March 31 (Reuters) - France's leading consumer association, UFC-Que Choisir, said on Tuesday it had filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft over the video game maker's shutdown of online racing game "The Crew".
The company delisted the title from digital marketplaces in December 2023 and shut down its servers on March 31, 2024, rendering the game permanently unplayable for all who had bought it.
The case could have sweeping implications for millions of players worldwide: can a video game company simply "erase" a product consumers paid for by shutting down its servers?
Ubisoft did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
"The Crew", launched in 2014, was an open-world racing game allowing players to explore a scaled-down representation of the U.S. while engaging in multiplayer races and challenges. The game required an upfront purchase and offered in-game transactions for additional content.
In April 2024, shortly after the servers were closed, Ubisoft began revoking licenses from customers without issuing refunds, sparking backlash over the precedent such actions could set for ownership of video games.
The company has saidcustomers only bought a limited access to the game, not full ownership.
UFC-Que Choisir alleges that Ubisoft misled consumers about the permanence of their purchase and imposed abusive contractual clauses stripping players of ownership rights.
The lawsuit is backed by European consumer movement "Stop Killing Games", which was launched in response to "The Crew" controversy.
The citizens' initiative, aimed at bringing the issue in front of the European Union, was launched in 2024 and presented to the European Commission last month with more than 1.3 million signatures.
That surpassed the threshold mandating a review by the EU executive, whichis expected to present its findings by the end of July.
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
