Summary
The Crew was rather unceremoniously shut down earlier this year, asUbisofttook the game’s servers offline, rendering the game unplayable for potential buyers and existing owners. Ubisoft claimed the game had to be shut down due to “server infrastructure and licensing constraints”, but it was still a move that proved very unpopular among gamers, and while The Crew may not have a huge fanbase, it has a very loyal and passionate one.
Ever since The Crew was shut down, fans of the game have been working to bring it back to life with an unofficial offline mode,which has very steadily been making progress. Despite that progress, it’s very clear that fans have held a major grudge against Ubisoft for shutting it down in the first place, and now two fans of the series have decided to try and sue Ubisoft for fraud.
The Crew Fans Are Attempting To Sue Ubisoft Over Shutdown
First shared by Polygon, these two fans are from California,and they filed a fraud lawsuitagainst Ubisoft on November 4, claiming that the “complete destruction” of The Crew had rendered it unplayable and has “barred consumer' access to the product they paid for”. Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that Ubisoft has wronged customers by not providing an offline mode to enjoy the game in single-player,like it’s doing with both The Crew 2 and Motorfest.
“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.”
The lawsuit also claims that Ubisoft “duped” consumers in two ways, the first claim being that Ubisoft deliberately hid the fact that customers were buying a license for the game rather than owning it outright. This has been a relatively frequent topic of discussion in the industry,following the passing of a law in Californiathat will see digital storefronts forced to tell customers whether they’re buying a game, or just its license.
Secondly, this lawsuit also claims that Ubisoft falsely represented The Crew by allowing fans to believe the game was physically on the disc or digital files they were purchasing, when in reality the game “resided on remote servers”. Both plaintiffs claim they purchased the game under the impression that they paid to own the game, rather than just the license, and that they wouldn’t have purchased The Crew “on the same terms” if they knew it was going to be delisted.
Right now, the lawsuit only has two plaintiffs, but they’re hoping the courts will approve the lawsuit as a class action, meaning anyone who bought The Crew and couldn’t get a refund when the servers shut down could join in. Both plaintiffs are asking for monetary relief and damages for people impacted by the server shutdown, but we’ll have to wait and see whether this lawsuit has the potential to go any further.
