Ubisoft’s The Crew Revived Through Community Efforts

Ubisoft shut down online-only game, The Crew, on March 31, 2025; this was the starting point of the Stop Killing Games movement. A fan-led project known as The Crew Unlimited brought the game back from the dead, creating a server emulator that allows PC players to once again gain access ot the game. 

The Crew had single-player activities which, logically, should not have required an internet connection and, thereby, a server connection. Despite this, Ubisoft tied the game to a server, requiring a server connection to gain access to all in-game activities, including the single-player campaign.

Ubisoft referenced the terms of agreements upon purchasing to justify the server shutdown, which barred all players from accessing the game. The players were, legally, buying the rights to play the game, instead of buying a copy of the game, as most would have assumed when purchasing a game. Even physical copies of The Crew are limited by this legality. 

The Crew Unlimited (TCU) 1.0 was released on Sept. 15, 2025; it still requires players to own a copy of The Crew to play. TCU began as an online community and home for The Crew 1 players in March 2023, but evolved into a team with the goal of restoring The Crew back to a playable state with the use of custom server emulator software, according to the TCU website.