I remember seeing and watching a co(lleague/worker) playing this game with the physical driving moving parts at
E3 in 2014.
Spalls Hurgenson <
spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
Ubisoft has announced* that its online racer, "The Crew", is shutting
down.
Not immediately, though, but soon: the servers will be turned off end
of March next year. They did remove it from storefronts today,
however, so the only people who can play it now are those who already
own it.
This action isn't unheard of, of course... especially not for Ubisoft,
which seems to take delight in killing off any game that's reached a
ten-year life span. It is, to a degree, an understandable decision
too: servers cost money to run and maintain, and "The Crew", launched
in late 2014, probably hasn't been pulling in a lot of sales.
Still, this shutdown impacts me more than a lot of others, just
because I /liked/ "The Crew". No, it wasn't the greatest racer, but it
was a delight racing from one side of the American continent to the
other; it had all the delights of a weeklong road-trip smashed into a
30 minute race. The game had an impressive amount of territory to
explore, as varied as the American mainland itself, and I loved just
driving around and exploring the many cities ... usually at
ludicrously unsafe speeds.
"The Crew" was followed up in 2018 with the unimaginatively named "The
Crew 2", but that sequel never quite matched the experience of the
original. Its AI generated terrain and towns didn't feel the same as
the hand-made regions of the first game, and the gameplay - which now included transforming planes and boats - felt gimmicky and silly. I
didn't enjoy the sequel at all, but the older game remained a guilty pleasure.
It's terrible that classic games are disappeared this way; not only
because it prevents gamers from playing games they put down
hard-earned monies to acquire, but also because these games are part
of our history. That corporations aren't required to offer some
alternative to gamers after they choose to no longer support the
product is practically criminal (all the more so since these same corporations often work against the fans when they try to revive the
game outside of the corporate aegis). Oh, would that the law require
some sort of escrow for server code to be released into public domain
after the publisher decides to offline a game. But if they did that,
then gamers wouldn't buy new games, I suppose... and we can't have
anything that challenges a corporations right to more and more
profits...
I ought to reinstall "The Crew" soon. I deserve at least one more race through heartland America, I think.
* read the announcement here https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/the-crew/the-crew/news-updates/mOR3tviszkxfeQCUKxhOV/an-update-on-the-crew
--
"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. The poor will see and be glad ??? you who seek God, may your hearts live!" --Psalm 69:30-32. Dang
Apple & colony. Slammy times R back. :(
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