Ubisoft has joined a growing list of companies that have added an “online pass” to their games. Driver San Francisco was among those games scheduled to be a part of the “Uplay” game code system. This means that purchasers must enter a one-time code to access online features. Due to a problem with manufacturing, the company is waiving the requirement.
“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,” Ubisoft said in a statement. “Although this problem does not affect players outside of North America, we have decided to mirror this offer worldwide in order to be fair to all our players.”
It should be pointed out that this is not a shift by Ubisoft away from the use of one-time use online codes. The reason that they are allowing users to play for free is because of the technical error that prevented people from accessing the multi-player modes in the game. Users will need to select “Start my 2-day free trial” or “Purchase Uplay passport” from the game’s Uplay passport menu to unlock the game’s multi-player modes.