Prince of Persia quietly loses Ubisoft Connect’s most annoying Steam step

Steam players can launch Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown without installing or opening the full Ubisoft Connect PC app. That is the useful part. Ubisoft still wants its account in the chain, but it has finally removed the extra desktop window that made buying a game on Steam feel like entering a second checkout line.

The change began rolling out with Ubisoft’s September 11 Steam update for the 2024 2D platformer. In place of the full client, the game uses a smaller background component called Ubisoft Connect Services Steam. Steam launches the game; Ubisoft’s service handles the publisher-side work quietly behind it.

Ubisoft has removed the window, not the account requirement

This is a meaningful quality-of-life fix, with an important asterisk. The Steam version of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown still requires a Ubisoft Account and supports linking it to a Steam Account. Ubisoft has cut the visible launcher friction, not untangled itself from the game’s ownership and online-service layer.

That distinction matters because “launcher removed” can sound like a clean break. It is not. Ubisoft Connect Services Steam still performs account and entitlement checks in the background. Ubisoft retains cross-progression, cross-play, player-safety tools, challenges, and rewards without demanding that players stare at a separate Ubisoft Connect window before they can reach the title screen.

This fixes a bad PC habit Ubisoft kept defending

For years, the standard Ubisoft Steam routine was needlessly clumsy: launch a game through Valve’s client, wait for Ubisoft Connect PC to launch, log in or let it catch up, then finally start the game. Every extra client adds another failure point, another update prompt, and another reason a Steam Deck session turns into desktop troubleshooting.

Ubisoft has not suddenly discovered that players dislike this. The industry has known it for a decade. EA, Ubisoft, and other publishers have repeatedly treated Steam as a storefront while insisting their own software remain the front door. Valve already built the front door. The publisher launcher was usually a detour for account data, social features, and control.

Ubisoft’s compromise is more practical than heroic: keep the services it values, hide the client players resent. For Steam and Linux users, that could eliminate one of the more irritating compatibility obstacles. It does not guarantee flawless Steam Deck support, and Ubisoft has not published device-specific testing results, but fewer visible launch layers is plainly the right direction.

The real test is whether Ubisoft applies this to its back catalogue

The Lost Crown is a test case, not a catalog-wide policy change. Ubisoft says Ubisoft Connect Services Steam will progressively evolve and reach more Ubisoft games on Steam, but it has not named the next titles, committed to older releases, or provided a timetable. That is the part worth keeping an eye on.

The uncomfortable question for Ubisoft is simple: if a background service can preserve its ecosystem for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, why should Steam owners of older games continue to launch a full separate client at all? A rollout limited to new releases would solve the easiest version of the problem while leaving the library players already paid for stuck with the old one.

What Steam players should do now

If you own Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown on Steam, update the game and make sure the correct Ubisoft and Steam accounts are linked before starting a save you plan to use across platforms. Do not uninstall or alter anything for other Ubisoft Steam games yet; this launcher-free flow currently begins with The Lost Crown, and Ubisoft has not confirmed which game follows.