A disc on a shelf looks reassuring.
You paid. You brought it home. Nobody should be able to reach into your house and turn it into a coaster.
Then the game asks for a server.
On December 14, 2023, Ubisoft announced that The Crew was being removed from online stores. Its servers would close on March 31, 2024. After that, Ubisoft said, the game would no longer be accessible on the listed platforms.1
The box could stay. Access could not.
A purchase with a remote switch
Ross Scott launched Stop Killing Games in April 2024, challenging the destruction of games after official support ends.2
We share the ownership concern. We are not claiming an affiliation with the campaign. And we are not claiming physical media solves every dependency.
A disc can still need a download, an authentication service, or a publisher’s server. The useful question is not just, “Can I hold it?”
It is: “What must keep working for me to use it?”
Nonprofits should ask the same question before their donor history ends up behind somebody else’s switch.
Streaming did not invent the subscription. It made it ordinary.
Netflix launched its US ad-supported plan on November 3, 2022. It began notifying US members about outside-household sharing on May 23, 2023. Its final DVD shipments followed on September 29, 2023.345
That order matters. Ads did not arrive after the DVD service closed. They were already there.
The DVD operation was a rental business too. Mailing a disc was never the same as selling you a permanent copy. But the change makes the broader point visible: a provider can alter the available format, account rules, and ways it earns revenue.
You can decide the service remains worth buying. You should still know what you are buying.
Now put your mission in that account
For a nonprofit, the dependency might be donor records instead of a favorite film.
It might be the automation a volunteer built. The integration a consultant connected. The only account with permission to export attachments.
A friendly nonprofit price does not answer any of those questions.
Before committing, ask:
- Can we export records, attachments, and relationships?
- Can another system read them?
- What stops working if our contract changes?
- Who holds the administrator credentials?
- Have we actually tested the exit?
What For Keeps changes
We teach nonprofits to run open-source tools and understand the infrastructure underneath them.
Not because every hosted service is bad. Because an organization should have a meaningful choice.
Self-hosting brings responsibilities: backups, security updates, administration, and recovery. It can also reduce dependence on a vendor’s permission to keep a particular application running.
The goal is not a shelf full of impressive software boxes. It is a working system, a documented handoff, and a restore you have tested.
Keep the disc if you want the disc.
Check the server either way.