Ahoy, fellow pirates - turns out you'll need more than a trusty ship to set sail in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced. According to Push Square, the physical PS5 remake will require an internet connection just to install the game, as confirmed by a disclaimer printed right on the box art for both US and European editions.
Yes, you read that correctly. You can hold the disc in your hands, feel its weight, admire the box art - and then be completely stonewalled unless you have a working internet connection. It's a physical copy that requires digital approval. The irony of a game about pirates being gated behind always-online requirements is so thick you could cut it with a hidden blade.
Not exactly a new trick up Ubisoft's sleeve
Push Square notes this isn't entirely uncharted waters - similar messaging has appeared on other titles like Crimson Desert. But that doesn't make it sting any less for collectors and physical media advocates who specifically buy boxed copies to avoid exactly this kind of dependency.
The community reaction has been about as calm and measured as a naval broadside. Fans are understandably furious, pointing out that a mandatory download undermines the entire point of owning a physical copy. What happens when the servers go dark? What happens when your internet is down? Congratulations, your fancy collector's item is now a very expensive coaster.
The real final boss: your router
This is becoming a frustrating pattern in the industry, where "physical" increasingly means "a disc that points to a download" rather than a self-contained, playable product. For a franchise that once celebrated freedom on the open seas, there's something deeply on-the-nose about Ubisoft locking the experience behind an internet gate.
Whether this is a full game-on-disc situation with a mandatory patch, or a disc that's mostly just a license key with extra steps, hasn't been fully clarified yet. Either way, if you were planning to stash a copy for offline play or future-proofing purposes, you might want to temper your expectations - or stock up on very reliable Wi-Fi before setting sail.
