The final races for players of Ubisoft’ first game in The Crew franchise are now in sight. The publisher has confirmed that the racing game has been delisted from its various digital stores and that its online servers will shut down after March 31, 2024.
Ubisoft stated the reason for this decision in a blog post:
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. Our goal remains to provide the best action driving gameplay experience for players and to deliver on it, we are continuing to provide new content and support for The Crew 2 and the recently launched The Crew Motorfest.
Depending on the refund terms of the digital store, players may be eligible to get a refund if they have recently purchased The Crew.
The game was originally developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower and released by Ubisoft in December 2014 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. The Crew was notable for offering racing game fans a persistent open world. It was set in a smaller virtual version of the United States, and used RPG elements in its single-player campaign, where your character has to infiltrate criminal groups. Multiplayer modes support up to eight players in various racing modes. The game had two post-release expansion packs.
The Crew ended up being successful, and Ubisoft launched a sequel, The Crew 2, in 2018. Earlier this year, the third and latest game in the series, The Crew: Motorfest, was released, with a virtual open-world setting of the Hawaiian island of O’ahu. Ubisoft says players of that game can expect “new seasons, content, vehicles, playlists, and more” for that game in the months and years to come.