The confusion with Ubisoft Classics and Play Anywhere: why some games do not share progress on Xbox and PC

Why some Ubisoft games do not share progress between Xbox and PC.

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The new additions of Ubisoft Classics to Xbox Game Pass have raised questions that are repeated in the community. Several players are discovering that, despite appearing in the Xbox app for PC, these games do not share progress with the console version, forcing them to start from scratch on each platform. This is a very different functionality compared to Play Anywhere, which does allow cross-purchase, cross-save, and total synchronization between Xbox and PC.

The origin of the confusion lies in the fact that Game Pass provides access to the Ubisoft catalog, but it does not modify how each game works. Ubisoft keeps its titles linked to Ubisoft Connect, which manages everything: downloads, saves, and progress. Although you see them in the Xbox app, they are technically executed from the Ubisoft launcher, and that’s why their synchronization does not depend on the Xbox ecosystem.

Why some Ubisoft games do not share progress between Xbox and PC

Xbox Play Anywhere only works on games purchased in the Xbox Store or Microsoft Store that are marked with the feature. In those cases, both versions —Xbox and PC— are treated as a single product, with shared saves and automatic synchronization. The Ubisoft Classics games are not within that framework, even if you access them from Game Pass.

This leads to situations like:

• Your game saves are stored in Ubisoft Connect, not in the Xbox cloud.

• The PC version downloads and manages files from the Ubisoft launcher, not from the Store.

• Achievements and progress are not synchronized, unless the studio itself implements its own internal cross-save system.

Some recent titles, such as Diablo IV, work differently because they use their own account that centralizes progress and achievements, but it’s not the standard in Ubisoft.

For now, the reality is simple: Ubisoft Classics is integrated into Game Pass, but it does not adopt Play Anywhere features, which explains why in many games progress does not travel between platforms.