Ubisoft permanently revoked access to The Crew for all purchasers in 2024, demonstrating that players 'own' nothing in digital storefronts

In April 2024, Ubisoft removed players' licenses to The Crew -- an always-online racing game that many had purchased at full price years earlier -- after shutting down its servers. The game was not just delisted from sale but made entirely unplayable, wiped from players' digital libraries with no refund offered. This triggered a class-action lawsuit filed in California in November 2024 and directly contributed to California passing AB 2426, which bans digital storefronts from using the word 'buy' unless customers are informed they are only receiving a revocable license. Why it matters: Players who spent $60+ on a game lost all access with zero compensation, so consumer trust in digital game purchases eroded as players realized any always-online title can be unilaterally terminated, so the market distorts toward physical media hoarding and piracy as rational consumer responses to revocable ownership, so legislators were forced to intervene with new disclosure laws, so the entire digital distribution model now faces regulatory uncertainty that could reshape how games are sold. The structural root cause is that digital game storefronts (PlayStation Store, Xbox Marketplace, Steam) sell licenses disguised as purchases using 'buy' language, and their terms of service grant publishers unilateral revocation rights -- a legal structure that would be unconscionable for physical goods but persists because digital media law has not caught up with the shift from physical to digital distribution.