If you still remember that “The Crew” was directly shut down in March 2024 and became a classic operation of “you bought it but can’t play it”, then now the sequel is coming – not a new work, but a lawsuit. The French consumer organization UFC-Que Choisir confirmed on March 31 that it will formally sue Ubisoft. The focus is whether players have really “bought” the game after the complete suspension of “The Crew”.
The point of prosecution is very harsh: not a buyout, but “limited access”?
UFC-Que Choisir’s claim is straightforward: When Ubisoft was selling “The Crew,” it made players think they were buying a game, but after shutting down the server, it said that “all you bought was the right to use the game.” The organization accused this statement of misleading consumers, and even described the entire transaction as an “abusive contract” because you paid money, but in the end the right to use it was unilaterally withdrawn, and the DLC you purchased may also evaporate.
As of now, Ubisoft has not issued an official statement regarding the UFC-Que Choisir lawsuit.
The issue of refunds has been brought up again
The lawsuit is also supported by the Stop Killing Games campaign. This movement has been quite vocal in the gaming community in the past two years. Its core appeal is to oppose the tragedy of “online games dying forever as soon as they close the server.” UFC-Que Choisir also named another pain point: Ubisoft did not provide refunds after the server of “The Crew” was closed, resulting in players actually losing their paid content.
Stop Killing Games even brought the issue to the level of the European Parliament, making this matter no longer just a matter of player complaints, but an issue of “consumer rights” and “digital product preservation.”
Fans themselves keep the game alive, but the threshold is not low
On the premise that the official does not intend to look back, fans also use their own methods to extend their lives. The Crew Unlimited ，，。， PC 《The Crew》，，「」——，。
In the final analysis, the value of this lawsuit is not only with Ubisoft, but when you make a game into a product that “must be connected to live”, how do you explain to the players when the server is shut down? This lawsuit matters beyond one title: if courts side with consumers, publishers may face pressure to redesign end-of-life policies, offline contingencies, and storefront language for always-online games sold across Europe and downstream markets including SEA.