Ubisoft, one of the larger game developers in the industry, finds itself in a legal storm in the wake of server shutdowns for the game The Crew this March 2024. Two disgruntled fans have taken to the courts in a class-action lawsuit against the company for what is claimed to be an effective destruction of the game and refusal of access to paid content.
The Crew was an always-online racing game when it launched in 2014, designed to take on the likes of Forza Horizon. It required active servers to play the game, however, which means it’s now unplayable since those servers were switched off. That decision “completely destroyed” the product for consumers who otherwise would have access to a game they had bought, according to the plaintiffs.
Filings range from allegations of misrepresenting to customers the sale of what amounted to a limited license, rather than an actual game in tangible form. They declare this misrepresentation renders players helpless should the servers be shut down. More importantly, the suit reproaches Ubisoft for not offering an offline single-player mode that would at least let users play part of the game after the support for the servers went dark.
It’s a case that points to critical issues in the gaming world, especially with digital ownership and the preservation of online games. The industry of video gaming has increasingly moved to a live-service model reliant on access to servers. On the other hand, server shutdowns expose the intrinsic dangers for consumers by something considered to blur the lines between ownership and licensing.
Ubisoft declined to comment publicly on the lawsuit, but the incident underlines how developers are struggling to balance the dual demands of live-service models and customer demand. Curiously, The Crew 2-its sequel-released in 2018, also has an offline single-player capability, which ensures that players will be able to access the core content, regardless of server status.
The suit, with its potential to set a precedent for consumer rights in digital gaming, will be closely followed by the gaming community. But however the eventual outcome may be, the case puts the onus on the industries for more transparency and longevity in gaming services. That means companies need to rethink how they design digital game lifetimes to maintain trust and prevent other similar lawsuits.
In many ways, this takedown of The Crew servers makes for a watershed moment: the industry is on notice where game preservation and customer contract provisions in these new-fledged live-service games are concerned.
