Ubisoft is seeking to settle a lawsuit filed by two players who were unhappy with the termination of access to the first installment of The Crew, which they purchased. The company claims that it did not promise unlimited access to the game, even for its owners.
Ubisoft is seeking to settle a lawsuit filed by two players who were unhappy with the termination of access to the first installment of The Crew, which they purchased. The company claims that it did not promise unlimited access to the game, even for its owners.
As IGN reports, no physical or digital copy of The Crew will allow access to the game anymore; even owners who previously purchased a copy will not be able to play it, as the game’s servers will be down in March 2024.
For The Crew 2 and its sequel The Crew: Motorfest, Ubisoft made sure to provide offline versions, so players could continue playing, but this was not done for the first part.
Late last year, two gamers sued Ubisoft, claiming they were «under the impression» that they were «paying to own the video game The Crew instead of paying for a limited license to use The Crew».
«Imagine buying a pinball machine and years later going into your den to play it, only to find that all the paddles are gone, the ball and bumpers are gone, and the monitor that proudly displayed your huge score has been removed», — their lawsuit said.
The players accused Ubisoft of violating California’s false advertising law, unfair competition law, and consumer protection law, as well as «common law fraud and breach of warranty». They also allege that Ubisoft violated California’s non-expirable gift card law.
The plaintiffs attached images that clearly show that the activation code does not expire until 2099, which they believe means «that [The Crew] will be available to play during that time and long after that.»
According to Ubisoft’s lawyers, the plaintiffs claim that they purchased physical copies of The Crew, believing that they were getting unlimited access to the game forever, and disagree that the company did not create an offline version of the project.
«The core of the plaintiffs' complaint is that Ubisoft allegedly misled buyers of its video game The Crew into believing that they were purchasing unlimited ownership rights to the game, rather than a limited license to access the game. But the reality is that consumers benefited from their deal and were clearly informed at the time of purchase that they were purchasing a license,» Ubisoft said.
The lawyers pointed out that the Xbox and PlayStation packaging contains «a clear and prominent message — in large print — that Ubisoft may revoke access to one or more specific online features upon 30 days’ prior notice.»
Ubisoft has now filed a motion to dismiss the case. If that fails and the trial continues, both plaintiffs are requesting a jury trial.
Recently, video game stores, including Steam, have begun warning users that they are purchasing a license, not the game itself. The changes to Steam come after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring digital marketplaces to explain to customers that when they purchase media, they are only purchasing a license for that media.
This approach was ridiculed by Polish digital store Good Old Games (GOG), owned by The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projekt. The company reminded players who buy a digital product on GOG receive an offline installer that «cannot be taken away.»
Last fall, the service announced theGOG Preservation Program, which would allocate additional resources to ensure that a selection of older games, like the original Diablo or the first Resident Evils, worked well on a variety of current and future devices.
