French Consumer Group Sues Ubisoft Over The Crew Shutdown

What Happened

French consumer association UFC-Que Choisir said on March 31 that it has filed suit against Ubisoft over the shutdown of The Crew. According to the group, the server closure did more than end online support: it made the game completely unusable for people who had already bought it, despite players never being clearly told at the point of sale that access to the product could effectively expire.

The organization says the case, supported by the Stop Killing Games movement, is meant to answer a broader question that reaches far beyond one racing game. When players buy a boxed or digital copy, do they keep at least a minimum right to use that game independent of a publisher’s later decision, or can a publisher reduce the purchase to a revocable license that disappears when backend services are switched off? UFC-Que Choisir argues the answer should favor the consumer.

The filing challenges contract terms the group considers abusive.

It objects to language that can strip players of access without any alternative offline mode.

It also argues that buyers were not fairly informed that the game could become worthless after server shutdown.

That distinction matters because The Crew was not marketed like a short-term rental. The consumer group argues that Ubisoft’s sales model created a reasonable expectation of durable use, even if the game relied on online infrastructure. In its view, advance notice of the shutdown does not automatically solve the problem if the underlying commercial presentation suggested that consumers were purchasing something more stable than a service the publisher could simply withdraw.

For the industry, this lawsuit matters because it turns a long-running player complaint into a concrete legal test. If a court limits how publishers can rely on license language, or demands clearer disclosures, refund paths, and fallback plans for server-dependent titles, the ruling could affect how live-service and always-online games are sold across Europe. For players, The Crew has become a high-profile case in the fight over what it actually means to buy a game in the digital era.