The Crew Delisted, Server Closer Coming

It has been a good part of a decade since The Crew released. Despite being someone who loves the open-world drive ’em up, with that love being created by Test Drive Unlimited 2, the original version of The Crew never really did anything to excite me back in 2014 when it launched. Its sequel is another story, as I think The Crew 2 did a lot to brighten up the world. Adding planes also helped. That said, I still hold that persistent online titles and microtransactions are horrible, and it is inevitable that those hundreds of hours will be lost when the servers are shuttered.

Announced on Thursday, Ubisoft and Ivory Tower have pulled The Crew (1) from sale on all digital platforms. The press release states the following as the reason: “We understand this may be disappointing for players still enjoying the game, but it has become a necessity due to upcoming server infrastructure and licensing constraints. Decommissioning a game, and especially our first one, is not something we take lightly.” The statement continues to say that The Crew 2 and the recently launched Motorfest will continue to get support. Still, the live service model isn’t a great thing to do (and continue to do) with Motorfest releasing earlier this year.

The press release also notes that those who have purchased The Crew (1) recently can check out the Ubisoft Store refund policy on the store’s support page. If you’re somehow unaware of why this is annoying, the servers will shut down after March 31st, 2024. After this, to quote Ubisoft’s press release, “the game will not be accessible anymore on any platform, including PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Amazon Luna, and Ubisoft+.” If it weren’t a persistently online title, we’d still be able to play it after this date and enjoy it.