Ubisoft's lawyers have responded to a class action lawsuit over the shutdown of The Crew, arguing that it was always clear that you didn't own the game and calling for a dismissal of the case outright.
The class action was filed in November 2024, and Ubisoft's response came in February 2025, though it's only come to the public's attention now courtesy of Polygon. The full response from Ubisoft attorney Steven A. Marenberg picks apart the claims of plaintiffs Matthew Cassell and Alan Liu piece by piece, but the most common refrain is that The Crew's box made clear both that the game required an internet connection and that Ubisoft retained the right to revoke access "to one or more specific online features" with a 30-day notice at its own discretion.
"After making their purchases, Plaintiffs enjoyed access to The Crew for years before Ubisoft decided in late 2023 to retire shut down the servers of the ten-year-old video game," Marenberg argues. "Plaintiffs received the benefit of their bargain and cannot complain now that they were deceived simply because Ubisoft did not then create an offline version of the discontinued video game."
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Polygon's report notes that the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on March 18, which argued that an activation code included with the retail version of the game that doesn't expire until 2099 implied that the whole package would remain playable until that date. It also argues that The Crew's currency could be considered a sale of a gift certificate, which are not allowed to expire under California law, where the suit was filed.
Which side of the argument has merit here will ultimately be decided by a judge, and if Ubisoft has its way, it'll be dismissed before it can actually go to trial. Marenberg concludes that the "plaintiffs' dissatisfaction with being unable to access a decade old, discontinued video game is not sufficient basis upon which to file a putative class action complaint."
It's worth explicitly noting that this case is unrelated to the ongoing Stop Killing Games campaign, a broader consumer rights effort inspired by The Crew's shutdown. That group is attempting to create laws that would force publishers to patch otherwise online-only games so that end users could continue playing them after they're no longer being supported, whether through offline modes or support for custom servers. The movement has inspired Ubisoft to add offline modes to The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest, but not the now-dead original that spawned all this kerfuffle in the first place.
Publishers are absolutely terrified "preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes," so the US copyright office has struck down a major effort for game preservation.
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