Ubisoft holds firm in The Crew lawsuit: You don’t own your video games

Ubisoft responded to California gamers’ The Crew shutdown lawsuit in late February, filing to dismiss the case. The company’s lawyers argued in that filing, reviewed by Polygon, that there was no reason for players to believe they were purchasing “unfettered ownership rights in the game.” Ubisoft has made it clear, lawyers claimed, that when you buy a copy of The Crew, you’re merely buying a limited access license.

“Frustrated with Ubisoft’s recent decision to retire the game following a notice period delineated on the product’s packaging, Plaintiffs apply a kitchen sink approach on behalf of a putative class of nationwide customers, alleging eight causes of action including violations of California’s False Advertising Law, Unfair Competition Law, and Consumer Legal Remedies Act, as well as common law fraud and breach of warranty claims,” Ubisoft’s lawyers wrote.

Ubisoft released The Crew, its open-world racing game, in 2014 and shut down its servers a decade later, in 2024, due to “server infrastructure and licensing constraints.” Because The Crew was online-only, it meant the game became totally unplayable when the servers were turned off. Ubisoft offered refunds to players who “recently” purchased the game, but lots of people were unable to get refunds; the majority of players likely purchased the game much earlier.

Throughout Ubisoft’s response, the company’s lawyers argued that, along with the licensing issue, that the plaintiffs don’t have a case — be it because of a statue of limitations, no real “cognizable injury,” and what they describe as inadequate arguments. Included in the response are a few pictures of The Crew’s video game packaging, presented to prove that Ubisoft has labeled at least some of its versions with the licensing note.

It’s long been the case with digital media that companies are licensing the game rather than selling it outright, but it’s not something that’s been totally obvious to all. And it’s becoming a bigger issue as technology ages and games like The Crew get shut down. To mitigate the issue, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a California bill into law in 2024 to force companies to more prominently display a note that consumers are buying a license and don’t technically own the game itself.

On March 18, the plaintiffs responded with an amended complaint to address the issues brought up by Ubisoft, and added an additional accusation — that Ubisoft is breaking rules around the sale of gift certifications, something they argue The Crew’s currency could be considered. In California, gift cards can’t expire — and the argument is that Ubisoft broke the law when The Crew was shut down, rendered the credits expired. The plaintiff’s lawyer argued that The Crew’s currency system meets all the requirements to be considered a gift certificate or gift card.

Replying to Ubisoft’s argument that the statue of limitations is up, the plaintiffs responded with their own photos of The Crew’s packaging, which states that the activation code for the game doesn’t expire until 2099; that’s an example of how Ubisoft “implied that [The Crew] would remain playable during this time and long thereafter,” per the amended complaint. There was no reason to suggest The Crew would shut down, the lawyer said, until 2023 when the game was announced to be shut down — so that statute of limitations is not up.

With the new additions in the amended complaint, that brings the gamers’ claims of wrongdoing up to nine counts. They’re asking the court to certify the class action lawsuit. Ubisoft has until April 29 to respond once again.