Killing
Games
The Crew is dead. Ubisoft wants you to destroy your copy. The EU has 1.29 million signatures and a deadline. France is suing. Anthem shut down with zero refunds. The fight for game preservation is now.
You Paid For It. They Deleted It.
The Crew launched in 2014. Players bought it. Ubisoft shut down the servers in April 2024 and the game became completely unplayable — not just online, but entirely, because it required always-on authentication even for solo play. Players who paid full price for a disc now own an expensive coaster.
This is not a unique situation. It is the logical endpoint of the always-online, live-service model applied without any consideration for long-term player rights. When the publisher decides the game is no longer profitable to maintain, they pull the plug. The player’s purchase becomes worthless overnight.
“When you buy a book, the author can’t come into your house and burn it. When you buy a game, apparently the publisher can. This is the core absurdity that Stop Killing Games is trying to address.”
Neal Lloyd — Gaming CornerUbisoft Wants You to Destroy Your Copy
Buried in Ubisoft’s End User License Agreement is a clause that, upon termination of the license, requires users to destroy all copies of the software in their possession. This is not theoretical legal boilerplate. This is a clause that activates when Ubisoft shuts down a game — which they have now done multiple times.
France has taken particular interest in this clause. Legal action against Ubisoft is ongoing, targeting both the EULA language and the broader practice of selling games that are functionally rentals with a one-time purchase price.
Anthem — January 12, 2026: BioWare’s Anthem shut down servers with no announcement of offline mode, no refunds for recent purchasers, and no archival patch. Players who bought the game on sale three months prior lost access entirely. EA’s response: silence.
1.29 Million Signatures and a Deadline
Ross Scott’s Stop Killing Games campaign has collected over 1.29 million signatures on its EU petition. The European Commission is legally required to formally respond by July 27, 2026. This does not guarantee legislation, but it guarantees a conversation at the highest regulatory level in the world’s largest single market.
The ask is straightforward: games sold to consumers must remain playable after commercial support ends. Publishers must either release an offline patch, release server software for community hosting, or make the game fully functional without their infrastructure. None of these requirements are technically unreasonable. All of them are commercially inconvenient.
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