European Gamers Launch Petition to Preserve Digital Game Purchases

A European citizen's initiative, "Stop Killing Games," is underway, aiming to prevent game publishers from shutting down online games and leaving players with unplayable purchases. The petition, spearheaded by Ross Scott, seeks one million signatures within a year to propose EU legislation mandating that games remain playable after official support ends. This follows Ubisoft's controversial shutdown of The Crew, impacting 12 million players.

The Fight for Digital Ownership

The petition's organizers are confident in its success, citing alignment with existing consumer protection policies. While the proposed law would only apply within the EU, they hope its impact on this significant market would inspire global change, either through legislation or industry self-regulation.

The "Stop Killing Games" initiative is currently navigating the European Citizen’s Initiative process, a challenging path requiring a substantial number of signatures from across various European nations. Eligibility is limited to EU citizens of voting age. As of August, the petition has already garnered significant support, exceeding 183,593 signatures.

Holding Publishers Accountable

The initiative directly addresses the issue of server shutdowns, highlighting the loss of significant player investment in online-only titles. Scott draws a parallel to the silent film era, where film studios destroyed their own films, resulting in the irretrievable loss of cinematic history. He argues that shutting down games after sales constitutes a form of planned obsolescence.

The proposed legislation would require publishers to maintain games in a playable state at the time of shutdown, regardless of whether the game is free-to-play or features microtransactions. The specific technical implementation is left to the publishers' discretion. This contrasts with situations like Knockout City, which was successfully transitioned to a free-to-play model with private server support after its initial closure.

The petition clarifies that it does not seek to:

• Require relinquishing intellectual property rights
• Require relinquishing source code
• Require perpetual support
• Require publishers to host servers
• Require publishers to assume liability for player actions

Call to Action

The "Stop Killing Games" website invites signatures from eligible EU citizens. While only one signature per person is allowed, the website provides country-specific instructions to ensure signature validity. Even non-European individuals are encouraged to spread awareness of the initiative to create a wider industry impact.