Full title: Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version "to access a decade-old, discontinued video game"

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 90 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Let's see if the physical disc once said anything about needing an online connection for single play. Oh look, it did not, the subscription required was only for 2-8 players network play.

Let's compare with Destiny 2's back cover, a game that is a MMO and thus "cannot be owned" by the players. Hey, a "Online Play (Required)*" sticker that is not present on The Crew! The fine print has a bit that states that "Activision makes no guarantee of regarding availability of online play or features, and may modify or discontinue online services at its discretion without notice."

FF14 also had a "Online Play (Required)*" sticker on its back cover. It clearly states on the rectangular bit above the T Rating: "Users are granted only a limited, revocable license and do not own any intellectual property in the game or game data"

You deceived consumers, Ubisoft. "Online Play Required" is not there, so the game should remain playable offline.

[–] krinks73@lemm.ee 14 points 2 days ago

☝️ This guy lawyers

[–] uis@lemm.ee 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

You deceived consumers, Ubisoft.

~~Ubisoft is being fucked on consumer protection grounds, not on false advertisement. It doesn't matter what they said on box, they broke the law.~~

EDIT: fuck, this is USSA lawsuit. I thought it was French(and EU in general) one.

[+] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works -13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Technically right but the game required network access to play anyways so I'm not sure that people were deceived by this as it happened.

[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Which was a deception in the first place, because it clearly distinguishes between '1 player' where it doesn't say anything about needing a network connection, and 2-8 player where it says network and playstation plus required. It also says network features can be removed at any time, but nowhere does it say 1 player is a network feature. It specifically does not say that.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why weren't people upset when they first bought the game and realized they needed to be online to play it then? Why did it only become a talking point after the fact? You could argue it was shitty to make it a network only game and I might agree, but to say people were deceived and didnt realize it couldn't be played offline until the servers were shutdown is absurd.

[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They probably were upset, but not upset enough to do anything about it because they still wanted to play it. I personally would have refunded it right away, and lots of people probably also did that.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Sounds pretty fair to me.

[–] JustARaccoon@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Did you like, not read any of the comment you're replying to? Click any of the picture links?

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works -5 points 2 days ago

I did and have read about it and disagree. I dont think anyone was tricked and thought they'd have the crew forever. This all seems very self entitled in my opinion. Point out any technicalities that you want to, people should have expected the game to be sunset eventually, and that it would be gone after that, just like every other online only game.