French consumer advocacy group sues Ubisoft for taking The Crew offline, almost two years since Stop Killing Games first protested it

It appears that the Stop Killing Games initiative is finally causing real consequences for major video game publishers, as Ubisoft, the company that first caused this whole ordeal, is now facing a lawsuit from a consumer advocacy group over its shutdown of The Crew.

As per Ross Scott, also known as Accursed Farms on YouTube, French consumer advocacy group UFC-Que Choisir is seeking legal action against Ubisoft, also based in France, due to its removal of access to The Crew on March 31, 2024.

“UFC-Que Choisir believes that by brutally depriving players of all access to The Crew, Ubisoft has violated essential consumer rights,” the group said on its website (in a quote machine-translated from the original French).

“It is unacceptable that Ubisoft considers, in its general conditions, that players only acquire a simple ‘user license’ for the game, which would then be revocable at any time by the publisher. The legality of all clauses limiting players’ rights must be questioned,” it added.

UFC-Que Choisir intends to tackle several of Ubisoft’s EULA clauses and primarily wishes to allow users to claim property rights over video game copies, disallow publishers from “withdraw[ing] all access to the game, without guarantee of maintaining an alternative mode of operation for consumers,” and prevent games from being “subordinated” to “online services likely to be interrupted at any time by the publisher.”

As it says, this legal action is being supported by the Stop Killing Games initiative, which itself started in response to Ubisoft’s shuttering of The Crew without providing the means to play the game offline. Anyone who enjoyed the game or had spent money on its store was permanently prevented from ever playing the game again via official channels, as its online-only nature meant that once servers were gone, the game was gone too.

This isn’t an issue solely applicable to Ubisoft. Publishers across the board shutter games and services every single day, with the likes of EA games taking access away from a dozen titles annually. It recently permanently killed off Anthem and took numerous other games offline in the past, including some of its first-party, major releases in the FIFA, Need for Speed, and other franchises.

If this lawsuit ends up being successful (and that will take quite a long time), it could cause a ripple effect in the games industry and perhaps even lead to EU legislation to protect the rights that groups like UFC-Que Choisir and SKG are advocating for.

Owning games today is pure fiction, as we’re all just renting out a license that can go away at any point. Live-service games are the most affected, and as dedicated servers are phased out of contemporary releases, this issue becomes increasingly prevalent.

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Prototype gears have arrived in The Division 2 with the start of Year 8 Season 1, and they currently sit at the top of all types of weapons/armors. Gears belonging to this item quality sit above High-End, Named, and other set items, making them truly unique.

Let’s find out how you can get these elusive items to improve your arsenal.

How to obtain Prototype gears in The Division 2

To obtain Prototype gears, you’ll need to participate in missions belonging to the Escalation mode. This is a new difficulty to complete missions that you’ve previously completed inside the game. Every week will have a set number of missions to finish.

There are ten different tiers for each mission. The higher the difficulty, the better your chances of getting Prototype gears. However, you can also get more of these items via the route of upgrades.

How to upgrade to Prototype gears in The Division 2

You can upgrade items starting from High-End quality to Prototype gear. To do so, you’ll need a Prototype Core. The cosen item must also be at the maximum Expertise level (30), and the item must be at maximum level (40). The item doesn’t need to be full optimized for the conversion.

Once you change an item to Prototype gear, it can no longer be optimized or recalibrated. Hence, pay full attention to its stats before spending the Prototype Core on it. However, the upgrade is worth it since your gear will improve its stats and also gain augments.

Here’s a list of augments that are currently available.

• Quantum – Provides a small chance to become temporarily immune to damage.
• Echo – Each bullet fired has a chance to deal its damage a second time.
• Atomize – Increases grenade radius and damage.
• Amalgam – Each bullet hit has a chance to apply a random status effect.
• Trapper – Increases the duration of status effects you apply.
• Entropy – Increases your Health based on a percentage of your total Armor.
• Anomaly – Skills restore a portion of the damage they deal as healing.
• Paradox – Provides a chance to refill part of your magazine while firing.
• Synesthesia – Bullet hits have a chance to slightly reduce skill cooldowns.

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