Ubisoft is stripping people's licences for The Crew weeks after its shutdown
Ubisoft’s removal of player licences for its defunct racing game *The Crew* is prompting wider concern over how little control consumers have over digital purchases. Commenters highlight the fragility of “online-only” and DRM‑locked games, arguing that products marketed as purchases are effectively rentals that can be revoked at any time. Many call for stronger consumer protection laws—particularly in the EU—to mandate refunds, clearer “rent vs buy” labelling, or even source-code escrow and mandatory offline/server options when support ends.
Online-only design and shutdown impact
- Many see The Crew as a mostly single-player game that was unnecessarily online-only, making its shutdown feel like avoidable loss.
- Some note evidence of built-in offline functionality and local save support that Ubisoft never exposed, heightening frustration.
- Others argue it was conceived as a car MMO from day one, so always-on servers were part of the original design, but agree that killing servers (and now licenses) is the real problem.
Ownership vs licensing / “buy” vs “rent”
- Strong sentiment that digital “ownership” is largely fictional: users get revocable licenses, not durable property.
- Several call for legal restrictions on using words like “buy” or “purchase” when access depends on remote servers; terms like “rent”, “lease”, or “subscribe” are seen as more honest.
- Others argue changing labels alone won’t fix the underlying problem, as people will still pay for rentals and subscriptions.
Legal and regulatory angles
- Multiple comments point to EU Directive 2019/770: if you pay for digital content, the seller must keep it usable or refund you, unless it was clearly sold as time-limited or subscription-only.
- Suggestions include mandatory refunds if service ends “too early”, mandatory archiving, or even forced open-sourcing / escrow release of code when support ends or a company dies.
- Norway is cited as having a law requiring refunds when paid digital content is revoked; EULAs cannot reduce statutory rights there.
Piracy, preservation, and user workarounds
- Many explicitly frame piracy (copyright infringement) as a rational response when paid access can be unilaterally revoked, especially for preservation.
- Proposals include allowing private servers, legal protection for reverse engineering and emulation, and public-domain release of software that’s no longer commercially offered.
- Concerns are raised about publishers deleting local files or old content (e.g., other games) under pretexts like storage or maintenance costs.
Industry incentives and business models
- Ubisoft and similar publishers are described as repeatedly abusing trust, pushing some users to boycott their games entirely.
- Commentary links this to broader AAA trends: large, risk-averse teams, focus on recurring revenue, and willingness to sacrifice long-term reputation for short-term gains.
- Some predict increasing “killing” of old games as attention becomes scarcer and only actively monetized titles are tolerated.