Gamers across the video game industry are outraged after players found themselves unable to access Ubisoft’s online racing game The Crew. According to PC Gamer, following being delisted from digital storefronts in December 2023, Ubisoft had shut down all the online servers for The Crew in March. Despite this, players who already bought the game expected to still have access, found themselves unable to launch the game.
Instead, players reportedly received a message on Ubisoft Connect that read “You no longer have access to this game. Why not check the Store to pursue your adventures?”
This his hardly the first time players have found themselves unable to access Ubisoft that they had already paid for. In 2023, Ubisoft ended the online services of multiple games and even temporarily made Assassin’s Creed Revaluations unaccessible to players.
So unsurprisingly, Ubisoft has received major push back from the gaming community. Some players on Reddit questioned the legality of the decision.
“…I’m not sure why they’re even bothering doing this. The game isn’t playable anymore, so what exactly is the harm in keeping the game available for download for those who have purchased it? Server space? Is Ubisoft really that cheap?” wrote one redditor.
For those that campaign for video game preservation, this situation is a long time coming. A member of a server emulation project for The Crew, ChemicalFlood, shared with PC GAMER the reactions it’s community had to the news, calling it an abysmal move on Unisoft’s part.
“…We of course love the game and want it to be played for generations to come (my own son loved playing this on the PlayStation, ‘loved’ being the keyword!) But Ubisoft should [have] implemented an offline mode and they could [have]! The offline mode already exists in the files, we just can’t turn it on because of the DRM in place.”
ChemicalFlood hopes that campaigns like Stop Killing Games, which focuses on preservation of live service games, will be able to push for legal action to ensure companies will keep these games playable.