How a Team of Modders Are Saving The Crew

March 31, 2024, was a sad day for fans of The Crew. Nearly ten years after its release, Ubisoft shut down the servers for the original Crew game. Because it requires an online connection, Ubisoft’s beloved open-world racing MMO is unplayable – even the single-player campaign is no longer accessible.

Ubisoft’s actions were widely condemned by the community as they set a dangerous precedent for future game preservation. This led to a petition being launched to prevent games from becoming unplayable after server shutdowns as part of the Stop Killing Games campaign.

In response, a talented team of modders and fans are taking action to save an important release in racing game history from extinction.

Putting The Crew back together

Codenamed The Crew Unlimited, the project aims to revive the original Crew game and make it playable again both online and offline. “We started working on the project pretty much as soon as Ubisoft announced the shutdown of the servers last December. A team of five members was quickly formed within a few days,” team member whammy4 tells RacingGames.

Since then, work on the project has progressed rapidly. “During the time left before the actual shutdown, besides general research, we were taking massive precautions and preparing for the shutdown of the servers by logging the network communications of the game,” says whammy4. “As the project is a server emulator, that communication data is invaluable, and we would not be able to get anywhere without it.”

Rather than removing the online requirement, the mod emulates the servers, tricking the game into thinking it’s connected online. “We have to rewrite all of the game's serverside systems,” whammy4 explains.

“Since it is a custom server emulator, it can be run offline too as a local server, effectively allowing the user to play the game offline. Our plan is to make the entire game playable both online and offline, but sadly, certain features like online PVP will obviously have to remain unplayable in offline mode.”

“After the shutdown, development of the server emulator has been non-stop. We have been recreating The Crew's serverside functionality step by step, allowing more and more game features to be accessible and playable.”

While it’s not public yet, the project has already reached a significant milestone. While whammy4 admits that “we're far from done at the moment,” The Crew is now partially playable after being taken offline.

Currently, The Crew can be loaded, the prologue can be completed, and the entire map can be explored in free roam. Along with free roam, side activities that don't require online players such as skills and police chases will be available offline,

Ubisoft has taken extreme lengths to prevent players from accessing The Crew. After the servers were taken offline, The Crew was removed from player libraries, and game licenses were revoked, effectively erasing the game from history. Luckily, whammy4 is confident that Ubisoft won’t be able to remove the mod or prevent players from installing it.

“We are not providing links to any game files, we are not providing any tips or advice on how to get the game files illegally, and we are also not illegally tampering with the software,” whammy4 asserts. “We will also avoid using The Crew IP for the official project name in the future.”

When the mod is released publicly, a custom launcher will allow fans to revisit The Crew. This launcher will ask players to choose if they want to play offline or online and choose which version to play if they have it installed.

Why The Crew deserves to be saved

While The Crew 2 is still playable and shares the same US setting, whammy4 thinks the groundbreaking original game deserves to be saved. “The Crew is one of the biggest and most in-depth car games of all time. The main attraction is its vast (5,000 - 7,000km2) and nicely detailed map of the USA.”

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“Not only is the world so large and vast with many different places to visit, but there is also a story mode campaign that takes you across every US state, highly customizable vehicles to build, drive, and work on, a huge selection of game modes (both with and without other players), and to top it off, a wonderful composed and licensed soundtrack split across several radios that makes your driving experience impactful and memorable.”

“To me (and many others), The Crew is one of those games that sticks with you. The memories, experiences, interactions, emotions, and vibes are irreplaceable by any other video game. It’s insane that this timeless masterpiece was almost completely lost that easily.”

Developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower (a studio founded by veterans who worked on the original Test Drive Unlimited games), The Crew launched in December 2014. Its gigantic recreation of the US was revolutionary, featuring over 1,000 real-world landmarks and recreations of several major cities. When cruising with friends, seeing the sights, and driving coast to coast, it captured the feeling of an epic road trip.

While the sequel was seemingly inspired by Forza Horizon, with sanctioned races set around a festival and an emphasis on gaining social media followers, the original had a darker tone.

Instead of an anonymous social media influencer, you played an undercover cop trying to avenge your brother’s death in the story mode, with a focus on illegal street racing. The original game also featured a deeper RPG-style customization system as you evolved your car through different specs, from street racing to rally raid.

Released in 2018, The Crew 2 reused the original game’s location. But as whammy4 points out, key changes were made to the map design. “Everything was seemingly redone. The map is empty and repetitive - almost every biome and city looks the same. Also, many small towns, areas, and landmarks were removed like the Chicago Airport and Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.”

These changes were likely done to accommodate boats and planes, which debuted in The Crew 2. “My guess is that reducing the detail density of the map allows the game to load the chunks of the map faster as you traverse it, mostly to accommodate planes as they traverse the map faster than cars.”

Originally intended to be a DLC expansion for The Crew 2, 2023’s The Crew Motorfest ditched the US location in favor of a smaller map based on Hawaii’s O’ahu Island.

The Crew Unlimited has no release date yet, but whammy4 hopes to release it by December this year to coincide with The Crew’s tenth anniversary. Thanks to the efforts of the modding team, this landmark racing game will no longer be lost to history.

You can join The Crew Unlimited's Discord server to stay up to date on the project's progress.

Do you think The Crew is worth saving? Let us know in the comments below.

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