The recent momentum of the “Stop Killing Games” movement, an initiative aimed at preventing game publishers from making their games unplayable after support ends, has significantly increased over the last week.
You might remember that we previously mentioned the campaign gathering over a million signatures. If these signatures are verified as authentic, it could lead the European Commission to scrutinize the issue, possibly leading to the creation of new regulations.
As I’m typing this, a staggering 1.2 million signatures have been gathered on the petition. This excess is crucial because some of the signatures might ultimately prove to be invalid.
Under the strain, the gaming industry association, Video Games Europe, has spoken out. Representing significant publishers such as Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo, they contend that the suggestions in this campaign would make game production excessively costly.
Here’s its letter, in full:
Although we value the enthusiasm of our community greatly, the choice to cease online services involves complex factors and is never made casually. It’s a step companies may need to take when an online experience no longer proves profitable. We recognize that such a decision might be disheartening for players, but rest assured, the industry ensures fair warning about potential changes in line with local consumer protection regulations whenever they occur.
opting for private servers isn’t always a practical choice for players because essential security measures, content moderation, and protection against unsafe community content wouldn’t apply, potentially exposing rights holders to liability issues. Furthermore, numerous games are specifically designed to be played online-exclusively; such suggestions could limit developer creativity as creating these games would become prohibitively costly.
In the upcoming months, we look forward to engaging in conversations about our stance with policymakers and key figures involved in the European Citizens Initiative.
Ross Scott, the YouTube personality who initiated the campaign a year back, recently commented that the reasons given for not letting you keep your purchase are weak or insubstantial.
Meanwhile, the campaign continues to attract interest.
In the United Kingdom, the petition is rapidly approaching 200,000 signatures. An initial response from the British government was given back in February of this year, stating that there were no plans to change UK consumer law concerning disabling video games. However, due to the current size of the petition, it will now be necessary for this topic to be debated in parliament.
As a passionate gamer, let me share my frustration. If you’re new here, you might not know about The Crew saga. It kicked off with this online-exclusive game, The Crew, which became unplayable when Ubisoft switched off its servers. To add salt to the wound, they started pulling digital copies of the game from people’s libraries, snuffing out any chance of independent servers reviving the game.
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2025-07-07 20:36