Two Californian gamers are taking Ubisoft to court, suing the company in a class action lawsuit over the shutdown of The Crew.
Ubisoft who launched the unique racing MMO The Crew back in December 2014 shut down its services in December 2023 due to “server infrastructure and licensing constraints,” rendering the game completely unplayable as of March 31st 2024 as The Crew lacked a single-player / offline mode. Ubisoft offered refunds to those who “recently” bought the game prior to its termination while actual owners were not eligible.
To make matters worse for Ubisoft, the French company was then exposed for deliberately removing owned copies of The Crew from the libraries of users on UPlay, now renamed Ubisoft Connect. Which most certainly has something to do with the fact a Ubisoft executive made the bold declaration that gamers should “get comfortable” with the concept that they don’t necessarily own the games they purchase.
Since shutting down their always-online car-themed MMO, Ubisoft has sparked backlash worldwide, due to their unwavering commitment to ESG initiatives focused on diversity and inclusivity. This controversy escalated with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which features a culturally inappropriate portrayal of Japanese history, presenting a fictionalized samurai background for the historically insignificant figure of Yasuke, a Black man in feudal Japan.
Throughout 2024, Ubisoft has faced significant financial failures, with their major release Star Wars Outlaws failing to meet expectations. As a result, the company has delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows to next year and plans to release it on Valve’s Steam store on day one, a notable shift from their previous strategy of exclusive launches on their own service alongside the Epic Games Store.
Ubisoft’s financial stability is increasingly uncertain. Mounting losses from Star Wars Outlaws have raised serious concerns about the company’s future. With Assassin’s Creed Shadows potentially set to cost the company another substantial loss, some investors are pushing for Ubisoft to go private, while others suggest a possible takeover by Tencent. If the class action lawsuit against Ubisoft proceeds or results in a win for gamers, they may need to cash out the check fast, as Ubisoft’s financial situation will soon become dire.
In the lawsuit, filed on Nov. 4, the plaintiffs argue that shutting down The Crew was like buying a pinball machine only to have all the critical pieces removed years later.
They say this is exactly what Ubisoft did, ripping away access to a game people thought they owned. They claim Ubisoft misled them, implying that they were buying a game, not just a license, even when they bought physical copies.
The plaintiffs bought The Crew in 2018 and 2020 and say they wouldn’t have done so had they known the servers could be axed, turning their game into a brick. The lawsuit points out other games that patched in offline modes when servers went down, and while Ubisoft promised offline options for other The Crew games, it doesn’t change the fact that The Crew is dead in the water.
They’re pushing for class action status and want financial relief for impacted players. The lawsuit aligns with a campaign led by YouTuber Ross Scott, who’s been calling on companies to “stop killing games.” Scott’s movement, backed by 379,000 petition signatures, demands that companies keep games playable even after their termination.
As media shifts to an all digital format, the question of ownership versus licensing especially in video games becomes more pressing as our rights are being stripped away. Some players have started taking preservation into their own hands, as with the fan-made The Crew Unlimited and similar projects for other lost and forgotten titles like Test Drive Unlimited 2.
However, responsibility still largely rests with companies when it comes to maintaining game access and server support. Recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that requires digital storefronts to clearly inform consumers they’re purchasing licenses rather than outright ownership of games. This bill was partly inspired by Ubisoft’s server shutdown of The Crew.
Gamers deserve clear, upfront information on whether a game is designed as a live service that could be shut down after a few years when most convenient to its developer. If you’re paying for a product, you should be able to expect it to function indefinitely after release. Companies should be required to offer an offline mode rather than simply pulling access as servers are retired, especially when the game depends entirely on online authentication to function.
While the law doesn’t prevent companies from making games unplayable by shutting down servers, it does represent a step toward transparency in digital purchases. I strongly hope this lawsuit succeeds, especially considering Ubisoft’s current trajectory in the industry. As they prioritize tokenized representation over genuine gamer engagement, they’re sinking their own relevance. Any additional PR missteps or financial setbacks for Ubisoft would be highly satisfying to see.
