Help launch a class action against Ubisoft?

[tleydxdy]

I can't find anyone posting this here, so here we are.

Accursed Farms has been talking about game as a service and companies destroying games for a long time now, and in the video he talks about how Ubisoft destroying The Crew seems like as good of a chance to fight back as we are gonna get. He goes over his reasoning and how he wants to approach this lawsuit and I feel like he has thought this through and we should help him make this lawsuit a reality.

 

He is asking for two things:

1. If you bought a copy of The Crew and have some form of proof, email crewemails@protonmail.com just the country (or which state in the US) you are in, no personal info
2. If you are a lawyer/attorney or know someone that can help or are familiar with consumer protection law anywhere in the world, reach-out to rosswscott@gmail.com

spread the word!

[Levent]

Last time I played the crew, AMD was still selling FX8350, so I dont really understand the mindset. Game is ancient by todays standards.

[Shimejii]

15 minutes ago, tleydxdy said:

I can't find anyone posting this here, so here we are.

Accursed Farms has been talking about game as a service and companies destroying games for a long time now, and in the video he talks about how Ubisoft destroying The Crew seems like as good of a chance to fight back as we are gonna get. He goes over his reasoning and how he wants to approach this lawsuit and I feel like he has thought this through and we should help him make this lawsuit a reality.

 

He is asking for two things:

1. If you bought a copy of The Crew and have some form of proof, email crewemails@protonmail.com just the country (or which state in the US) you are in, no personal info
2. If you are a lawyer/attorney or know someone that can help or are familiar with consumer protection law anywhere in the world, reach-out to rosswscott@gmail.com

spread the word!

Games like this have a shelf life. Unless you can own the server they are on and make custom ones, you will always be at the whim of the game company. Most games like it will be lucky to get 6 years of service at this point. Hell even some are shutting down after just 3.

[BrandonLatzig]

Out of anything to sue ubi for
it shouldn't be this 
It should be their Literal statement of "Gamers should be getting used to not owning games"

[tleydxdy]

5 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Games like this have a shelf life. Unless you can own the server they are on and make custom ones, you will always be at the whim of the game company. Most games like it will be lucky to get 6 years of service at this point. Hell even some are shutting down after just 3.

apparently in the game code there is literally a toggle for offline mode that is just disabled

[Thaldor]

IMO, pretty much fighting the windmills. Ubishit would spam so much money on the lawsuit it would be in the court for the next century and it would be actually cheaper to crowdfund and buy The Crew servers from Ubishit.

 

What EVERYONE needs to do, is far more simpler. Forget Ubishit, do not give them a cent, do not even talk about their games, do not even watch reviews or ads of their games, do not give any attention to anyone using Ubishit content. Next Far Cry? Fuck that, don't care, there's 1,000,000 and 1 FPS shooters in a forests, go and play them. Next Rainbow Six? Fuck that too, too many better games with exact same content. Ass Is Greed? Well, it's in the name, rather go out and touch grass than that cancerful piece of garbage. LTT makes Ubishit sponsored video? Fuck that shit especially and tell Linus to get a haircut and get a real job.

Spread the word and give Ubishit zero chances before they have actually done something and not just given empty words that every modern corporation seems to give.

 

[Bismut]

32 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Games like this have a shelf life. Unless you can own the server they are on and make custom ones, you will always be at the whim of the game company. Most games like it will be lucky to get 6 years of service at this point. Hell even some are shutting down after just 3.

Did not watch the video, but that feels like something we should be reasonably able to do (as in, host our own Server if gooeysoft does not want to any more; we pay for the game, we get to play it). That would be a compelling angle, but I do not expect the suit to go too far (unless you somehow tie it in with the right to repair movement? Seems unlikely though)

[Brooksie359]

34 minutes ago, BrandonLatzig said:

Out of anything to sue ubi for
it shouldn't be this 
It should be their Literal statement of "Gamers should be getting used to not owning games"

That is completely out of context quote and not that I don't dislike ubisofts actions but people make it out like he is saying something he is not. If I remember correctly that quote is in context of what is holding back people from adopting subscriptions based services like Microsoft game pass, EA play and ubisoft+. It was never meant to be a statement saying gamers should be ok with not owning games as he even said how he understands the sentiment as someone who likes owning movies rather than subscription based video services. I think the gist of what was said is that subscription based services are a very good alternative that some might prefer or should consider as they have their own unique value which I think he has a point as game pass is pretty cool for those who it makes sense for. All of that said it was incredibly ironic when he stated that people shouldn't be afraid of losing access to a game services just because you don't own the game when his company has basically done that for games people do own so maybe he does have a point because you lose access regardless. 

[Holmes108]

9 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

That is completely out of context quote and not that I don't dislike ubisofts actions but people make it out like he is saying something he is not. 

 

Frankly, even out of context the quote seems pretty bang on to me. Doesn't mean we have to like it, or in any way endorse it. Doesn't make it wrong though, sadly.

[Kid.Lazer]

1 hour ago, Levent said:

[...] AMD was still selling FX8350, so I dont really understand the mindset. Game is ancient by todays standards.

Selling them?! I still have one! (wow I feel old)

[Bismut]

3 minutes ago, Kid.Lazer said:

Selling them?! I still have one! (wow I feel old)

Not as cool as the Core2Quad Q6600 tho. I mean, it could very well be as cool, but I never owned an FX8350 I think.

[Brooksie359]

28 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

 

Frankly, even out of context the quote seems pretty bang on to me. Doesn't mean we have to like it, or in any way endorse it. Doesn't make it wrong though, sadly.

Personally I think having subscriptions as an option is good. I still think owning games should always be an option but subscription services is a nice option sorta like how video subscription services is also a pretty good option for alot of people. I do think subscription services is super nice for games you only plan to play once and then be done with it. 

[tleydxdy]

17 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Personally I think having subscriptions as an option is good. I still think owning games should always be an option but subscription services is a nice option sorta like how video subscription services is also a pretty good option for alot of people. I do think subscription services is super nice for games you only plan to play once and then be done with it. 

He goes into this in the video (also past videos) basically from his impressions talking to lawyers/precedents the prospects that a lawsuit based on copyright (DMCA exceptions, DRM etc) or contract law can succeed (at least in the US) is basically zero. So he's hoping to launch this as an consumer protection suit, i.e. the game is sold under a perpetual license and the company cannot unilaterally revoke that license whenever they feel like. What they currently do basically amounts to stealing.

[nhand42]

9 hours ago, Shimejii said:

Games like this have a shelf life. Unless you can own the server they are on and make custom ones, you will always be at the whim of the game company. Most games like it will be lucky to get 6 years of service at this point. Hell even some are shutting down after just 3.

If you watched and understood the linked video you'd know that perpetual licenses don't have a "shelf life". They are perpetual. It means forever. Your consumer rights say that you own the license forever. You can resell it. You can pass them to your children as their inheritance. It's yours. It's not theirs. They can't revoke it. It's not a rental. It's not time-limited. It's perpetual.

 

Yes, the companies are trying to take away your rights. They are using dirty tricks like Games-as-a-Service and always-on DRM and other server-based nonsense to steal your games. But it is probably illegal. It's almost definitely illegal in the EU. I'm nearly 100% confident it's illegal in Australia.

 

Companies like Steam and Sony are even more devious. They've written into their EULA the licenses can be revoked at any time for any reason. "Oh well that's impossible to defeat because it's now legal right?". No, that's not true! A company can't unilaterally decide to reduce your consumer rights. There has to be consideration (a legal term) meaning if they take away something that Consumer Rights says you already have, there has to be something of similar value given in return. Again, your consumer rights trumps what the companies want.

 

The problem is not just the companies though. It's also people who think it's intelligent (?) to say "oh well can't do anything we lose its just a rental you don't own anything". No, it's bad enough when the companies illegally steal from you. But parroting their propaganda, that's somehow even worse.

 

Accursed Farms has articulated this much better than I have. Go watch the video. Understand it. Everybody who understands the issue know that companies like Ubisoft, like Steam, like Sony, are almost certainly doing something illegal here. But the police aren't going to step in and save you. Nobody is going to help and the companies will keep getting away with it, unless we collectively standup and fight back. The only way this gets sorted is in a court before a judge. Which unfortunately means millions of dollars paying for expensive lawyers. That's why Accursed Farms is trying to figure how many people would join him in a class-action lawsuit.

 

But while he's doing that, stop spreading the company propaganda. They're wrong. You're wrong for repeating their propaganda.

[IkeaGnome]

12 hours ago, nhand42 said:

Accursed Farms has articulated this much better than I have.

No they haven't as far as I'm concerned. As far as I see they've said nothing.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

23 hours ago, BrandonLatzig said:

Out of anything to sue ubi for
it shouldn't be this 
It should be their Literal statement of "Gamers should be getting used to not owning games"

If that was the case, Bungie would've been sued to oblivion by now when they vaulted away half of the entire content of Destiny 2 that players had purchased. You no longer own the Destiny 2 that you purchased 6 years ago because it "doesn't exist anymore". 

[Erioch]

Class action suits are nearly always a complete waste of time for the class.  Great for the attorneys, though.

 

Although, one time I did get $150 out of the blue for a Radeon suit.

[Middcore]

1 minute ago, Erioch said:

Class action suits are nearly always a complete waste of time for the class.  Great for the attorneys, though.

 

Although, one time I did get $150 out of the blue for a Radeon suit.

Look at Scrooge McDuck here. I got a whole ~$30 for the functionally missing .5GB of RAM in my old GTX 970.

[Murasaki]

Better idea is to stop playing Ubisoft games, they've long lost their touch.

[Erioch]

1 minute ago, Middcore said:

Look at Scrooge McDuck here. I got a whole ~$30 for the functionally missing .5GB of RAM in my old GTX 970.

That's still far and above what most people get.

[starsmine]

13 minutes ago, Erioch said:

Class action suits are nearly always a complete waste of time for the class.  Great for the attorneys, though.

 

Although, one time I did get $150 out of the blue for a Radeon suit.

That is a terrible way of looking at them. yes, your individual pay out is not large. but it strongly limits companies from screwing large groups of people over due to the costs to them. 

[Shimejii]

14 minutes ago, starsmine said:

That is a terrible way of looking at them. yes, your individual pay out is not large. but it strongly limits companies from screwing large groups of people over due to the costs to them. 

No it doesnt. They are by far one of the biggest wastes of fucking time and energy. Takes years to get done, doesnt fucking do damn thing but line the pockets of the lawyers and lawfirms. If it was 1-2 years, maybe, these things take 5-10 years, the return for the customer is paltry. Just fine the companies a major portion of their total revenue and actually use that money to benefit people, but that wont happen.

 

They dont achieve anything, mostly just slight slaps on the wrists and move on. Nothing changes. Class actions = waste of customers money. Even if it drives the company to go bankrupt, that money just never gets paid out, the people go to other companies and do the same shit over and over. Its a rinse repeat of cycles.

[starsmine]

6 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

No it doesnt. They are by far one of the biggest wastes of fucking time and energy. Takes years to get done, doesnt fucking do damn thing but line the pockets of the lawyers and lawfirms. If it was 1-2 years, maybe, these things take 5-10 years, the return for the customer is paltry. Just fine the companies a major portion of their total revenue and actually use that money to benefit people, but that wont happen.

 

They dont achieve anything, mostly just slight slaps on the wrists and move on. Nothing changes. Class actions = waste of customers money. Even if it drives the company to go bankrupt, that money just never gets paid out, the people go to other companies and do the same shit over and over. Its a rinse repeat of cycles.

yes companies LOVE spending millions on lawyers and millions on the settlement when it can be avoided by doing the right thing.

Yes it is part of the cost of doing business, but it is a clear and obvious disincentive of going certain routes. 

A waste of customers money is whatever situation forced the class action to begin with, not the class action. 

[tleydxdy]

update video! 

[Lunar River]

On 1/21/2024 at 7:51 AM, Murasaki said:

Better idea is to stop playing Ubisoft games, they've long lost their touch.

i would say go 1 step further, stop buying games that are "games as a service"