Will AC Valhalla ever be available on Steam? Why is it not already?

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, an action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft, is the twelfth major installment of the famous Assassin’s Creed series. It was launched in November 2020 on all three major platforms, including PlayStation 4, Xbox One / Series X/S, and PC.  

Surprisingly, the game was exclusively available for PC on Ubisoft Uplay and Epic Games Store at the time of launch, making Assassin’s Creed Valhalla the only installment of the entire primary series to be missing from the industry-leading Steam marketplace. After more than a year of the initial launch, gamers of the steam community are still hoping for a steam launch of the game and are wondering if AC Valhalla will ever come to Steam? 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will not be available for purchase on the Steam marketplace in the near future. Ubisoft has neither shown any interest nor made any official statements for launching the game on Steam. 

For the time, Ubisoft seems satisfied with their exclusivity deal of AC Valhalla with Epic Games Store. In fact, it is not just AC Valhalla. Since the launch of the Epic Games Store, Ubisoft has stopped launching any new titles on Steam, preferring the former as their exclusive partners for all their PC releases. 

Interestingly, SteamDB’s creator, Pavel Djundik, tweeted  on November 29th, 2021, that Valve updated the Steam client and added the Ubisoft Connect PC client to the default package. This update indicates the return of Ubisoft games to the Steam marketplace, but as of now, there is no official confirmation of the same from both Steam and Ubisoft. 

Why is AC Valhalla not on Steam? 

Steam takes a massive percentage of the revenue from the sale of a game because of which Ubisoft prefers Epic Games Store for selling their videogame titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

Epic Games Store has recently become the sole distribution partner of Ubisoft PC videogame titles, including AC Valhalla, because of its retail strategy of taking only a 12% cut from a game’s retail price compared to the 30% of Steam. 

Epic Games Store leaves an 88% share of the revenue for the videogame developers and publishers, making them an ideal marketplace for the developers to sell their games on. Considering this aspect, it becomes clearer why Ubisoft does not plan to partner with Steam anytime soon. 

Steam Deck Might Bring Ubisoft Games Back to Steam! 

Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, suggested that Ubisoft may release its titles on Steam again if Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming console takes off. 

In a Q1 earnings call  in July 2021, Guillemot replied to a question about Steam Deck by stating,

So we will look and see how big it becomes, but if it’s big, we will be able to put our games on it.

Yves Guillemot

This answer indicates that the availability of games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on Steam depends on the popularity of Steam Deck, which will be released on February 25th, 2022. Still, it will take a decent amount of time before we might see the latest Ubisoft titles on Steam. 

But, if you are a Steam gamer, don’t be disheartened, as you can still add already installed non-steam games like AC Valhalla to your steam library and organize all of your games on a single platform.  

How to add non-steam games on Steam? 

To add a non-steam game to the Steam library: 

Step 1: Launch Steam. 

Step 2: Click on the “Add a game” text on the bottom left of the screen. 

Step 3: Select “Add a non-steam game…”  

Step 4: Now, browse the newly opened window and select the games you wish to add to the steam library. 

Step 5: Click on “Add Selected Programs” on the bottom right of the screen. 

Now, you can access all your manually installed non-steam games from your Steam library. Unfortunately, you still won’t be able to purchase DLCs and cosmetics or unlock achievements in the manually added game using the steam client. 

About Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Developed and Published by Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the latest instalment in the Assasin’s Creed series launched in November 2020. The action-adventure, role-playing video game is available to play on Playstation 5/4, Xbox One/ Series X/S and PC.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla takes players back to the Vikings’ glory days around the 9th century through the eyes of a Viking invader from Norway named Eivor. By playing as Eivor, gamers must represent the clan and help fellow warriors in the battle against Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. The game brims with phenomenal main quests along with noteworthy side quests. AC Valhalla will also embrace many new features like dual-wielding of various weapons and armours.