Of course they have leverage; backing up an online–only game doesn’t give you the ability to play it once the servers are shut down. For a recent example, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIqyvquTEVU
I used to play a defunct Japanese online only pvp and pve mech game on a pirate Taiwanese server. With a big enough fan base anything is possible. I’ve personally never heard of The Crew but there are some old flash games I’ll never get to play again because they were served on an encrypted site but I think they’re obscure.
Yea, if you can reverse–engineer a server then you can bring the game back to life. That’s a little more than the average player can do, even if they backed up the game files.
Some things are outside the average player’s control. Personally I miss Inishie Dungeon and it’s gone but it motivates me to keep studying to try and make games.
