The Crew's Beta Debacle

Last summer, we witnessed the announcement of The Crew, an upcoming racing game spanning across the United States, in an open and persistent world. It was widely advertised as what an open world racing game should be, taking an indiscriminate jab at the Forza Horizon series. Let me just say that for the record, they ought to have kept their mouths shut.

Since its announcement, I was looking forward to The Crew more than my anniversary because literally everything about it held my interest and attention. I was essentially breaking my neck trying to discover every new detail, watch any and every new gameplay video; I was basically trying to experience the game long before its release date.

When my finely tuned ears caught wind of an upcoming beta, naturally I was so thrilled, I leapt out of my office window, ran back into the house and jumped back on the computer to discover more information regarding it. It was then that I discovered that the beta was closed - invite only - and only on PC at the moment. The fires of my loins had subsided for awhile until GameStop announced the pre-order incentives for The Crew; the Muscle Edition and guaranteed access to the closed beta, which I soon learned was coming to consoles.

I got home from preordering, registered my code and received a tantalising message:

Congratulations! You've successfully registered your key for The Crew Console Closed Beta. We will send your access code along with download instructions by email right when the beta period begins.

I was happier than a morbidly obese Swedish lad in a sweets shop. Once again, that happiness subsided when 30 September came round and I hadn't received a notification in my inbox about my access code for the console beta. So I shrugged my shoulders and lost myself in Forza Horizon 2 for literally the entire day. It wasn't until the next day that I checked my email once more and still received a nice, fat zilch.

Concerned, confused and complacent, I took to the Ubisoft forums and made a disturbing discovery; the current closed beta for The Crew was detailed as "a limited technical beta in which only selected players from a priority list have access." I was terribly confused and moderately aggravated. I contacted Ubisoft Support and requested more information, detailing that GameStop's preorder incentive clearly stated, "guaranteed access to The Crew closed beta."

Let me just give this a pause and highlight my dealings with Ubisoft in the past. I've had virtually nothing but issues with Ubisoft when it came to preorder incentives, redeeming codes, essentially trying to claim what I was promised. So when I discovered the issue with The Crew, I have no idea why I wasn't surprised. Between a few rude support representatives, having somehow used or invalid codes in brand new copies of Ubisoft products, it's hard to want to abandon a company for their terrible customer service when some of their games are so damn enjoyable. But I digress, as the fact of the matter is, the handling of the situation is what really ground my gears.

After explaining the issue to the support agent, I received a rather unsatisfactory response: "Unfortunately, the current closed beta is the limited technical beta, in which only a few people from a prioritised list of candidates were granted access."

I inquired, "Right, so there must be another beta coming after this one, to which I should have access? Or is the code I received from GameStop worthless?"

The agent's response was, "Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication between Ubisoft and GameStop regarding the closed beta keys with preordering. We are continuing to look into the issue of the "guaranteed" access that was promised by GameStop. It is still possible that you will get access to the Beta, but the pre-order code was not intended to be a guaranteed access to the Closed Beta."

Bollocks.

GameStop e-mailed access keys with instructions for redemption, which brings one to The Crew's closed beta redemption page and upon redemption, one receives confirmation that the key was successfully redeemed and would receive an additional e-mail with download information when The Crew's closed console beta goes live.

...and you mean to tell me that the key I received from GameStop was for what, a copy of the game's soundtrack?

See, I don't like these mind games and while I would have loved to argue semantics with the support agent, I had to remind myself that it wasn't their fault and they're essentially just the messengers. The fact of the matter is, GameStop isn't in the wrong here. The keys for guaranteed access were indeed for guaranteed access because they worked upon redemption. Now, the ball is in Ubisoft's court should they desire to honour the promotion.

Ubisoft needs to step up to the plate and specify the information because if one were to fancy a trip to the community forums for The Crew, there's more than a handful of GameStop preorder customers who aren't the happiest hippies in the commune. We understand that the current closed beta is the limited technical one, but what we don't understand is that with a month until launch, are you going to release another closed beta for those who've preordered with GameStop and redeemed their "guaranteed access" keys? If not, I hope you have plans to satisfy these upset customers.

Fortunately for me, I have a pal who'd gotten access to the limited technical beta and gave me a ring, inviting me round for a go at it myself.

He was terribly disappointed with it and so was I. I'll highlight the experience for you in key points:

• Storyline: abysmal
• Visuals: sub-par
• Gameplay: dated
• Handling: atrocious
• Bugs: a-plenty

We both left the house and cancelled our preorders at GameStop together. With a month left to go, there is no way Ubisoft will be able to fix the issues before launch and I'm not about to pay full price for something that I know will get worse before it gets better. I plan to pick up a used copy and see how it is after a few months to marinate and receive its much-needed abundant patches and updates.

It's almost orchestral to the idea that maybe that's why they're being so secretive about the closed beta situation. As it stands, The Crew will most certainly not be a contender against Forza Horizon 2 and most likely not against DriveClub either. It's disappointing that a game I've been so thrilled about and looking forward to has already managed to lose my interest, but I'm grateful that I was able to discover it before dropping a non-refundable $60.

I will be keeping up with developments following The Crew prior and subsequent its release; I'm curious to see how many people share my sentiment.

Author's Note: it was brought to my attention that Ubisoft announced today (6 October) that The Crew is being delayed an additional month. I'm glad Ubisoft decided to listen to the feedback and finally confirm the information regarding an additional closed beta is coming in November, most likely for those who preordered through GameStop.

Time will well.