Scott’s campaign began following an announcement from the major studio Ubisoft, saying it would shut down the online-only racing game The Crew in 2024.
The French company said it was taking the game, which attracted more than 12 million players during its lifetime, offline, citing “upcoming server infrastructure and licensing constraints”.
For players such as Chemicalflood, who told me he had been playing The Crew for nearly a decade, the move – which left the game unplayable – felt personal.
“I was around 18 at the time of the launch – it was a big part of my adult life growing up,” he said. “It was a great escape from hardship at the time, so it has always been something special to me.”
Over the years, he said, the game became something he shared with his children, who enjoyed exploring its virtual recreation of the United States.
“The shutdown itself wasn’t upsetting,” he explained. “But how they handled it was the kick in the teeth.”
For Chemicalflood and many fans like him, the issue was not that Ubisoft ended support. It was that players lost access altogether.