The Division 2 header screenshot 2

Ubisoft & Epic Games will prevent third-party digital stores from selling keys for The Division 2 after release


A lot has been said about Epic Games’ decisions to secure and release specific games exclusively on its digital store. Metro Exodus was a game that out of nowhere dropped Steam in favour of Epic’s store and The Division 2 is the second triple-A games that will be coming to it (obviously alongside UPLAY). However, Epic Games and Ubisoft went one step further this time and decided to prevent all third-party digital stores from selling a key for this new title after its release.

According to a statement issued by Gamesplanet, Epic Games and Ubisoft will not allow third-party digital stores to sell keys for The Division 2 after its official release on March 15th. The game is still available on Gamesplanet – and on other stores – so those interested in it can either pre-order it from their favourite stores or wait until it’s out and then buy it from either UPLAY or the Epic store.

Here is the full statement that Gamesplanet issued.

“Sadly we have to announce you that Ubisoft will not allow digital third party stores, such as Gamesplanet, to sell Division 2 after its release on March 15th 2019. After this date, the game will digitally only be available through Ubisoft’s Store and another exclusive digital store. This will also be true for all upcoming game content such as Season Pass, Extensions, etc.

Take the opportunity to buy at Gamesplanet until March 15th 2019 and make use of the paysafecard promotion as this will be available until the game will be pulled from our stores.

We won’t be able to solve some support requests (e.g. key activated on the wrong Ubisoft account) after March 15th, as we won’t have any more keys to exchange/swap. Please address your support requests to Ubisoft directly for such cases.

Worry not, all purchases that have been completed on Gamesplanet will be honoured. This is also true for gifts, no matter if these have been picked up or not.

Obviously, we are not happy about this decision.”

Needless to say that we are against this anti-consumer move from both Ubisoft and Epic Games. It’s one thing securing a game to launch exclusively on your launcher but to prevent all third-party digital stores from selling keys? That’s a new low in our opinion.

Bad move Epic Games, especially when your boss, Tim Sweeney, was whining about UWP and how anti-consumer it was compared to Win32.