Ubisoft is being sued for shutting down the now defunct racing game The Crew, with the claim they misled customers into only buying a licence to play it.
While we typically hear stories of companies suing individuals for selling cheats or leaking games early, as has happened recently with Nintendo, sometimes the reverse happens, and we see regular gamers file lawsuits against companies.
We can’t think of many instances where such efforts have been successful, though. Attempts to block Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard unsurprisingly failed and we doubt one disgruntled Elden Ring player’s plan to sue Bandai Namco will go anywhere.
The newest example comes from two gamers who have filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft for its decision to shut down the servers for online racing game The Crew, which was first released in 2014.
Why is Ubisoft being sued over The Crew?
Last December, Ubisoft delisted The Crew from digital storefronts, adding that its servers would go offline in March 2024. Since it’s an online-only title, this means the game became completely unplayable, which naturally didn’t go down well with those who had purchased a copy.
Two Californian gamers – Matthew Cassell and Alan Liu – have filed a class action lawsuit in opposition to Ubisoft, alleging that the writer mislead prospects into pondering they really owned their copies of The Crew.
In actuality, prospects had been solely buying a licence for The Crew; one thing that’s talked about in Ubisoft’s End User Licence Agreement. However, the lawsuit additionally claims Ubisoft ‘falsely represented’ the sport’s recordsdata being on bodily discs somewhat than the discs being a key to entry a distant server.
The plaintiffs imagine this implies Ubisoft has violated California state shopper safety legal guidelines and is looking for ‘compensatory, statutory, and punitive damages,’ although such figures can be determined by the courtroom and/or jury.
‘Imagine you purchase a pinball machine, and years later, you enter your den to go play it, solely to find that the all of the paddles are lacking, the pinball and bumpers are gone, and the monitor that proudly displayed your unassailable excessive rating is eliminated,’ wrote the plaintiffs.
‘Turns out the pinball machine producer determined to come back into your property, intestine the insides of the pinball machine, and take away your capability to play the sport that you simply purchased and thought you owned.’
Earlier this 12 months, one Ross Scott of YouTube channel Accursed Farms mentioned potential authorized motion in opposition to Ubisoft, however he doesn’t look like concerned with this specific lawsuit, claiming on X that he is aware of nothing about it. He doesn’t sound assured in its possibilities of succeeding both, including, ‘I believe it has harsh odds within the USA.’
While all that’s occurring, a bunch of modders have taken issues into their very own arms and begun rebuilding The Crew themselves. Simply dubbed The Crew Revival, one staff member – whammy4 – defined to Eurogamer: ‘It’s nonetheless the identical sport that everybody performed earlier than, besides as a substitute of connecting to Ubisoft’s central server, they are going to hook up with ours (or an area server operating on their computer systems in the event that they select to play offline).’
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