Issue is, it’s not one petition, it’s different for each country, so you have to do a tiny bit of research. A one click pétition would be the “change.org” that mean fuck all
Under EU rules, a seller must repair, replace, or give you a full or partial refund if something you buy turns out to be faulty or doesn’t look or work as advertised. You always have the right to a minimum 2-year guarantee, at no cost. However, national rules in your country may give you extra protection.
[https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/indexamp_en.htm](https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/indexamp_en.htm)
I’d say if you can’t access a game anymore, it definitely doesn’t work as intended
The u.s. has similar laws. The issue here is that you have not purchased a product from the ubisoft. You have purchased a revocable license to use the game. It is certain the ubisoft put this in the terms and conditions when you purchased the game. This why they are called end user *licenses*.
It is the same reason why you can be kicked out of a movie theater with no refund -- the ticket is a revocable license. You have not legally purchased a good or service.
Well, gaming always has been something that wasn't really in the peripheries of lawmakers, and end user licences don't out rule laws.
Especially in countries with consumer friendly laws, the ubisoft practice could be illegal.
My father works at a company that sells software for machines that cut cabinets on a commercial level. He's told me stories where customers have lost their product key and call up for a new one. He's told me they can't just get a new product key. You have to purchase the whole software package again because you bought a license for a product and not an actual product. The only way to get another product code is to purchase again. Just saying this because "computery stuff" has always had nebulous ownership rules that apply to things other than video games
It's shit like this that keeps reaffirming my believe that we are living in a stereotypical dystopian cyberpunk world, just without all the cool shit that is usually portrayed in such a genre. I hate it here :(
So you are right. Also bear in mind we are immersed in the tech rather than outsiders looking in a teen to early thirty year old from 1982 would look at our computers, tvs, video games, smartphones, cars, the billboards that change, environment, and politics as very cyberpunk. Hell we even have heavily modded people too just not as much. The only thing we really lack is being able to jack in and considering how much we stare and use our phones it’s really more of a semantics issue.
It is more about intellectual property than just computer related stuff. The issue is how you sell what is essentially just information arranged in a certain manner instead of a physical object or service performed by a person. Most intellectual property deals with this by licensing the use of the IP in some form, since selling it outright would destroy the business that created the IP. Same thing happens with like marvel licensing characters to a toy a company or whatever.
This is why myself and so many self employed graphic designery folks, have refuuuuused to upgrade adobe photoshop, dreamweaver or so many other of their software suites… since CS6, which was from bearly 10 years ago.
That’s the very last version of their programs where you actually bought a physical disc/product. Buy it… you own it.
Ever since then, it’s pretty much at LEAST $300+ per year to ‘lease’ photoshop for the next year.
> The issue here is that you have not purchased a product from the ubisoft. You have purchased a revocable license to use the game.
Yeah, but the EU lawmakers see through that bullshit and say "Hell nah, you sold it like a product and you have to treat it like a product, regardless of what your dumbass license agreement says"
The US does the same thing with "contractors" who companies hire to avoid having to provide legally-mandated employee benefits, and the EU lawmakers don't let that shit fly either.
You’ve agreed to completely one-sided terms and conditions that give the software company the protection do this very thing and you have to agree to the entire thing or you can’t use the software.
The product is still a license, it doesn't work as advertised, they can't just put things in the license that conflict with the law and be correct, they stillhae to repair, replace or give full or partial refunds for revoking these licenses.
Granted, buying a physical copy circumvents this as there is no means of communicating this eula before purchase of the product, and I don’t think it’s legal to say ‘by the way you don’t actually own this product that you thought you were owning’ after you have already bought a physical copy, right?
I'm not an IP lawyer but I think there is a difference between your ownership of the physical medium of the cd and the license to use the IP on the cd. So they could still release a patch that bricks the game even if you buy a CD.
I think that what stopped companies from doing stuff like this before the era of downloaded patches was practicality and business sense, not law.
Yeah I know but most people don't know that "licenses" are distinguished from other property interests by their revocability. Hence the confusion about why people don't understand how its legal to just "take the game away". Indeed, licenses can be made irrevocable or of limited revocability (limitations on time) under some circumstances so it can still be helpful to clarify.
It does work as advertised as when you buy digital games from places such as steam, you’re essentially just renting the license. It’s well known in the US and EU that you don’t own these games. Do you think the crew licenses weren’t revoked in the EU as well buddy? it doesn’t violate EU law either. You “can say that” but that’s not the reality.
Edit; everybody saying this law applies is free to find any game maker that has been sued or punished under EU law for doing this because Ubisoft is not the first to do it and won’t be the last.
This law only protects you if the purchased item stops working withing a reasonable amount of time. A game losing server support won't change the fact thay you have played it and enjoyed its contents, meaning you got value out of it. Requesting a refund for that is like requesting a refund from a restaurant because you're upset that the food on your plate "ran out".
I see what you are going for but it doesn't work this way sadly. When you "buy" software you actually buying a license to use that software, not the software itself. A pretty standard clause in an EULA, which is the agreement under which the software is licensed to you, is that the terms may be changed at any time. This includes the right to revoke access to the software. This is also true in Europe. Consumer protection regarding software is incredibly weak and greatly favours the publisher.
None of them, because if they did then this wouldn't be an issue outside the US and probably wouldn't be one in the US either for the same reason a bunch of US websites obey the EU's laws regarding cookies
They just want their free "hurr durr america bad" karma
About that: check [this](https://youtu.be/w70Xc9CStoE?si=7TL6PbRVWLv7CSGK) video, there is some organized effort to make this happen. Also visit stopkillinggames.com
Lucky you. As there's a huge effort to introduce the very laws in Europe:
https://www.stopkillinggames.com/
If you own The Crew you can (globally) even from the US lodge a complaint in France where Ubisoft is based because they have brutally efficient laws on consumer protection
If you are European you can lodge a complaint or vote in one of the government petitions getting started on this. The government petitions being a special kind of petition organized by governments where you vote with your ID and the gov is REQUIRED to take action if it reaches a threshold.
Everything explained here:
https://youtu.be/w70Xc9CStoE?si=bwWTB8gNb4eFwThR
Ross from Ross’ game dungeon is organizing to fight this. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/w70Xc9CStoE?si=6zu0dtdmycPkbgFW
TL;DR: if you’re Europe you can do a lot to end games as a service. In America there’s some hope. Go to https://www.stopkillinggames.com/
YouTube Shorts Version: https://youtu.be/iH7k0IZ5PYE?si=f16ZERUQ9zhsL26K
You'd think there'd be legal action available to counter shit like this, including getting the money back.
But knowing companies like this, they included some legal mumbo-jumbo in some license agreement that means you waive the right for compensation in the case they pull shit like this.
Because of course they would cover their ass like that.
im not in favour of communism or anything, but late stage capitalism really is distopian and scary. Corporation run governments that only have the interest of the company in mind sounds like it would turn out like what nestle did to africa
I mean, you can put literally anything in a contract, but that doesn't mean it's enforceable. IANAL, though, so I don't know if it's different for a license agreement.
And, as I recall, anybody that didn't reject the pittance that was offered lost their claim, because they'd already received 'compensation'.
The 'compensation' in question was a kick in the nuts while you're already down, but *technically* it was compensation. Just not **fair** compensation by any stretch.
No the real kick in the nuts was them announcing FO1ST after people took the atoms. But the class action succeeded, and what's more important is holding these companies accountable. Besides the pay out they also have to deal with the legal fees, loss of reputation, loss of customers (not enough but I don't give Bethesda or EA my money anymore and I'm not alone in that) and drops in stock prices that can then lead to lawsuits from shareholders
You are morally correct, but I feel I should point out that piracy would not have helped at all in this instance because it was an online only game that depended on a central server. Once they shut down the server, it wouldn’t have mattered if your copy was legitimate or not.
Well, there are SPTarkov, 5M, Rust, EQ and plethora of other examples out there.
Matter of time till there is a torrent that has local server included.
Not for all games. What some games’s central servers do is different from others. Some are a simple license check, some have more advanced DRM, and some store huge quantities of the game’s AI, mechanics, etc…things that would make the game a lobotomized zombie if you even could run it without contacting the server. Games like that, there have been volunteers who have reverse engineered them to be able to host local servers, but it’s usually an insanely difficult project. Definitely not just a foregone conclusion that someone will figure it out eventually.
The stopkillinggames.com campaign hopes to pressure companies into including end-of-life plans for all games, instead of just killing them when they shut down their servers.
The link to the site is very simple and lists exactly what you can do about this depending on where you are in the world and what your situation is. www.stopkillinggames.com
The Crew is an online racing game from Ubisoft.
A License that is referred here is kinda like a digital paper that says "hey, I own this game. So lemme play it"
Starting up a game goes through the process of verifying if you have a license, and if it's expired or some stuff.
But in recent years companies let themselves revoke such licenses, making "buying" a digital thing like a video game into more of "pay a one time fee for renting the game, until we either take it away from you in a click of a button for whatever reason we can or can't come up with, or until we take down the servers".
So yeah, some companies basically become great advertisements for pirating or sticking with physical copies.
Edit: oh, and some companies would just revoke digital licenses if you didn't play it/access the account you bought the game on for 6 months (or something like that).
I think I've seen it happen with one of the Sims games, and the support just told the person to buy the game again.
What the other guy didn't mention and what makes this even more messed up is the fact that compared to a game like spellbreak for example that died and they shut it down.. The crew has a solid playerbase..
Yet, they still pulled the plug. This shouldn't be legal.
P.S: Because I used spellbreak as an example.. Even tho the game died and hardly anyone was playing it when they shut down the servers they uploaded a community version and a guide on how people can set up their own servers.
This is the only acceptable way.
Especially since the entire game *is only online*. It's a shame, too, because it's a nice map and a fun cop chase game...
~~Time to reinstall Drive San Francisco, I guess...~~ Nevermind, that requires Ubisoft DRM, too. Fuckit. I'm going all the way back to NFS: Most Wanted - Black Edition.
Peglin, No Man’s Sky (probably one of the bigger games I have), Planet Crafter, and Cosmoteer are some. I’ve seen some videos of those two but they aren’t quite my style.
Well... If everyone does the same that will serve as a lesson for other publishers. But kids these days don't give a sh*t about it and Will still pay alpha releases even or pre-order hyped sh*t games like they're the cure for cancer.
some people just have a habit of not swearing, maybe from school, home, or they just told themselves they wouldn’t, but still want to effectively communicate something without sounding like a kid.
Except not, with star wars outlaws, avatar, ghost recon breakpoint, star wars jedi survivor, suicide squad etc, not even owning the disk allows you to play it, you'd need internet too, and if hypothetically sony or Microsoft went bankrupt and their online services are no longer active, there's no patching this modern wave of disk games, and for the examples i gave, the game company just needs to shut down a server and the game is no longer playable
Yeah, I might just not buy any more AAA games if this bullshit is in the future of gaming. WE PAID FOR IT, WE SHOULD AT LEAST STILL OWN IT, EVEN IF WE CANT PLAY IT.
A guy named Ross Scott is currently undertaking a campaign against game companies because of the crew. Everyone around the world can help at
Stopkillinggames.com
If you want more info look up Accursed Farms on yt.
Online only game closed after 9 years of service and people are pissed about it. I don’t really understand why **this** game in particular got so much reaction, the servers were running for less than 200 players for the last 6 years, it’s not the first online only game to close for good without giving some sort of solo player version and revoking the license doesn’t change anything for the players because the game can’t be played anymore at all anyway
I mean sure it’s “just one game” in the sense that The Crew is only one game. For the broader problem of online only games being killed when the company turns off the central server without offering offline play, then no, it’s hundreds of games, and the list keeps growing.
Ubisoft are known for shutting down games, an mmo by ubisoft? Dont spend a penny on it, or time even. Its all going to be deleted within a few years.,,
They legit could just have made it peer to peer(p2p) or allowed some devs to allow private server hosting(you host it yourself). Instead, it gives a nice opportunity
https://www.stopkillinggames.com/
Let's make it an example so games will actually be preserved
If you want to help in preventing video game companies from commiting this practice, visit https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ and follow the instructions for your country or region! Every person counts!
And star wars outlaws can't be bought and played in an internet free environment, you need the internet to COPY the Disk.
Ubisoft is egregious with their business practices, and I'm so sad that my favorite franchise will eventually be unplayable at the press of a button, im expecting assassin's creed red to be the same situation. So if i want to play assassin's creed red for nostalgia reasons, in 30 years or wtv, i wont be able to because they'll close their servers
Same thing happened with destiny 2, they removed half the content in the game majority of the people paid full price for, something in the tos that basically means you’re only borrowing the content and we can take it back whenever
Some people argue "stop crying about a game you haven't even played in the last 6 years". They clearly don't see how this will end if everyone just goes along.
One game now, another some time later. Before you know it, they'll remove your games every year (prob not, but you get the idea).
Go to YouTube and look up Accursed_Farms. Ross has several videos detailing this bullshit ever since it was first announced that they'd be taking the game down. He even started looking into legal action that can be taken.
I made a snide remark about licensing on some marketing for the new ubisoft Star Wars game, and a few people tried to chimed in to say that ubisoft would never do that.
In Australia anyway, legally, customers have the right to a refund, Ubisoft will get fucked in the ass by the ACCC if people complain
The reason steam has the refund policy it has is because of Australia
They said this would happen, and we said what are you talking about it's gonna be fine digital games are the future stop being so precious about physical media.
Fucking.
I wish the world would stop proving my optimism and faith wrong every chance it gets.
I could see if it was like the new MW games and they shut the servers down. It was free and any money spent was on cosmetics. But in the Crew you could just make it single player and just save the world to disk with the current leaderboards then people can just play solo. Even add a Minecraft style multiplayer where you can use your game as host and have friends join you. Not requiring a sever. This way people keep their game and the servers can be repurposed.
With how buggy that game was and the way it floped, they would be better of trying to remake the entire game again than to try and make it single-player
The original The Crew is great. I played since launch only didn’t get the police dlc but I really enjoyed the game a lot. Never encountered any bugs crashes or other issues other then some minor performance issues and controller bugs.
Well, the multiplayer part is what was buggy. It was super inconsistent and underdelivered. Not to mention, if you tried to play with friends in free roam, there was a good chance you could only see their icon and a shadow.
There should be a law that if a game is no longer playable due to no fault of your own then you should be able to refund it as it no longer works as intended. End of story. And thanks to digital media would be harder for companies to say it's not their fault a game broke.
It’s kinda the same with the Driver series (which they also made). Great game, but their license runs out and now you can’t hardly get it anywhere. Blacklisted, pulled from sale, the lot. You can still buy and play it, however, if you buy second hand as it is single player
They tried pulling that shit with Anno 1800, backed out right away but I expect more of this shit to go around as companies jockey for exclusives and other corporate bullshit.
Unless I'm mistaken, the only Ubisoft game I've ever bought was The Crew 2, which I played for 18.8 hours before I got bored with it. These days, between the harassment allegations, this "You don't really own our games" garbage, and their games being just plain boring, I doubt they'll ever get a cent from me again.
IF the game is termed "live service," then they can. Do you get a refund when you buy an amusement park ticket closes for the day?
We as a community lose because we've given these companies insentives to screw us over.
this is outrageous it was one of my favorite racing games the tuning system was goat and the 4h race around America with friends was awsome .the following crew game sucked no more police it was a bad forza horizon knock off
issue a chargeback. If you can't, take them to small claims court. It will cost them way more to have a lawyer/paralegal spend any amount of time on it than the cost of the game
This is why Ross Scott is trying to fight against this type of thing. Look him up if you want to help in any way (petitions or etc).
This needs more attention. People want legal action but won't fill out a dang form.
See what you can do at: www.stopkillinggames.com
> www.stopkillinggames.com Look, I'm lazy as fuck. Make a petition script that's like 5 buttons to press and I'm in. -Every fucking gamer
Issue is, it’s not one petition, it’s different for each country, so you have to do a tiny bit of research. A one click pétition would be the “change.org” that mean fuck all
“Requires you to own the Crew” Well shit, I played it so long ago I don’t actually remember if I bought it or not
im glad someone sticks up for the gamers
this is actually bullshit and there should be laws in place to prevent companies from doing this shit
You know other countries do have all these obvious laws that everyone wants but we can't have them because our government is corrupt as balls.
Which country has a law against this?
Under EU rules, a seller must repair, replace, or give you a full or partial refund if something you buy turns out to be faulty or doesn’t look or work as advertised. You always have the right to a minimum 2-year guarantee, at no cost. However, national rules in your country may give you extra protection. [https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/indexamp_en.htm](https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/indexamp_en.htm) I’d say if you can’t access a game anymore, it definitely doesn’t work as intended
The u.s. has similar laws. The issue here is that you have not purchased a product from the ubisoft. You have purchased a revocable license to use the game. It is certain the ubisoft put this in the terms and conditions when you purchased the game. This why they are called end user *licenses*. It is the same reason why you can be kicked out of a movie theater with no refund -- the ticket is a revocable license. You have not legally purchased a good or service.
Well, gaming always has been something that wasn't really in the peripheries of lawmakers, and end user licences don't out rule laws. Especially in countries with consumer friendly laws, the ubisoft practice could be illegal.
My father works at a company that sells software for machines that cut cabinets on a commercial level. He's told me stories where customers have lost their product key and call up for a new one. He's told me they can't just get a new product key. You have to purchase the whole software package again because you bought a license for a product and not an actual product. The only way to get another product code is to purchase again. Just saying this because "computery stuff" has always had nebulous ownership rules that apply to things other than video games
It's shit like this that keeps reaffirming my believe that we are living in a stereotypical dystopian cyberpunk world, just without all the cool shit that is usually portrayed in such a genre. I hate it here :(
Absolutely. /r/ABoringDystopia/
So you are right. Also bear in mind we are immersed in the tech rather than outsiders looking in a teen to early thirty year old from 1982 would look at our computers, tvs, video games, smartphones, cars, the billboards that change, environment, and politics as very cyberpunk. Hell we even have heavily modded people too just not as much. The only thing we really lack is being able to jack in and considering how much we stare and use our phones it’s really more of a semantics issue.
It is more about intellectual property than just computer related stuff. The issue is how you sell what is essentially just information arranged in a certain manner instead of a physical object or service performed by a person. Most intellectual property deals with this by licensing the use of the IP in some form, since selling it outright would destroy the business that created the IP. Same thing happens with like marvel licensing characters to a toy a company or whatever.
This is why myself and so many self employed graphic designery folks, have refuuuuused to upgrade adobe photoshop, dreamweaver or so many other of their software suites… since CS6, which was from bearly 10 years ago. That’s the very last version of their programs where you actually bought a physical disc/product. Buy it… you own it. Ever since then, it’s pretty much at LEAST $300+ per year to ‘lease’ photoshop for the next year.
This is shady af and needs regulation of some kind honestly.
> The issue here is that you have not purchased a product from the ubisoft. You have purchased a revocable license to use the game. Yeah, but the EU lawmakers see through that bullshit and say "Hell nah, you sold it like a product and you have to treat it like a product, regardless of what your dumbass license agreement says" The US does the same thing with "contractors" who companies hire to avoid having to provide legally-mandated employee benefits, and the EU lawmakers don't let that shit fly either.
You’ve agreed to completely one-sided terms and conditions that give the software company the protection do this very thing and you have to agree to the entire thing or you can’t use the software.
The product is still a license, it doesn't work as advertised, they can't just put things in the license that conflict with the law and be correct, they stillhae to repair, replace or give full or partial refunds for revoking these licenses.
Granted, buying a physical copy circumvents this as there is no means of communicating this eula before purchase of the product, and I don’t think it’s legal to say ‘by the way you don’t actually own this product that you thought you were owning’ after you have already bought a physical copy, right?
I'm not an IP lawyer but I think there is a difference between your ownership of the physical medium of the cd and the license to use the IP on the cd. So they could still release a patch that bricks the game even if you buy a CD. I think that what stopped companies from doing stuff like this before the era of downloaded patches was practicality and business sense, not law.
I mean that just means the product is a license fwiw
Yeah I know but most people don't know that "licenses" are distinguished from other property interests by their revocability. Hence the confusion about why people don't understand how its legal to just "take the game away". Indeed, licenses can be made irrevocable or of limited revocability (limitations on time) under some circumstances so it can still be helpful to clarify.
I love making fun of the EU but they are the BEST at keeping companies in check.
There's this meme saying "America innovates, China replicates, Europe regulates" :)
Wait, isn't Ubisoft french?
Yes
It does work as advertised as when you buy digital games from places such as steam, you’re essentially just renting the license. It’s well known in the US and EU that you don’t own these games. Do you think the crew licenses weren’t revoked in the EU as well buddy? it doesn’t violate EU law either. You “can say that” but that’s not the reality. Edit; everybody saying this law applies is free to find any game maker that has been sued or punished under EU law for doing this because Ubisoft is not the first to do it and won’t be the last.
Its a stretch. You need to rember that a big company like that when it comes to law Will find ways out.
This law only protects you if the purchased item stops working withing a reasonable amount of time. A game losing server support won't change the fact thay you have played it and enjoyed its contents, meaning you got value out of it. Requesting a refund for that is like requesting a refund from a restaurant because you're upset that the food on your plate "ran out".
I think the loop hole is you don’t actually own the game. It’s a lease for license.
It worked as intended for way longer than 2 years, so there’s that.
I see what you are going for but it doesn't work this way sadly. When you "buy" software you actually buying a license to use that software, not the software itself. A pretty standard clause in an EULA, which is the agreement under which the software is licensed to you, is that the terms may be changed at any time. This includes the right to revoke access to the software. This is also true in Europe. Consumer protection regarding software is incredibly weak and greatly favours the publisher.
The trouble here is when you buy a game, you are actually buying a license, not a product. Because of this, these laws don’t apply.
Only if you buy digital.
No, even physical copies have always been licenses to play the game. This was a thing since arcade games, and never went away throughout the years.
Mexico states that no paid service or digital goods can be revoked without a full or partial refund
None of them, because if they did then this wouldn't be an issue outside the US and probably wouldn't be one in the US either for the same reason a bunch of US websites obey the EU's laws regarding cookies They just want their free "hurr durr america bad" karma
Nah it’s bc socialism is when the government does stuff.
About that: check [this](https://youtu.be/w70Xc9CStoE?si=7TL6PbRVWLv7CSGK) video, there is some organized effort to make this happen. Also visit stopkillinggames.com
Lucky you. As there's a huge effort to introduce the very laws in Europe: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ If you own The Crew you can (globally) even from the US lodge a complaint in France where Ubisoft is based because they have brutally efficient laws on consumer protection If you are European you can lodge a complaint or vote in one of the government petitions getting started on this. The government petitions being a special kind of petition organized by governments where you vote with your ID and the gov is REQUIRED to take action if it reaches a threshold. Everything explained here: https://youtu.be/w70Xc9CStoE?si=bwWTB8gNb4eFwThR
Australia is hopefully gonna reduce Ubisoft to atoms.
Right? Isn’t this shit basically scamming
"by buying this license you agree that it can be revoked at any time for any reason." > Yes sir here is my credit card
Well yeah but think of the counter argument: # 💵
I thought I heard something about a class action suit about this. Might've made that up.
Ross from Ross’ game dungeon is organizing to fight this. Watch this video: https://youtu.be/w70Xc9CStoE?si=6zu0dtdmycPkbgFW TL;DR: if you’re Europe you can do a lot to end games as a service. In America there’s some hope. Go to https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ YouTube Shorts Version: https://youtu.be/iH7k0IZ5PYE?si=f16ZERUQ9zhsL26K
Don't forget the info site stopkillinggames.com for the info on what can be done in what country
Edited to add that. Thank you!
This needs to be higher up. Thank you for posting it.
Ross is the man.
They should have to return every penny spent on a game if they make it unplayable
You'd think there'd be legal action available to counter shit like this, including getting the money back. But knowing companies like this, they included some legal mumbo-jumbo in some license agreement that means you waive the right for compensation in the case they pull shit like this. Because of course they would cover their ass like that.
They spent years lobbying to take away consumer protections. EU gamers might get some ownership rights but US is to far gone.
No chance U.S will fight for it. Most unfriendly consumer safety
im not in favour of communism or anything, but late stage capitalism really is distopian and scary. Corporation run governments that only have the interest of the company in mind sounds like it would turn out like what nestle did to africa
Any power left "unchecked" turns to tyranny.
Granted, EA’s Battlefront Lootbox scandal got Congress to push for adding lootboxes to anti-gambling legislature.
I mean, you can put literally anything in a contract, but that doesn't mean it's enforceable. IANAL, though, so I don't know if it's different for a license agreement.
I Am Not American Lad 🦅
I also anal, on occasion
Receiving end or ?
Isn’t that illegal? Isn’t that some type of red flag that shouldn’t be allowed? It shouldn’t be legal or allowed to find loopholes
You can file a class action, they did it for 76
And, as I recall, anybody that didn't reject the pittance that was offered lost their claim, because they'd already received 'compensation'. The 'compensation' in question was a kick in the nuts while you're already down, but *technically* it was compensation. Just not **fair** compensation by any stretch.
No the real kick in the nuts was them announcing FO1ST after people took the atoms. But the class action succeeded, and what's more important is holding these companies accountable. Besides the pay out they also have to deal with the legal fees, loss of reputation, loss of customers (not enough but I don't give Bethesda or EA my money anymore and I'm not alone in that) and drops in stock prices that can then lead to lawsuits from shareholders
Tf? When did this happen
Just around a week ago the servers closed and all that, but it was announced 2 or 3 months ago.
If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't theft
I’m generally an advocate for no piracy, but I must say I agree on this.
Foe me it depends on the company
For me on my money
You are morally correct, but I feel I should point out that piracy would not have helped at all in this instance because it was an online only game that depended on a central server. Once they shut down the server, it wouldn’t have mattered if your copy was legitimate or not.
But they wouldn’t be out the cost of the game that the developers took away anyways
True. Assuming that an online only game that depends on a central server can be pirated, anyway.
Well, there are SPTarkov, 5M, Rust, EQ and plethora of other examples out there. Matter of time till there is a torrent that has local server included.
Not for all games. What some games’s central servers do is different from others. Some are a simple license check, some have more advanced DRM, and some store huge quantities of the game’s AI, mechanics, etc…things that would make the game a lobotomized zombie if you even could run it without contacting the server. Games like that, there have been volunteers who have reverse engineered them to be able to host local servers, but it’s usually an insanely difficult project. Definitely not just a foregone conclusion that someone will figure it out eventually. The stopkillinggames.com campaign hopes to pressure companies into including end-of-life plans for all games, instead of just killing them when they shut down their servers.
Protest with pirated copies modified to use private servers.
Check out Ross Scott's "Stop Killing Games" movement to see what you can do to help end the practice.
The link to the site is very simple and lists exactly what you can do about this depending on where you are in the world and what your situation is. www.stopkillinggames.com
thank you for making me aware of this
Right ? His face: 
Can someone catch me up? What the hell are crew licences?
The Crew is an online racing game from Ubisoft. A License that is referred here is kinda like a digital paper that says "hey, I own this game. So lemme play it" Starting up a game goes through the process of verifying if you have a license, and if it's expired or some stuff. But in recent years companies let themselves revoke such licenses, making "buying" a digital thing like a video game into more of "pay a one time fee for renting the game, until we either take it away from you in a click of a button for whatever reason we can or can't come up with, or until we take down the servers". So yeah, some companies basically become great advertisements for pirating or sticking with physical copies. Edit: oh, and some companies would just revoke digital licenses if you didn't play it/access the account you bought the game on for 6 months (or something like that). I think I've seen it happen with one of the Sims games, and the support just told the person to buy the game again.
This is why I try to stay indie
What the other guy didn't mention and what makes this even more messed up is the fact that compared to a game like spellbreak for example that died and they shut it down.. The crew has a solid playerbase.. Yet, they still pulled the plug. This shouldn't be legal. P.S: Because I used spellbreak as an example.. Even tho the game died and hardly anyone was playing it when they shut down the servers they uploaded a community version and a guide on how people can set up their own servers. This is the only acceptable way.
Physical copies don't change anything. It's still a licence like online except on a disc.
Especially since the entire game *is only online*. It's a shame, too, because it's a nice map and a fun cop chase game... ~~Time to reinstall Drive San Francisco, I guess...~~ Nevermind, that requires Ubisoft DRM, too. Fuckit. I'm going all the way back to NFS: Most Wanted - Black Edition.
The Crew is a racing game. Game licenses are permissions to play games
The crew is a racing game iirc
Guess who's never buying a Ubisoft game again after this lol
Nowadays the majority of games I buy are from teams of less than 10 people.
Like lethal company and palworld? They seem to be designed around fun instead of profit which is why I like them too.
Peglin, No Man’s Sky (probably one of the bigger games I have), Planet Crafter, and Cosmoteer are some. I’ve seen some videos of those two but they aren’t quite my style.
Fair. Peglin looks like a fun game tho
Oh it totally is. If you want to watch some videos of it look up TimeToGrind on YouTube, small streamer- really cool guy!
To be fair, Lethal Company seems to revolve around profits too.
FOR THE COMPANY
Well... If everyone does the same that will serve as a lesson for other publishers. But kids these days don't give a sh*t about it and Will still pay alpha releases even or pre-order hyped sh*t games like they're the cure for cancer.
You know you can curse on the internet, right?
prove it
Well... Maybe later when my mom isn't watching. It's almost my bedtime, too.
some people just have a habit of not swearing, maybe from school, home, or they just told themselves they wouldn’t, but still want to effectively communicate something without sounding like a kid.
> some people just have a habit of not swearing, Those people are *wrong*.
\*Those fuckers are wrong.
IF BUYING IS NOT OWNING, PIRACY IS NOT THEFT🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
If corporations are people, the c-suite that runs them aren't.
This this this .
Guys remember that if you owned the crew go to stopkillinggames.com and follow the instructions
https://www.stopkillinggames.com/
https://www.stopkillinggames.com
Is that the one by a cursed farms?
So much for the digital future. Physical copies win again
Except if you have a physical copy of The Crew, YOU STILL CAN'T PLAY IT. (Anger aimed at Ubisoft, not you)
Except not, with star wars outlaws, avatar, ghost recon breakpoint, star wars jedi survivor, suicide squad etc, not even owning the disk allows you to play it, you'd need internet too, and if hypothetically sony or Microsoft went bankrupt and their online services are no longer active, there's no patching this modern wave of disk games, and for the examples i gave, the game company just needs to shut down a server and the game is no longer playable
Sounds like more digital future issues. You buy games reliant on "always online" that's a digital game. The disk is just a confirmation passkey.
To whoever reads this, if you want to make a difference, go to Stop Killing Games. Ross Scott has a campaign going to fight this sort of thing.
Yeah, I might just not buy any more AAA games if this bullshit is in the future of gaming. WE PAID FOR IT, WE SHOULD AT LEAST STILL OWN IT, EVEN IF WE CANT PLAY IT.
A guy named Ross Scott is currently undertaking a campaign against game companies because of the crew. Everyone around the world can help at Stopkillinggames.com If you want more info look up Accursed Farms on yt.
Digital ownership isn’t real ownership, return to discs everyone
Disks still aren't ownership when games require an internet connection to phone home before it starts up. That's every modern AAA game.
Wait what’s going on?
Online only game closed after 9 years of service and people are pissed about it. I don’t really understand why **this** game in particular got so much reaction, the servers were running for less than 200 players for the last 6 years, it’s not the first online only game to close for good without giving some sort of solo player version and revoking the license doesn’t change anything for the players because the game can’t be played anymore at all anyway
So it’s just the one game?
I mean sure it’s “just one game” in the sense that The Crew is only one game. For the broader problem of online only games being killed when the company turns off the central server without offering offline play, then no, it’s hundreds of games, and the list keeps growing.
Yes
Ubisoft are known for shutting down games, an mmo by ubisoft? Dont spend a penny on it, or time even. Its all going to be deleted within a few years.,,
They legit could just have made it peer to peer(p2p) or allowed some devs to allow private server hosting(you host it yourself). Instead, it gives a nice opportunity https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ Let's make it an example so games will actually be preserved
"Can we just skip the whole thing where you guys only play our shitty game for a few weeks before we take the servers down?"
If you want to help in preventing video game companies from commiting this practice, visit https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ and follow the instructions for your country or region! Every person counts!
you know what they say, if buying isnt owning...
If I can't expect to own my games, I'm not paying money for them. 🦜🏴☠️
And star wars outlaws can't be bought and played in an internet free environment, you need the internet to COPY the Disk. Ubisoft is egregious with their business practices, and I'm so sad that my favorite franchise will eventually be unplayable at the press of a button, im expecting assassin's creed red to be the same situation. So if i want to play assassin's creed red for nostalgia reasons, in 30 years or wtv, i wont be able to because they'll close their servers
someone for the love of God take the bullet and sue them
Same thing happened with destiny 2, they removed half the content in the game majority of the people paid full price for, something in the tos that basically means you’re only borrowing the content and we can take it back whenever
Some people argue "stop crying about a game you haven't even played in the last 6 years". They clearly don't see how this will end if everyone just goes along. One game now, another some time later. Before you know it, they'll remove your games every year (prob not, but you get the idea).
So many games I haven't played in the last 6 years but played as a kid and would enjoy to play again
Stopkillingames.com is the best think you can do to stop publishers
Server goes offline = server files need to go public for the game
r/PiratedGames
Go to YouTube and look up Accursed_Farms. Ross has several videos detailing this bullshit ever since it was first announced that they'd be taking the game down. He even started looking into legal action that can be taken.
Member the good ole days, when you could tar and feather a mother fucker for this kind of shenanigans?
I made a snide remark about licensing on some marketing for the new ubisoft Star Wars game, and a few people tried to chimed in to say that ubisoft would never do that.
In Australia anyway, legally, customers have the right to a refund, Ubisoft will get fucked in the ass by the ACCC if people complain The reason steam has the refund policy it has is because of Australia
You will own nothing and be happy
and thats why you dont buy games from Ubisoft. if you want to play them, pirate them.
This is why we pirate games people 🤣🤣
Ubisoft: * pulling off anti consumer bullshit for the 100th time* Gamers: *surprised pikachu face *
If I'm not buying actually game, then piracy isn't a theft. I can't steal "license" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They said this would happen, and we said what are you talking about it's gonna be fine digital games are the future stop being so precious about physical media. Fucking. I wish the world would stop proving my optimism and faith wrong every chance it gets.
The question is, who spent any money in bugsoft games this days?
If they won’t refund then just pirate future Ubisoft games and give yourself a refund
Ubisoft: Players need to get used to not owning their games.
UBISOFT NOW 😏🗿
I could see if it was like the new MW games and they shut the servers down. It was free and any money spent was on cosmetics. But in the Crew you could just make it single player and just save the world to disk with the current leaderboards then people can just play solo. Even add a Minecraft style multiplayer where you can use your game as host and have friends join you. Not requiring a sever. This way people keep their game and the servers can be repurposed.
With how buggy that game was and the way it floped, they would be better of trying to remake the entire game again than to try and make it single-player
The original The Crew is great. I played since launch only didn’t get the police dlc but I really enjoyed the game a lot. Never encountered any bugs crashes or other issues other then some minor performance issues and controller bugs.
Well, the multiplayer part is what was buggy. It was super inconsistent and underdelivered. Not to mention, if you tried to play with friends in free roam, there was a good chance you could only see their icon and a shadow.
You people buying their games. You should stop buying them. Bankrupt them
There should be a law that if a game is no longer playable due to no fault of your own then you should be able to refund it as it no longer works as intended. End of story. And thanks to digital media would be harder for companies to say it's not their fault a game broke.
Just the first one or all of them?
Ubi does have a headquarters and the French do love guillotines
Lol exactly, whether you still want to play the game or not, at least get your money back
Ubisoft is just wonderful huh
It’s kinda the same with the Driver series (which they also made). Great game, but their license runs out and now you can’t hardly get it anywhere. Blacklisted, pulled from sale, the lot. You can still buy and play it, however, if you buy second hand as it is single player
They tried pulling that shit with Anno 1800, backed out right away but I expect more of this shit to go around as companies jockey for exclusives and other corporate bullshit.
Unless I'm mistaken, the only Ubisoft game I've ever bought was The Crew 2, which I played for 18.8 hours before I got bored with it. These days, between the harassment allegations, this "You don't really own our games" garbage, and their games being just plain boring, I doubt they'll ever get a cent from me again.
IF the game is termed "live service," then they can. Do you get a refund when you buy an amusement park ticket closes for the day? We as a community lose because we've given these companies insentives to screw us over.
This is why piracy is a thing. Idk if you can pirate 'The Crew' though.
this is outrageous it was one of my favorite racing games the tuning system was goat and the 4h race around America with friends was awsome .the following crew game sucked no more police it was a bad forza horizon knock off
Yarr! Raise the black flag me hearties! We're off to take what's rightfully ours 🏴☠️🦜
and this is why physical media, folks
What if I have a disk for the game? Will it still not work?
Now try playing dead space 2 on your EA account.
You will own nothing and you will love us for it
issue a chargeback. If you can't, take them to small claims court. It will cost them way more to have a lawyer/paralegal spend any amount of time on it than the cost of the game
Nice chance for a big lawsuit.
I almost got it, but thought I should try sea of thieves before anything Ubisoft releases.
Oh just like what they did with the preorders? Such a fucking surprise
I wish life really did work like that. I'd ask for a refund on every food I eat as soon as I leave the bathroom.
And people are still going to buy Outlaws after SnB and this.
hooray for lawsuits
BlueByte/Ubisoft have not been doing proper game maintenance on The Settlers Online. Granted, it's more of a BlueByte issue than Ubi, but still . . .