Ubisoft is being sued by two avid gamers in California over its shutdown of open-world racing sport The Crew in March.
A category motion lawsuit noticed by Polygon was filed November 4 by Matthew Cassell, who purchased The Crew from a GameStop in early 2020, and Alan Liu, who additionally purchased it from a GameStop however in November 2018.
Each plaintiffs had been “underneath the impression” they had been “paying to personal and possess the online game The Crew as a substitute of paying for a restricted license to make use of The Crew.” This license over product argument will seemingly be on the crux of Ubisoft’s defence.
“Think about you purchase a pinball machine, and years later, you enter your den to go play it, solely to find that the all of the paddles are lacking, the pinball and bumpers are gone, and the monitor that proudly displayed your unassailable excessive rating is eliminated,” the lawsuit reads.
“Seems the pinball machine producer determined to come back into your private home, intestine the insides of the pinball machine, and take away your capability to play the sport that you simply purchased and thought you owned. Regardless that you paid full value to obtain this sport, you by no means knew that the producer might are available in someday, and, with out your management, go away you with a skeleton of what you thought you paid for.”
The Crew is, certainly, not playable. No model of the sport, whether or not it is bodily or digital or even when it is owned already and has been because it launched in 2014, may be purchased and performed in any capability. Ubisoft has taken measures to create offline variations of The Crew 2 and sequel The Crew: Motorfest, however no comparable motion was taken for the unique, rendering it non-existent.
The lawsuit seeks financial reduction and damages for these impacted by The Crew’s shutdown however solely time will inform whether or not it’s profitable. Ubisoft declined to remark when contacted by Polygon.
Storefronts together with Steam at the moment are including an up-front warning to clients that they’re shopping for a license, not a sport forward of a Californian legislation going into impact in 2025. The change to Steam got here after California governor Gavin Newsom signed a legislation forcing digital marketplaces to make it clear to clients that once they purchase media, they solely purchase a license to that media.
It’s value noting that the brand new legislation nonetheless does not forestall firms from yanking your content material away from you, however at the least they will need to warn you concerning the true nature of your buy earlier than you click on that purchase button.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll discuss The Witcher all day.