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YouTuber ‘AccursedFarms’ is planning a lawsuit against Ubisoft for killing The Crew [Update: Video follow-up]

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delete12345

delete12345

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Update:

thejpfin said:
New update from Scott:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAD5iMe0Xj4
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The YouTuber and film-maker behind legendary Half-Life series Freeman's Mind is planning a class-action lawsuit against Ubisoft over the shutdown of racing game The Crew. Ross Scott, also known by his channel name Accursed Farms, claims that the closure of The Crew's servers, scheduled for Sunday March 31, represents a "gray area" in videogame consumer law that he would like to challenge.
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Scott's contention centers on the fact that, since The Crew is only playable online, after the game's servers are closed, it will no longer be accessible to anybody who owns it, whether digitally or via a physical copy. The Half-Life film-maker, who voices a parody version of in his long-running YouTube series, argues that Ubisoft rendered The Crew "unusable and deprived it of all value after the point of sale."
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www.pcgamesn.com

Legendary Half-Life YouTuber plans class-action lawsuit against Ubisoft for killing The Crew

Half-Life YouTube legend Ross ‘Accursed Farms’ Scott, of Freeman’s Mind, is planning a lawsuit against Ubisoft over The Crew’s shutdown.
www.pcgamesn.com www.pcgamesn.com

Close if old. I couldn't find any prior threads in the Latest Threads and in the search.

Keywords: Ubisoft, Crew


For context:

Secret Bambino said:
Ross is great and very levelheaded, I wish him luck on this endeavor. Btw, you peeps should check out his channel.

Also, in case anyone doesn't want to read the article, this is the video that it refers to


View: https://youtu.be/VIqyvquTEVU?si=b-aqqLoQfz1qoQay
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Derbel McDillet

Derbel McDillet

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That's a more nuanced take than I was expecting. It's worth exploring if something could be done there. I didn't realize The Crew was online only.
 
MGPanda

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Best of luck to you, my man. Online-only games are an absolute shame, I kinda get it for multiplayer only titles (and even then, you could just not remove it, close down the servers down the line and let people use private ones), but for games with a single player component? You've paid for it, you should be able to play it 50 years from now if you want to. Patching an offline mode at end of life should be absolutely mandatory.

EDIT: Watching the video and yeah, this is not just a quick idea he's had. The guy knows what he's talking about.
 
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Arkanim94

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Oct 27, 2017
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Yeah, actually is kinda messed up that defunct online games don't even give you the possibility to use them offline.
 
IIFloodyII

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Oct 26, 2017
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Seems like it could set a great precedent if successful so wishing him all the luck.

Think anything that could at the very least make it so users can create their own servers after the publishers pulls the plug would be great for consumers. I know there's been a decent few PS3 MP games that dedicated fans have been able to resurrect.
 
Alavard

Alavard

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What's the goal here? Legally compel the company to operate servers that it doesn't want to forever? Or legally compel them to code a way to play the game offline? As shitty as it is when always-online games go defunct, I don't see how this goes anywhere regardless of the argument.
 
Alvis

Alvis

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Based. Wish him success. Can I donate?
 
zombiejames

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Publishers should absolutely have an exit strategy when it comes time to stop supporting online-only games, and no, "it just stops working" isn't one of them.
 
YorkshireDaveUK

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Alavard said:
What's the goal here? Legally compel the company to operate servers that it doesn't want to forever? Or legally compel them to code a way to play the game offline? As shitty as it is when always-online games go defunct, I don't see how this goes anywhere regardless of the argument.
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There was an offline mode found in the games files for the game. I presume it might be using that as a basis of it being possible.
 
Niklel

Niklel

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Well, good luck!
Alavard said:
What's the goal here? Legally compel the company to operate servers that it doesn't want to forever? Or legally compel them to code a way to play the game offline? As shitty as it is when always-online games go defunct, I don't see how this goes anywhere regardless of the argument.
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I assume the goal is to set a precedent.
 
Alvis

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Alavard said:
What's the goal here? Legally compel the company to operate servers that it doesn't want to forever? Or legally compel them to code a way to play the game offline? As shitty as it is when always-online games go defunct, I don't see how this goes anywhere regardless of the argument.
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They should be forced to provide at least one of the following:
- Continuing to run the servers
- An offline mode
- Release the server software so that anyone can host the game's servers & update the client one final time to allow connecting to third party servers. This doubles as an offline mode, since you can just run the server and client in the same PC.
- Refunds

"Rendering the game you purchased unplayable and keeping your money" should not be an option.

6SAmi5V.gif
 
Aaron D.

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Ross's monthly YT chats are really great listening.

I don't agree with him 100% of the time but it's clear that he's a really principled & thoughtful guy.

Any awareness is good awareness on this topic.
 
monketron

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Maybe you should have a guaranteed minimum term that servers should stay up for when a game is released so at least the consumer can guarantee a certain period of playability. I don't think he has much chance of forcing publishers to either make a game playable offline by default or for them to keep servers up indefinitely.
 
Alvis

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Alavard said:
Okay, but a precedent of what? That you may not offer an online only game?
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You may. Then release the server software once you're done supporting the game, so that people can continue to play the game they purchased. Or create an offline mode. Or refund people. :)
 
Alavard

Alavard

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YorkshireDaveUK said:
Not sure if your being obtuse on purpose, but the whole point is that when a live service dies you've paid for, should there be an offline version created for it. A recent MegaMan gacha game got a full PC port of the whole game.
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I'm not saying it isn't possible for a company to make that change. I'm saying it may not be possible to legally compel them to.
 
Alvis

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Alavard said:
I'm not saying it isn't possible for a company to make that change. I'm saying it may not be possible to legally compel them to.
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The whole point of creating a precedent is so that they can be legally compelled to. Something is deemed illegal in court, companies tend to not do that anymore.
 
Dasnap

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A bit tangential, but calling him a 'Half-Life YouTuber' is underselling him. Check out Ross's Game Dungeon also! He does some fantastic coverage of old and forgotten PC games.
 
Alvis

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Dasnap said:
A bit tangential, but calling him a 'Half-Life YouTuber' is underselling him. Check out Ross's Game Dungeon also! He does some fantastic coverage of old and forgotten PC games.
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Agree. Title should be updated with the name of the youtuber. He's not exactly unknown. He's also very based
 
Zero-ELEC

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Alavard said:
I'm not saying it isn't possible for a company to make that change. I'm saying it may not be possible to legally compel them to.
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If it is or isn't possible to legally compel a company to offer alternatives after the game's online services (in cases where the "services" are the "product") are sunset hasn't been set in precedent in US law. Which is the point of the (theoretical) lawsuit.
 
Pyccko

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I don't have much hope in a legal win for preservation here, what with a lot of games being billed as "licensed" to consumers.
 
Hazz3r

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Generally I think Ubisoft are pretty on top of consumer rights laws. The Ubisoft Account deletion stuff from last year was due to GDPR laws.

I'd be surprised if Ubisoft hadn't covered themselves legally.
 
shadowman16

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I wish them luck. Im doing a playthrough of the game before its delisted and am having a blast with the game, its a crying shame there's not an offline mode, as it'd eliminate my main issue with the game, weirdo stalkers who follow you around the map (no seriously). The actual "crew" aspect aint great, I just wanna be able to drive around the map offline, and unbothered.
 
Kahhhhyle

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Requiring them to make an offline mode or pave the way for custom servers should be a legal requirement
 
JuniperAndSage

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L4DANathan said:
There are actually several court cases that have ruled planned obsolescence counts as fraud, it's not exactly a leap of logic to apply that to games.
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"Don't put washers in your machine that are specifically designed to break shortly after the warranty period is up.", is reasonable. "Run the servers forever." or "Develop a 2nd game that's offline." are kind of ridiculous things to ask.
 
joeblow

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Eh, the most likely "positive" outcome that could come from something like this is that companies will be forced to state at the point of purchase that the game's servers might eventually shut down forever.
 
Dyle

Dyle

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Licenses for games that require internet access are like buying a lifetime pass for an amusement park, you have full access to it as long as it is operational. It is not feasible to require every single game to support an offline mode or a private server backend.
 
SanTheSly

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Watched this a couple of days ago and agree with the arguments but also feel like it's a little futile to chase this unless there's ample financial support and potentially free or reduced cost legal advice on the best way to tackle this before outright going for it.

I realistically think that the European courts are the way to go on this, especially France as Ross points out. Hit Ubisoft on home territory and hopefully establish precedent that prevents stuff like this happening, or requires all products like this to either explicitly state and EOL date up front or deliver on an EOL strategy to provide an offline/accessible way to play these games once the servers go down.

Tackling this on US terms seems like an unwinnable nightmare.

I was going to jokingly leave a comment saying "start a thread on Resetera and see if any of the legal minded folk there can weigh in" but I guess that's what this is lmao.
 
.exe

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This game's online is absurdly intrusive considering how little impact it has in gameplay, from what I recall anyway. Like, you can't even restart your save because it's all kept remotely.
 
Goodacre0081

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I don't see what this will really change besides publishers updating legal wording and TOS to include end of life clauses you need to accept before starting the game.
 
AlphaTwo

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JuniperAndSage said:
"Don't put washers in your machine that are specifically designed to break shortly after the warranty period is up.", is reasonable. "Run the servers forever." or "Develop a 2nd game that's offline." are kind of ridiculous things to ask.
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Unless they've made such an asinine implementation of their online, it would be hardly "create a second game". Even more embedded online racing games like the last few NFS was totally offline playable.
 
Sacul64

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Alavard said:
What's the goal here? Legally compel the company to operate servers that it doesn't want to forever? Or legally compel them to code a way to play the game offline? As shitty as it is when always-online games go defunct, I don't see how this goes anywhere regardless of the argument.
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I mean this is the company that is legally obligated to release skull and bones
 
J-Skee

J-Skee

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If this is what it takes to keep games working, I'm 100% behind it.
 
J-Skee

J-Skee

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Alavard said:
What's the goal here? Legally compel the company to operate servers that it doesn't want to forever? Or legally compel them to code a way to play the game offline? As shitty as it is when always-online games go defunct, I don't see how this goes anywhere regardless of the argument.
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How difficult is it to get players to set up their own private servers for online games?
 

Shroki

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Goodacre0081 said:
I don't see what this will really change besides publishers updating legal wording and TOS to include end of life clauses you need to accept before starting the game.
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That probably wouldn't get them out of this. Terms of Service are notoriously ineffective at squashing legal challenges when the terms of service are unreasonable.

Alavard said:
What's the goal here? Legally compel the company to operate servers that it doesn't want to forever? Or legally compel them to code a way to play the game offline? As shitty as it is when always-online games go defunct, I don't see how this goes anywhere regardless of the argument.
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Get companies to never develop online-only games again? Get companies to never charge purchase price on online-only games (F2P models only)? Take money that Ubi Soft doesn't deserve out of its pockets?
 
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