1 week Ago By Michael Beckwith
Ubisoft is being sued for shutting down the now defunct racing game The Crew, with the claim they misled customers into only buying a licence to play it. While we typically hear stories of companies suing individuals for selling cheats or leaking games early, as has happened recently with Nintendo , sometimes the reverse happens, and we see regular gamers file lawsuits against companies. We can’t think of many instances where such efforts have been successful, though.
Attempts to block Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard unsurprisingly failed and we doubt one disgruntled Elden Ring player’s plan to sue Bandai Namco will go anywhere. The newest example comes from two gamers who have filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft for its decision to shut down the servers for online racing game The Crew , which was first released in 2014. Why is Ubisoft being sued over The Crew? Last December, Ubisoft delisted The Crew from digital storefronts, adding that its servers would go offline in March 2024.
Since it’s an online-only title, this means the game became completely unplayable, which naturally didn’t go down well with those who had purchased a copy. Two Californian gamers – Matthew Cassell and Alan Liu – have filed a class action lawsuit against Ubisoft, alleging that the publisher mislead customers into thinking they actually owned their copies of The Crew. In actuality, customers were only purchasing a licence for The Crew; something that is mentioned in Ubisoft’s End User Licence Agreement .
However, the lawsuit also claims Ubisoft ‘falsely represented’ the game’s files being on physical discs rather than the discs being a key to access a remote server. The plaintiffs believe this means Ubisoft has violated California state consumer protection laws and is seeking ‘compensatory, statutory, and punitive damages,’ though such figures would be decided by the court and/or jury. More Trending Nintendo Direct announced for today and it still isn't for Switch 2 Dragon Age: The Veilguard sold even less than Star Wars Outlaws in UK Trump tariffs will make video game consoles up to 40% more expensive Streamer faces $7,500,000 lawsuit after taunting Nintendo over piracy ‘Imagine you buy a pinball machine, and years later, you enter your den to go play it, only to discover that the all the paddles are missing, the pinball and bumpers are gone, and the monitor that proudly displayed your unassailable high score is removed,’ wrote the plaintiffs.
‘Turns out the pinball machine 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.’ Earlier this year, one Ross Scott of YouTube channel Accursed Farms discussed potential legal action against Ubisoft, but he doesn’t appear to be involved with this particular lawsuit, claiming on X that he knows nothing about it. He doesn’t sound confident in its chances of succeeding either, adding, ‘I think it has harsh odds in the USA.
’ While all that’s happening, a group of modders have taken matters into their own hands and begun rebuilding The Crew themselves. Simply dubbed The Crew Revival, one team member – whammy4 – explained to Eurogamer : ‘It’s still the same game that everyone played before, except instead of connecting to Ubisoft’s central server, they will connect to ours (or a local server running on their computers if they choose to play offline).’ Email gamecentral@metro.
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