While it wasn't the first game to be yanked out of the hands of paying gamers, Ubisoft's shuttering of "The Crew" is probably the best known
example of that happening. Probably because the game itself never
really _needed_ its multiplayer component; it was quite good just
being played in single-player. So when Ubisoft shut down the servers
without allowing gamers to keep playing the game, it was a pre-eminent example of how publishers are effectively robbing gamers of their
property and our culture of part of its heritage... just to save the
company a few bucks.
Defenders of the action pointed out that the EULA (and legal
precedent) permitted this, and anyway, it's not like there was any alternative, right? If the game wasn't profitable, surely we couldn't
expect a company to keep financing the servers forever. But others
suggested that the publishers could, instead of just shutting down the servers, make the code available to their customers so THEY could keep
using the product they'd paid for even after Ubisoft was no longer interested. "No," said the naysayers. "It's too expensive; it's too
much work!"
To them I point at "The Crew Unlimited", a fan-led project* that has backward-engineered the server code and made the game playable again.
A project that they finished in about a year, despite not having
access to the source-code or the resources of a triple-A publisher.
It's probably something Ubisoft could have whipped out in a week...
but instead decided wasn't worth the effort despite upsetting huge
numbers of gamers and almost single-handedly spurring the formation of
the "Stop Killing Games" movement.
True, not every game that gets killed by a publisher could be so
easily transited to a single-player (or player-run server) model. "The
Crew" stands out _because_ it was, in many ways, a single-player game
forced into an MMO framework 'for reasons'. But that's all the more
reason Ubisoft shouldn't have been so obstinate about its shutdown,
and instead worked with the fans rather than just giving all the fans
the middle-finger.
Currently, TCU isn't actually publicly available; it's official
release date is later this month (15 September, to be precise). It
will be a server emulator that will allow you to run it locally or in
an online mode (the former to play the game entirely single-player,
the latter if you want to invite a select number of friends to race
with you). It will require you own the original game, but as the
modders have no way to confirm that (since that would require access
to the cryptographic keys that verify the game code/serial numbers)
it'll have to take things on trust.
I actually enjoyed playing "The Crew". It wasn't the greatest
arcade-racing game around, but it was fun to race coast-to-coast
across its virtual rendition of the United States of America. The game
did suffer from a lot of the usual Ubisoft nonsense --lots of
pointless collectibles and repetitive side-quests, and the usual
terrible story and characters-- but the cars were varied and there was
a lot of territory to explore. It certainly was head-n-shoulders
better than the 2018 sequel. The shut-down of the original was
disappointing; it wasn't a game I played a lot, but I liked knowing
that --if I wanted to-- I could do a continent-wide cannonball run
anytime I wanted.
Or so I thought. Until Ubisoft did their thing.
So kudos to the fans who are reviving the game. And fuck you, Ubisoft,
for shutting down the game and so transparently lying about how that
was your only option.
* website here
https://thecrewunlimited.com/about/
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 20:22 this Friday (GMT):
* website here
https://thecrewunlimited.com/about/
It was never really about the diffiuclty of keeping the games alive, it was about getting
more purchases out of you.. :(
On Mon, 15 Sep 2025 19:40:03 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
<candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 20:22 this Friday (GMT):
* website here
https://thecrewunlimited.com/about/
It was never really about the diffiuclty of keeping the games alive, it was about getting
more purchases out of you.. :(
IT'S a bit of column A, and bit of column B. Definitely publishers
have incentive to move customers on to the next purchase. Time is a
limited commodity, and if you spend all of yours on a game they sold
you ten years ago, you've no incentive to buy the next game.
(Especially if the next game is the one with all the MTX and
post-purchase monetizations baked into its gameplay!).
BUT I won't hold it totally against publishers either for wanting to
shutter older games for the expense. While server time and bandwidth
are relatively cheap, still they aren't free, and you also have to
dedicate manpower to making sure the hardware and software are
running, and -increasingly- towards moderation issues. If an onlines
game's population drops below a certain point, it isn't prudent to
keep throwing resources towards such a tiny percentage of your
customers, especially as its likely that dedicated fanbase aren't
going to be jumping ship to to The Next Game any time soon to help
refill the coffers.
BUT killing the game in a way that makes the product completely
inaccessible to gamers isn't the way to do things either.
(Not to mention that Ubisoft seems to kill its games faster than most)
IN related news:
THE Stop Killing Games movement is reporting* that 97%
of the signatures on its petition are likely to be valid.
There was some concern that fraud/false signatures would drop
the number of signatures to below the threshold where lawmakers
have to take their motion seriously; it looks like that isn't
the case. They're still in the process of verifying the
signatures, but it seems as if the petition is on track to
be pushed forward to the European Commission.
IN other related news:
THE aforementioned "Crew Unlimited" fan-project (see URL
above) is now publically available for download. I haven't
tried it myself yet (although I downloaded the software).
Honestly, I'm not sure how to progress. The fan-project is
only a server-emulator; you still need the core game to
play. I own (or owned) "The Crew" but because it was
associated with my Ubisoft UPlay account, I don't know how
to get my legitimately acquired game-files onto my computer
(UPlay lists the game in my library but does not allow a
download). Unfortunately, the Crew Unlimited website isn't
particularly forthcoming on what to do in this situation.
There are the High Seas... but I'd prefer to avoid that
method.
HEY, you think Ubisoft will step up and do the right thing,
making the game-files accessible for download to legitimate
owners (as 'unsupported software')?
NAH, me neither.
* report here https://www.reddit.com/r/StopKillingGames/comments/1nfvxk1/campaign_update/
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