Uplay with game called Watchdogs -

I purchased a game on EA called watchdogs.  Its requiring me to create a UPLAY account in order to play it.  Every time I try to connect to UPLAY, I get the message that the servers are not available.  Digging into this, is sounds like UPLAY is no more.

How do I get around this issue so i can play the game?   Any help is appreciated.

thanks