Uplay is not available: Watch Dogs players swamp Ubisoft's servers

In the future, you may need to get permission from Ubisoft before you can watch even your real dog.

OK, things aren’t that bad, but today people are having trouble playing Ubisoft’s new open-world action release Watch Dogs because the publisher’s authentication servers are struggling with the high demand. Players trying to log in to start Watch Dogs on PC and console are experiencing long delays as well as failed connections. The issue is intermittent, and some are getting online without issue.

Ubisoft posted a notice to social media warning fans of the problem:

“We are experiencing issues with the authentication services for Watch Dogs,” reads a Ubisoft post on Facebook. “Players may experience long delays when trying to login in-game. We are currently looking into it. Please continue to try as well as trying again later. We apologize for the inconvenience as we appreciate you cooperation.”

We’ve reached out to Ubisoft to ask if it expects this problem to continue, and we’ll update with any new information. The publisher did take to Twitter to note that it is working on fixing the issue:

All the possible efforts are put into the resolution of this problem. We are currently monitoring the situation closely. (1/2)

— Watch Dogs: Legion (@watchdogsgame) May 27, 2014

Uplay is Ubisoft’s online hub. It keeps track of players across platforms and games, which enables fans to earn rewards and achievements for all of the French company’s products. For example, those that own Ubisoft’s motorbike game Trials Fusion for PC and consoles can unlock content in Trials Frontier for mobile if they hook up their Uplay account to both.

Ubisoft also uses Uplay to authenticate games to prevent piracy. Despite those efforts, a pirated version of Watch Dogs popped up online before its release today, although that version came bundled with malicious software that turned the pirate’s PC rig into a Bitcoin-mining machine for an unidentified source.

Watch Dogs isn’t the first game to struggle with connectivity issues on its launch day. Publisher Electronic Arts saw similar problems when it debuted military shooter Battlefield 4 in November, and then it saw some very minor connectivity issues during futuristic shooter Titanfall’s March launch.

Gamers have come to expect these kinds of issues now — although that doesn’t really make it any easier to have a $60 purchase that doesn’t function properly.