Ubisoft promises offline support for The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest after eating its pride for killing The Crew

Ubisoft, perhaps still feeling the sting of the unanticipatedly fierce reaction to its decision that brought The Crew to an abrupt, unwanted halt, announced today that offline mode is being developed for The Crew 2 as well as The Crew Motorfest.

Ubisoft responded to TheCrewGame's tweet: "We have heard your concerns regarding access to The Crew Games." "Today, I want to express my commitment to the futures of The Crew 2 & The Crew Motorfest. We can confirm that both titles will be available in an offline mode, so you'll have access to them for a long time. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months."

The Crew 2 was released six years ago and although it wasn't a great game at launch, it has been supported for years by the community. The Crew Motorfest on the other hand is much more recent but has fewer players on Steam. This could be because they were exclusive to Epic Games Store (and Ubisoft Store). There's not a lot of players for either game.

The decision to add offline modes to both games is not likely to be driven by player numbers alone, but by the discomfort (and potential future discomfort) caused by the shutdown of Crew earlier this year. Ubisoft removed The Crew from its store in December 2023, and made it unplayable on April 1, 2024. They cited "server infrastructure and license constraints" as the reason for this move.

The Crew fans, however, did not accept this boilerplate explanation as Ubisoft may have expected. Instead, they launched a "Stop Killing Games", initiative that is more serious and well thought out than its name would suggest. The petition to the European Union may not have the 1 million signatures needed to be considered for adoption, but 350,000 signatures were collected in less than two weeks.

Ubisoft faces more than just the blowback of The Crew fans. It is also under pressure from outside due to a malaise that has been building for years, fueled by game cancellations, delays, and poor performance from games released. This has led to a long and slow decline in the share price of Ubisoft, which is now at a 10-year-low. While bringing offline mode to a few racing games won't change that, Ubisoft desperately needs any PR wins right now. You have to begin somewhere, right?

Ubisoft did not provide a timeframe for the addition offline support for The Crew 2 or The Crew Motorfest, nor did it say if they have similar plans for The Crew - the game that started all of this trouble. I've contacted Ubisoft to see if there is a Crew revival in the works. I will update this post if I get a response.

Since we're already here, let's add one more thing: If Ubisoft’s new commitment to The Crew 2's future has you curious, now is the perfect time to buy it. It's currently available for $1 on Steam. This is 98% off of the regular price and the lowest price ever on Steam. A large, highly-updated, "very positive" rated, arcade racing game that costs just $1? It's a great deal.