Hi all.
Since I wouldn't pay to get any Ubisoft game, especially on their despicable launcher, I might as well try one out for free.
https://store.ubi.com/eu/assassin-s-creed--chronicles--china/56c4947f88a7e300458b4682.html
Cheers.

Hmm... To install virtual aids to get a free cute little assassin's creed title.... Tough choice.

To be fair, aids is way more popular than uplay

Poor trade, Ubisoft could atleast pick a game that was worth having the client installed oh wait they have none.

Splinter Cell, Rainbow Siege, Rayman Legends, Far Cry etc none is worth installing Uplay for.

I tried to get it but they wanted my credit card details and address so I didn't bother.

I'm interested. What specifically is bad about the UPlay client?

its everything wrong about ubisoft not just uplay

It hasn't given me a headache in the last few years, and if it has ever given me one, I have forgotten about it (which, frankly, may happen/have happened).

For me it's one of those things I don't really need/want around, but it doesn't offend me enough to outright hate it and swear it off forever.

This is the least interesting free offer they ever made of the AC series, actually. They've given AC3 and 4 for free in the past.

Ubisoft is not on the bright side of pro-consumer practices, to say the least.
Uplay is Ubisoft's homemade D.R.M. solution, while I still remember the days when AC2 required legitimate owners to be constantly online to play.
That and many many more unforgivable things, of which I have had enough through the years. Enough to make me avoid their products as an expression of art, to an extend, beyond the manner they are sold and supported.

OK. I get all that, but you said "their despicable launcher." I am curious what is bad about their launcher.

Well, for starters, after I bought Anno 2070, a single player game, on DVD-ROM I installed it, it didn't let me bloody play it a lot of the time because "Ubi Launcher" could not contact their fucking DRM services.

Simple. You don't have the launcher installed? Then you can't play.
Ubisoft servers are down (happens more often than someone would expect)? Then most likely you can't access features of "your" games (not just multiplayer, but also DLC and certain single player elements).
For example Rainbow Six Siege features a single player mode, playable only when online.
Uplay is a clunky piece of software, and I suggest using it to see for yourself.
It was primarily created to "keep tabs" on you, and straight up permit you, or not, to play the games you bought, under vigilant scrutiny. I might as well have rented them.
You consider differently?

It doesn't seem objectively worse to me than any of the other launchers.

I mean, I'd rather play without a launcher at all (thank God for GoG) but to me Origin, Valve Steam, uPlay and Epic are all pretty similar. Then again, all I do with them are:

1. Turn off any overlays
2. Turn off social features and achievements (if existing)
3. Download game that I've got for free in a giveaway
4. Launch game

Yeah I stopped there too. Did you check if it can be obtained for free from within the UPlay client itself (without having to give your address, phone number, DNA sample etc.)?

EDIT: To answer it myself: yes if you already have an UPlay account and client, you can obtain the game for free from within the client, without all that extra hassle. (I don't recall if I have given my address and/or credit card number to UPlay at any point of time... I don't think so, at least I haven't ever bought anything from UPlay. Only got a few freebies, now including this one.)

Yes that one is annoying and intrusive.
What I did was use "-" for every mandatory field, type "000 00" as my postal code and choose PaySafe as my means of payment. After completing the "purchase" I went back to my account settings and deleted those credentials, which are stored as a "customer information card".
No worries 'bout that.

Uplay functions as a "digital vault" of your purchases, it does not have a digital store funcion. All purchases providing Uplay keys are made from Ubisoft's web storefront.