Between releasing the game’s final batch of content earlier this year and announcing a 98% off sale just a few days ago, it’s seeming more likely than ever that The Crew 2 might be shutting down sometime soon. Despite that impending loss, what’s most exciting about this recent news is Ubisoft acknowledging player concerns about their online games and investigating an offline mode for the series. Ubisoft’s statement was posted to The Crew 2’s Steam Store page earlier this week and reiterated in a post and video on X.
We want to acknowledge that some of you have expressed concerns about access to The Crew games.
Today, we want to express our commitment to the future of The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest. We are actively exploring different solutions for the future, which will include an offline mode.
Steam Announcement – September 11, 2024
This would appear to be a direct response to Ross Scott’s ‘Stop Killing Games‘ campaign that launched in April of this year and featured The Crew as one of its main offenders. But whatever the actual inspiration I’m happy to see a major studio even investigating options to turn a big commercial product that’s backed by season passes and micro-transactions into a game that could eventually be played offline. That they included Motorfest in the statement means that this isn’t a one-off concession just for The Crew 2 but something that they could design into all upcoming online/multiplayer titles.
That said, their wording here is extremely vague at this point and I don’t want to take it as a guarantee. We’ve heard others use the phrase “actively exploring” in relation to shutdown alternatives who eventually give up and just shut the game down anyways. It’s not to say that it isn’t a huge challenge or that they’re making false promises here, I just want to be sure to temper any expectations until they say or show more about it.
For now though, The Crew 2 is on an absurd 98% off discount on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox which brings it down to about $1 and runs until September 24th. Ironically, this deep discount might prolong the game’s lifespan if Steam’s active daily player counts are anything to go by. On the day that the sale started The Crew 2 had about 500 active players but after three days it’s seen its all-time peak of just over 35,000 players in-game.
Whether many more than 500 of them stick around is yet to be seen but the game does have one ace up its sleeve.The Crew 2 offers a ‘Collection Import’ feature to bring many of your unlocked vehicles into Motorfest providing a cheap way to jump into the series and a means to keep some of that progress if you decide to jump into the newer game. By the way, Motorfest itself is also on sale for around $20, down 84% from its full asking price of $70.
Thanks to everyone who pointed out the news. I’m glad there isn’t an actual shutdown date to announce here and even happier to see more publishers beginning to address these issues.