Earlier this year, Ubisoft officially shut down the servers for its online multiplayer racing game, The Crew. As of April 2024, it’s impossible to play the game due to the servers being taken offline. While this bummed out a lot of players, two fans have taken it very seriously. Ubisoft is now being sued for shutting down The Crew‘s servers.
As reported by Polygon, two California-based players have filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft alleging that the company did not warn them that when purchasing The Crew on a physical disc, they were not actually buying the game to own but rather buying a license to simply play the game – a license that could be revoked at any time the publisher wanted. The cherry on top of that was the fact that the plaintiffs bought the game on disc, which didn’t actually contain the full game but rather just a DRM-check once it was connected to online servers.
The plaintiffs compared The Crew to buying a pinball machine, only years later, parts are removed by the creators to make the machine unplayable. They explained in the suit:
“Imagine you buy a pinball machine, and years later, you enter your den to go play it, only to discover that all the paddles are missing, the pinball and bumpers are gone, and the monitor that proudly displayed your unassailable high score is removed. Turns out the pinball manufacturer decided to come into your home, gut the insides of the pinball machine, and remove your ability to play the game that you bought and thought you owned.”
The plaintiffs are apparently hoping to upgrade the suit to a class action lawsuit, which could bring in more disgruntled The Crew players to make a case, seeking monetary relief and damages. If the case does escalate, it won’t look pretty for Ubisoft, who is being sued for a relatively common occurence in the industry when it comes to online multiplayer games shutting down.
Source: Polygon
