I talk about this in this thread. The short answer is likely 1 year minimum, 4 years maximum.
There is neither a minimum nor a maximum. Everything said in other threads is just (negatively connotated) speculation.
Realistically seen, I would say (guess) that The Crew will get supported as long as it has got a decently-sized playerbase. I doubt the servers will be kept alive if there's only ~100 players.
I think you're wrong about a minimum and maximum. I would be quite surprised if The Crew would be shut down this year due to the bad PR that would create and undermine faith in The Crew 2. It's true there's nothing preventing them from doing so, but I think it would be hard to argue for that if just for the PR damage alone. Even if they're losing money from keeping the servers running, that could still be cheaper than potential PR damage the same year The Crew 2 is coming out.
As for the maximum, again, Ubisoft has never had online support longer than 7 years. It could be The Crew is the game to break that trend, but seeing as how the devs remain silent about its lifespan, long term sales were low enough it was literally given away for free 2 years after launch, it seems doubtful.
Point being, while this is technically speculation, it's a guess made using all the surrounding evidence available. So it's the BEST ESTIMATE of when the game will shut down. In order to dismiss it, you need counter-evidence suggesting that the estimate is wrong. In the absence of that, other assertions are actually LESS likely. For example, if you had information about active player counts of The Crew v. player counts of Shadowbane when it shut down, that would back your claim better.
We'll never really know 100% when it shuts down until about 3-6 months before it happens. That's usually the lead time for announcing a game being shut down. So yes, you can say it's all guesswork, right up until you have 3 months left to play the game.
The game is an oversized empty world of no game players. Many people who use to play online walked away. The game is bogged down with lag and load issues.
Many times people had finished races only to get stuck having to reload their game.
I'm my case Anytime I did lobby races in California.
My game froze up and I'd have to quit and relocate to a safer part of the map to avoid this from happening.
The service was poor be in this game from day one!!
Admins didn't seem to care about the community needs.
I have friends playing back in the day and they also disliked the way cars performed.
A lack of car customization and performance options.
Worst part is this game is a joke.
This is not a pure racing game.
The Crew game is mediocre at best.
I expect the service for the Server to stop by 2020.
However I can't confirm that, but based on the lackluster performance and shortage of people.
This game is Toast!!!
Have a great day. 😁👍🇺🇸🗽
Hi players. Here is the Facebook group for The Crew 1 players (PVP, lobby race) : https://www.facebook.com/groups/274635320571811/