14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft has confirmed that the Uplay Passport for its new Driver: San Francisco title is now free around the world, following an error with the codes that were included with each game and should have been redeemed by players in order to access the multiplayer mode of the title.
Driver: San Francisco was supposed to see the first implementation of Ubisoft's own online pass system, in the form of the uPlay Passport, which is a one-use code, shipped with the game, that needs to be redeemed online in order to access the multiplayer mode. If players bought the game second hand, the code couldn't be used and were forced to pay 800 MS Points or $9.99 for a new one and access the locked features.
Sadly for Ubisoft, things haven't worked out so well, as North American Xbox 360 versions of Driver: San Francisco had incorrect codes shipped with them, meaning legitimate first-hand buyers weren't able to access the multiplayer mode.
Ubisoft confirmed yesterday that it made the Uplay Passport free for everyone and has now revealed that it's going to stay that way, while the offer extends to the rest of the world.
"We wanted to make you aware of an issue with copies of Driver: San Francisco," Ubisoft told CVG. "Due to a printing error on the insert of some copies of Driver: San Francisco in North America, Ubisoft has elected to provide the Driver Uplay Passport content for free. Although this problem does not affect players outside of North America, we have decided to mirror this offer to everyone in the world in order to be fair to all our players."
More free stuff for Driver: San Francisco are also scheduled to appear, in the form of 12 new routes for the online modes of the game, which will be available free of charge on September 15. After that, Ubisoft is deploying one free route each week for the next ten weeks.
Driver: San Francisco is already out in North America for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, is getting ready to be released tomorrow in Europe, while the PC version is delayed until the end of the month.