games.
I'm not sure, but in my cursory examination of the documentation, it seemed like the only way to get those unlocks is to purchase the pass.
A bad sign indeed then.