Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced on PC this week, rebuilding Edward Kenway's 2013 pirate adventure on the latest Anvil engine. The remake ships with upgraded graphics, revised combat, improved parkour, expanded naval gameplay, and crossover rewards tied to Assassin's Creed Shadows.
The Standard Edition costs R1,079 on Steam. The Deluxe Edition, which bundles the Master Assassin Character Pack and Master Assassin Naval Pack, costs R1,249. Ubisoft priced both at full AAA rates for a title that originally launched in November 2013.
Owners of the original Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag expected some form of loyalty discount. Steam can identify who owns the 2013 release, and other publishers have handled comparable situations differently. FromSoftware gave existing owners of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition a 50% discount on Dark Souls Remastered. Bethesda sent Skyrim Special Edition free to anyone who owned the base game and its DLC. CD Projekt Red updated The Witcher 3 to its next-generation version at no charge. Ubisoft offered none of these.
98,000 Players, Mostly Negative Reviews
Black Flag Resynced hit 98,000 concurrent players on Steam within hours of launch. Those players rated the game "Mostly Negative" — 35% positive across more than 600 reviews.
The complaints target Ubisoft's choices, not the remake's quality. Pre-rendered cutscenes run at 30 FPS even on hardware that pushes gameplay well past 144 Hz. Nine cosmetic DLC packs launched alongside the base game at R179 each, plus a Map Pack at R89. Buying every piece of DLC adds R1,521 — more than the Standard Edition itself.
Ubisoft responded with a statement confirming that the Standard Edition contains every mission, every island, and the complete story. The paid packs, the company said, are optional extras. That clarification addressed fears of cut content but did nothing for players who see a R1,079 remake of a 2013 title shipping with over R1,500 of day-one DLC.
The question now is whether Ubisoft will patch the 30 FPS cutscene cap and whether enough players accept the pricing to keep the population healthy. Black Flag Resynced pulled in a massive crowd on launch day. Convincing them to stay may cost more than a loyalty discount would have.