YouTuber Ross Scott, aka Accursed Farms, is considering filing a class action lawsuit over the closure of The crew – Ubisoft’s 2014 online racing game, which is expected to be released closed at the end of March.
Such as PCGamesN reportsIn a video posted on January 18, Scott stated that he is “tired” of reporting on games like this being shut down, and would “rather do something” to help the situation. He believes that in this case this “actually approaches a perfect scenario for taking legal action,” and has published his latest video as a way to generate ideas on how to move forward, before possibly starting a fundraising campaign for it later.
Scott believes that one good angle can be taken to take legal action against the closure of the game through consumer protection legislation. The argument he made hinges on it being “sold under a perpetual license, not a subscription.” This, he argues, would mean that ‘we have been sold a good, and not a service’, which will soon be ‘deprived of all value after the point of sale’.
He added that “it’s possible that argument doesn’t hold up either, in which case I don’t think there’s any way to stop this practice, at least not in the United States.” However, he is still hopeful that it can have an impact, as he pointed to the number of “non-gamers” who are unaware of how big a problem the sudden shutdown of online-only gaming is.
“By challenging its legality, we can make it a black and white issue,” he continued. “If we lose, I want to lose hard. If there is no chance of stopping this, I want a judge to say to our faces that when we buy video games, we have no consumer rights and no ownership over what we pay for. The end.”
Scott also says that if he has anything to say about it, he wouldn’t want to accept any settlement offer from Ubisoft because “the point is actually bigger than the game and bigger than Ubisoft.” The only settlement he would accept, he added, was a patch he had to make The crew playable without further support from Ubisoft.
In a after published on Twitter/X after the video was shared, Scott stated that he has already received “many multi-page emails about possible legal proceedings” from viewers. He later though repeated that “there may or may not be a lawsuit, but I will pursue every possible legal avenue that is affordable, national (and) international.”
It remains to be seen if any action will come from Scott’s plan, but for now: The crew is no longer available digitally. Existing owners can play it until March 31.
Check out some more great games you can play on our lists of best pc games, best PS5 games And best Xbox Series X games.