Players unite against Ubisoft over The Crew axe
The gaming industry is in a tough spot right now, and it's hard to defend struggling companies when they remove your favourite games from existence. It seems like a dramatic exaggeration, but it's a reality for many players - Ubisoft especially has received plenty of flak for its treatment of racing game, The Crew.
The Crew has been pulled from digital storefronts, meaning that players simply can't download it at all. It got worse as others reported that the game had gone missing from their digital libraries, stripping them of their last chance to play it.
Fans seethed, and it's easy to see why after they bought The Crew and claimed they'd had it stolen from them by its creator. But now they’re fighting back.
The Crew fans are rebelling against Ubisoft
Click to enlargeViva la revolución. Players are pushing back against Ubisoft's approach to rolling back The Crew by developing a new site called stopkillinggames.com. It outlines a manifesto for gamers who want to see the end of video games being rolled back into non-existence.
The site was shared to Reddit with the call to action to "get together and make law," as the website asserts that it wants players to petition national governments in hopes of cracking down on the practice of taking back games once they’ve been purchased.
"The video game ‘The Crew’, published by Ubisoft, was recently destroyed for all players and had a playerbase of at least 12 million people," reads the site's opening call to action. "Due to the game's size and France's strong consumer protection laws, this represents one of the best opportunities to hold a publisher accountable for this action.
"If we are successful in charges being pressed against Ubisoft, this can have a ripple effect on the video games industry to prevent publishers from destroying more games."
How can I take action against The Crew’s treatment?
Click to enlargeThe site seems to have thought of it all, and if you click through to take action, it'll give instructions about what you can do to push back against the practice in your country. Some steps require players to own The Crew, but for those horrified on the outside, you can still sign the relevant petitions in your region and spread the word on social media.
After The Crew servers were shut down in March, we always knew the end was coming. It still doesn't take the sting out of having something you've paid for being taken away. As for the petition, it's an admirable movement from gamers. If we're lucky, it could lead to some meaningful change that protects the games we've paid fairly for.
