The Crew servers shut down, game rendered unplayable
Ubisoft shut down the servers for The Crew (2014) on March 31, 2024. Because the game required an online connection for all modes, it became entirely unplayable, and copies were subsequently removed from purchasers' Ubisoft Connect libraries.
- Date
- March 31, 2024
- Platform
- Ubisoft Connect
- Refunds offered
- Unknown
- Offline copy provided
- No
What happened
In December 2023, Ubisoft announced that The Crew (2014) would be delisted from storefronts and that its servers would be shut down on March 31, 2024. The game required a server connection for all play, including solo driving, so the shutdown rendered every purchased copy unplayable.
In April 2024, players reported that The Crew had also been removed from their Ubisoft Connect game libraries, with the game's license shown as revoked.
Consumer impact
- The game was sold as a standard purchase (not a subscription) from 2014 to 2023.
- Ubisoft stated The Crew had reached 12 million players by 2017. This is a cumulative player figure from Ubisoft, not a count of purchasers holding licenses at shutdown, and should not be read as one.
- Ubisoft said recent purchasers might be eligible for refunds through each storefront's individual refund policy; contemporaneous coverage documented many refund requests being denied after the shutdown. Longstanding owners received no refund and no offline patch.
Why it matters
The Crew became the emblematic case for the ownership debate: a paid, largely single-player-capable product made permanently unusable by a server decision, with licenses then revoked. It directly sparked the Stop Killing Games consumer initiative in the EU/UK and is frequently cited in US coverage of digital-ownership legislation.
Status
Servers remain offline; the game remains unplayable. Ubisoft later announced offline modes for The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest — a change of practice for the sequels, not a remedy for the original.