The Crew has been running since 2014 on Steam. However, in April 2024, it will come to an end: Ubisoft is shutting down the servers, and as of now, the purely online game is no longer available for purchase on Steam. Fans are angry, but they already have a solution: the offline mode is already in the game and just needs to be activated.
What kind of game is this?
- The Crew was released on December 2, 2014, and is an MMO racing game. In a 5,000 km² world, you can speed around with your own cars and other players.
- You can either race against others in street races or play as a cop on the side of the law.
- Since 2018, there has been a successor, The Crew 2, which received mixed reviews.
This is now Ubisoft’s decision: In a message, Ubisoft announces that The Crew will no longer be sold starting now. It will disappear from all shops. The official Steam page of The Crew already has a notice regarding this since today.
As of March 31, 2024, The Crew will still be playable. After that, the servers will be shut down, and there will be no access to the game – even if you have purchased it. The end of The Crew is due to “upcoming server infrastructure” and “license restrictions […] unavoidable.”
Instead, they want to focus on continuing to develop The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest. Ubisoft consistently shows that their great strength lies in service games that are supported for years. The end of The Crew is therefore affecting many fans and causing frustration among gamers.
Another reason why online live service games NEVER work
The news about the end of The Crew quickly found its way on Reddit, where dozens of users are discussing. There, there are mainly complaints about the practice of taking away a purchased game from players.
This is primarily a problem for games that are 100% online – although, as in the case of The Crew, most can be played solo. Other games, at least, can still be played, even if they are no longer being sold.
With The Crew, that isn’t even possible anymore, even if you own a CD – simply because there are no more servers. Fans are now looking for alternatives and landing at Forza, Project CARS, and Burnout, although most of those titles are also several years old.
In foresight, however, some users have already dealt with the “inevitable end” of The Crew (via Steam). They say: there is already an offline mode in the game code. You just need to figure out how to access it.
A small group of users is already working on cracking the mode and publishing it as a fan patch. Whether it will succeed before the servers shut down remains to be seen.
However, another game on Steam is currently facing significantly more problems:
The Day Before: “Fraud of the Year” on Steam? – Here is what a lawyer says
