UPlay, an in-game community feature unveiled at E3, represents a significant change in what - and how - Ubisoft delivers to its consumers, says the publisher.

Combining a store, social hub, media player and more, the new service is set to arrive within many of Ubisoft’s future titles. “As a leading company in the industry, Ubisoft’s strategy is based on anticipating the evolution of technologies that enable gamers to be increasingly connected,” said Stéphane Catherine, manager of the company’s digital marketing group, to MCV.

“UPlay is our answer to this evolution: by reinforcing the gaming experience of our players, we shift from being a company that offers products to becoming a company that provides services.”

Some of the first titles expected to include UPlay are Assassin’s Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Avatar, though details of the service itself remain thin. Promotional material suggests that its four modules - UShare, UWin, UHelp and UShop – mirror much of the design and functionality of the NXE dashboard for Xbox 360.

What remains to be seen is how obtrusive the service is for those who simply want to play the company’s games, or how this ‘network-within-a-network’ is received by gamers at large. Live and PSN users are, after all, quite connected already.