Ubisoft is being sued over the closure of The Crew
Two California gamers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Ubisoft over the shutdown of The Crew servers, accusing the company of selling activation keys rather than the full version of the game. The plaintiffs claim that the company essentially deprived them of the right to own the product.
The Crew
“Imagine buying a pinball machine only to find out years later that the manufacturer came to your home, removed the levers, ball, and score display, leaving you with nothing,” the attorneys likened.
According to the lawyers, the same happened with The Crew: instead of purchasing the title permanently, players were effectively granted only temporary access to the active The Crew servers.
Furthermore, it is claimed that physical discs of The Crew are merely access keys, not complete game copies with all necessary installation files. Without Ubisoft’s servers, these discs are now useless on their own, as it is impossible to play offline.
Previously, Ubisoft had deactivated servers for older games but left the option to run them in offline mode—like with Assassin’s Creed II and III. Why this wasn't done for The Crew remains a question.
Players believe that Ubisoft violated California consumer protection laws, which mandate that gaming platforms must clearly indicate that purchasing only grants the right to use, not ownership.
They added that none of them would have purchased the game for the same price had they known about these specifics.
Ubisoft declined to comment.
In December 2023, Ubisoft ceased support for The Crew, offering compensation only to recent purchasers, which upset those who bought the game over nearly a decade of its existence.
In response to this situation, in the summer of 2024, blogger Ross Scott launched a campaign called Stop Killing Games, which has already gathered over 379,000 signatures in support of preserving old games.
