When Season Passes Felt Like a Thank You – A Look Back at Ubisoft's Gold Standard

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When Season Passes Felt Like a Thank You – A Look Back at Ubisoft's Gold Standard


There was a time when buying a game's premium edition felt like a show of mutual respect between player and developer. You'd pre-order a title or pick up the Gold Edition and be rewarded with meaningful extras: story expansions, full games, and thoughtful content that made your early investment feel appreciated. Nowadays, however, the industry often leans toward slicing up games and selling content back to you piecemeal.

But not everyone followed that path. One publisher that rarely gets credit for doing it right is Ubisoft. While they’ve taken heat for open-world fatigue and formulaic design, their Gold Editions and season passes have often been some of the best-value offerings in the gaming world.

Take Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, for instance. The Gold Edition didn’t just promise a couple of cosmetic packs—it delivered two massive DLC arcs (Legacy of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis) that could easily stand alongside full single-player games. The content spanned roughly 90 hours, offering new settings, mechanics, and deep narrative layers. As if that wasn't enough, Ubisoft threw in Assassin’s Creed III Remastered and Liberation as extras. Even if AC III wasn’t everyone’s favorite, it was the cherry on top—not the cake.

It wasn’t just Assassin’s Creed, either. South Park: The Fractured But Whole came bundled with Stick of Truth, essentially handing you two games for the price of one. Far Cry 5 gave players Far Cry 3 Classic Edition as part of its season pass. Far Cry 6 followed suit by including Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, a beloved standalone spinoff, with its season pass. These weren’t limited-time demos or timed trials. These were full, complete games.

Compare that with the current trend. Persona 3 Reload locks its full story behind a DLC despite the original FES version including it as standard. Resident Evil 4 Remake slices out Separate Ways, a beloved legacy mode, and sells it separately—even though earlier releases offered it as a free bonus. Fighting games like Tekken 7 and Tekken 8 have also joined the trend of fragmenting the experience. Core characters like Anna Williams, Eddie Gordo and Lei Wulong—staples of the series—have been locked behind paid DLC, despite being longtime fan favorites. Even after buying premium or collector’s editions, players often found themselves needing to buy multiple season passes to access the full roster.

Publishers used to treat repackages and remasters as ultimate editions. Today, they often feel like stripped-down platforms for future monetization.

So credit where it’s due: Ubisoft, for all its criticisms, understood that a Gold Edition should feel like a thank you—not just a receipt for more payments. If more studios followed suit, maybe players wouldn’t feel the need to wait years for “complete editions.”

Until then, many of us will keep doing just that—waiting. Because loyalty should be rewarded, not milked.


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