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Hands up if you actually used Ubisoft's Uplay service on a consistent basis. Okay, we obviously can't see your hands, but we're going to assume that there aren't many of them in the air right now - and that's because Uplay always seemed like an afterthought that the French publisher tacked onto its games for, er, reasons that aren't entirely clear.

Upon connecting to Uplay, you could grab exclusive rewards - like extra costumes - through completing in-game activities. There was some potential in the concept, we suppose, but it was never implemented well enough to be anything more than an annoyance. Its servers were often unavailable and its bonus content was passable at best.

Perhaps aware of the service's unnecessary existence, Ubisoft has now rebranded Uplay as the Ubisoft Club. According to its all-new trailer, Ubisoft Club will grant you extra content, give you access to betas, and sprinkle on some 'limited edition goodies' to sweeten the deal. In other words, it's Uplay only not as pointless - or at least, so we'd hope.

The 'net's reaction has been pretty negative, though. There's plenty of venom being spat at the publisher right now from people worried that Ubisoft Club will effectively siphon off more content from titles that already ask you to spend money on season passes and additional downloadable content, placing bits and pieces behind a membership to an online club that no one really asked for.

We can certainly see the concern, but we're open to the idea of waiting to see what Ubisoft does with this. After all, if it is anything like Uplay in practice, then we doubt that anyone will care whether it's good or not in a few week's time.

[source club.ubi.com]