Nine years after its launch in 2014, Ubisoft's action-driving MMO The Crew is no longer available for purchase. It can currently still be played, but servers will shut down after March 31st, 2024.
Developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft, The Crew was a popular choice for fans of driving games. Unlike most games in the genre, however, The Crew let players take on a wide variety of terrain in a huge open-world recreation of the United States.
The game was popular enough to necessitate sequels in 2018's The Crew 2 and 2023's The Crew Motorfest, which will still be playable for the foreseeable future. It's a shame to see another one of Ubisoft's classic titles hit with a delisting and server closure, but these older titles likely aren't making enough money to justify maintenance.
The decision has sparked the physical-versus-digital media debate anew over on Twitter. It's clear where Ubisoft stands on the matter after recent comments by an executive, but a post breaking the news by @Wario64 had replies asking "Why are companies allowed to do this?" with others saying this cost-saving practice "should be illegal."
The physical-versus-digital debate often leads to cries for piracy, with one commenter writing "buying isn't owning anymore. then they diss us for pirating games and not paying for them." Another user was apathetic, saying "Nothing is lost to society. This is genuinely one of the worst games I've ever played, and there is no reason to play this when Horizon 4 is like 20€ on Steam."
If nothing else, it's clear that preservation is difficult and a divisive topic for the games industry. In a year filled with layoffs, nobody can blame developers for being too burnt out to act, but the future of the industry is a bleak one if its history can be shut down and forgotten.
For now, it seems The Crew's fate is the inevitable end for all always-online games. We can only hope each shutdown is a reminder to enjoy these games and make plenty of memories while servers last.