Ubisoft has reportedly pulled The Crew from owners' libraries following the server shutdown

After shutting down The Crew's servers at the end of March, Ubisoft reportedly began removing the open-world racer from owners' libraries and revoking their user license.

Ubisoft removed The Crew – which would have celebrated its 10th birthday later this year – from its digital storefronts last December, with the publisher announcing that it would permanently shut down the game's servers on March 31, 2024. This doesn't just mean that The Crew's It is possible to access multiplayer elements; Due to the always online nature of the game, not all single player content will be available either.

However, The Crew fans – some of whom had been hoping for the game to continue through private servers – were shocked to discover that Ubisoft had apparently started revoking owners' licenses earlier this week as well, making downloading and installing the game impossible.

Players reported (Thanks PC player) The Crew has been moved from their Ubisoft Connect libraries and placed in a new “Inactive Games” section, along with the message, “You can no longer access this game. Why not check out the Store to continue your adventures?”. Attempts to run it directly from the current installation directory are said to launch the game, but only in demo mode, while Steam installations are met with a request to enter the game key.

Needless to say, the response has been far from positive – one commenter on A A lengthy Reddit thread discusses Ubisoft's actions He called the move “truly abhorrent behavior that should stop being legal”, while another said it was “the saddest and cruelest decision I've seen in the history of gaming” – with many directing gamers' attention to the recently launched Stop Killing gaming initiative.

Stop Killing Games was created by YouTuber Ross Scott in response to Ubisoft's original announcement to shut down The Crew, and aims to raise political and legal challenges to the increasingly common event of purchased games becoming unplayable.

As for Ubisoft, when contacted by Eurogamer for comment on its decision to begin canceling licenses for The Crew, it only referred to its initial announcement. “We announced on December 14, 2023 that after nearly a decade of support, we will be shutting down The Crew 1 on March 31, 2024,” the message read. “While we realize this may be disappointing for players, it was necessary due to server infrastructure and licensing limitations.”