On April 1, long-time Crew players will be saying their final farewells to Ubisoft's open-world arcade racing entry title that started it all. The game has already been delisted, including every edition imaginable, along with micro-transactions and everything that might entail. The game is still playable until March 31, 2024, but when the clock strikes midnight, it will go the way of the dodo.
The Crew was among the first open-world games of that scope from the arcade racing genre. It came out in 2014 on PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, with a 61 Metacritic score and a 5.4 User Score. Suffice it to say the first iteration didn't take the world by storm, but it walked so The Crew Motorfest could run... at 300 mph.
Before it was named The Crew, the project started out between three friends who had previously worked on other titles together. Their scope was pretty ambitious for the time, given that initial development was started all the way back in 2007.
As a side note, remember 2007? That year, we got Halo 3, Portal, God of War II, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Witcher, Forza Motorsport 2, Crysis, and among many, many more, Rockstar released their non-GTA related Manhunt. The latter still haunts my dreams at night.
After everything was planned out at Ivory Tower, The Crew was being developed by only 30 people for 7 years until it came out in 2014. Four years later, in 2018, The Crew 2 came out, scoring a 64 on Metacritic, not much above the first game. However, they were successful enough to win a lot of people over.
Photo: Ubisoft
In fact, by the time The Crew Motorfest was released on September 14, 2023, more than 40 million people had dabbled in the franchise. Those aren't rookie numbers, but do they represent daily players? Of course not, but 40 million of anything isn't something you simply shrug off.
After all that time, Motorfest finally managed to score above the first two at 76. And for good reason, because it's a fantastic and gorgeous open-world arcade racing game perfect to help you relax after a day at the old factory. (They're all factories in some way or another.)
So, while The Crew 1 will become history on April 1, 2024, "The Little Game That Could" achieved its goal and grew beyond what those three devs envisioned back in 2007.
On the other hand, The Crew 2 is still going strong, but seeing that you can import your cars from 2 in Motorfest, why not benefit from the latest graphics the game has to offer?
If you're on Xbox or PC, you should check out Ubisoft+, a $15-a-month subscription that unlocks every Ubi game ever made, Deluxe editions included. Maybe it's a better deal for you to not get Motorfest at full price and simply "rent" it.
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
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