Grab Ubisoft’s classic platformer ‘Rayman Origins’ for free on PC right now

By Gabe Gurwin Published August 18, 2016

Free games are always nice, and Ubisoft has given fans a chance to pick up several this year. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the publisher has been offering a different acclaimed PC game to Ubisoft Club members each month. We’ve already gotten a chance to bend time in Prince of Persia and shoot out light bulbs in Splinter Cell, and with this month’s Rayman Origins, we’ll be able to do … whatever a limbless humanoid cartoon character does.

From now until the end of August — and, more than likely, through the beginning of September — PC players with a Ubisoft Club account can download Rayman Origins absolutely free. The platformer, which is also available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, 3DS, and even Wii, propelled the classic franchise back into the spotlight. Its bright and beautiful environments, balanced difficulty, and absurd humor make it an excellent choice to get you out of a funk, and cooperative play, complete with friendly fire, can help you quickly end unwanted friendships.

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If you’re itching to play even more Rayman, be sure to check out 2013’s excellent sequel, Rayman Legends. Its gameplay mostly follows the format of Origins, but also includes several speedrun-friendly music levels that see every step Rayman takes perfectly lining up with a drum beat or guitar chord. Unfortunately, some puzzle sections inserted to capitalize on the game’s initial Wii U exclusivity (it was delayed several months to launch as a multiplatform title) make it slightly less consistent than its predecessor.

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Ubisoft still has four more free PC games to give away before the end of the year, and we’re betting there are still a few heavy hitters in store. Classic Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games sound like obvious choices, as does the strategy game Endwar.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

Microsoft gives Activision Blizzard cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft

Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming Service Enters Beta This Week

Microsoft announced its intention to grant Ubisoft, the publisher behind series like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, the cloud streaming rights for Activision Blizzard titles if Microsoft's acquisition of the Call of Duty publisher goes through.
This deal was made in order to appease the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Microsoft has not had an easy time trying to acquire Activision Blizzard as it has run into heavy resistance from regulatory bodies like the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.K.'s CMA. The CMA's complaints centered around the potential monopoly Microsoft could have on cloud gaming if the deal were to go through. There was speculation that Microsoft would divest its U.K. cloud gaming efforts to appease the CMA, but it has now presented this new plan that would technically make it give up control of Activision Blizzard game-streaming rights worldwide for the next 15 years.
In a blog post, Microsoft President Brad Smith explainsed that if the Activision Blizzard acquisition happens, Microsoft will give "cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years" in perpetuity following a one-off payment.
Essentially, Ubisoft will be the one deciding which cloud gaming platforms and services to put Activision Blizzard games on, not Microsoft. Smith claims that this means "Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service -- Xbox Cloud Gaming -- or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games for rival services," and that Ubisoft will allow them to honor existing agreements with companies like Nvidia.

Ubisoft has been cloud gaming friendly over the past several years, eagerly putting its games on services like Google Stadia and Amazon Luna. With this deal, Ubisoft says it plans to bring Activision Blizzard games to its Ubisoft+ subscription service. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick also commented on the deal, saying that he approves of the deal, but that "nothing substantially changes with the addition of this divestiture" for Activision Blizzard and its investors.
The current deadline for Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is October 18.

Gaming

PC classic Quake II is now on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch

A fight with an enemy in Quake 2's 2023 remaster.

Lining up with the start of 2023's QuakeCon, Bethesda released a remaster of id Software's classic PC shooter Quake II across PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles.

Quake II first released in 1997 and is a classic old-school first-person shooter with satisfying, fast-paced gunplay that only improves upon its predecessor. The game also has multiplayer that still holds up to its day. The game did receive an RTX remaster on Steam from Nvidia in 2019, but this remaster is separate from that. Like the remaster of Quake that dropped in 2021, this release updates things like enemy animations, gore, lighting, AI, cinematics, and more while adding widescreen, 4K resolution, and crossplay support.

Gaming

Rayman returns in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope DLC later this month

Rayman, Rabbid Mario, and Rabbid Peach in Mario + Rabbid Sparks of Hope: Rayman in the Phantom Show

Ubisoft is finally bringing Rayman back as part of a new piece of DLC for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope later this month. Called Rayman in the Phantom Show, this DLC releases on August 30.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - DLC 3 Reveal Trailer
For a long time, Rayman was Ubisoft's premier mascot and starred in a series of platformers that people who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s remember fondly. Unfortunately, Ubisoft's focus has primarily been on more mature series like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch_Dogs as well as the Rabbids (which spun off from a Rayman game) over the last decade, so Rayman took a back seat to those series following the launch of Rayman Legends. That's why Rayman in the Phantom Show is a big deal for fans of this dormant franchise; it's the most prominent role Rayman has had in a console game in almost a decade.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope is a turn-based strategy game that launched on Nintendo Switch to critical acclaim last year. This latest (and final) piece of post-launch DLC for the game follows Rayman, Rabbid Peach, and Rabbid Mario as they take on the Phantom -- a boss from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle -- in an otherworldly TV studio called the Space Opera Network. David Gasman, who voiced the titular character in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, reprises his role here.

It's not a full-on platformer, but the reveal trailer for the DLC does show how players can use Rayman's detachable limbs and helicopter ability to explore the Space Opera network. At least it's something that looks pretty entertaining for fans of classic Rayman, who Ubisoft hasn't appealed to in quite a long time. Hopefully, it's as good as Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle's excellent Donkey Kong DLC.
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is available now exclusively for Nintendo Switch. Rayman in the Phantom Show comes out on August 30, and it can be purchased individually or as part of Spark of Hope's season pass.