If you are someone who cares even a little bit about video game preservation, then you’ve likely heard of the Stop Killing Games initiative. A consumer-focused movement petition with the goal of gaining enough signatures so that a new law can be proposed to the UK parliament and the European Commission to disallow publishers and developers from making games that can be taken offline and rendered unplayable.
“An increasing number of video games are sold effectively as goods,” the Stop Killing Games website reads, “with no stated expiration date, but designed to be completely unplayable as soon as support from the publisher ends. This practice is a form of planned obsolescence and is not only detrimental to customers, but makes preservation effectively impossible.”
Stop Killing Games was first started by YouTuber Ross Scott, who took Ubisoft shutting down The Crew as the match with which to light the movement’s fire. There’s also an ongoing lawsuit over The Crew being shut down, but that is separate from the petition Scott began.
When Scott began campaigning for signatures, it seemed like his first win came early, when Ubisoft announced it would make offline versions of The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest available for players. It’s unclear if the pressure from Stop Killing Games is what led to the decision, but it’s difficult to imagine it wasn’t a part of the conversation. However, no one (at least not video game publishers) suspected Stop Killing Games would gain enough traction to actually put pressure on the industry’s largest publishers and developers. That was, until Scott announced that the petition had surpassed 1 million signatures.
Even with Scott warning that many of the signatures could be faked, and encouraging anyone who hasn’t yet to still sign the petition, that milestone and the signs that Stop Killing Games was going to get its shot at having legislation proposed to prohibit video game makers from creating online-only games that can be shut down forever in a moment was enough for video game publishers and developers to collectively respond to the movement.
Video Games Europe, a collective body that represents the European divisions of the largest publishers and developers in the video game industry, and whose board is comprised of leaders from Roblox, Warner Bros, Epic Games, EA, Activision, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Take-Two, and more, released a statement that was, unsurprisingly, in opposition to Stop Killing Games, claiming that if laws like the ones it is suggesting are passed, making online-focused games would become “prohibitively expensive.”
“We appreciate the passion of our community;” the statement from Video Games Europe began. “However, the decision to discontinue online services is multi-faceted, never taken lightly and must be an option for companies when an online experience is no longer commercially viable.“
“We understand that it can be disappointing for players, but when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws. Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create. We welcome the opportunity to discuss our position with policy makers and those who have led the European Citizens Initiative in the coming months.”
Scott has published a response to the Video Games Europe statement, immediately pointing to the fact that Stop Killing Games isn’t looking to make it impossible for publishers to discontinue their online games. “We are in no way seeking to impede your right to discontinue online services,” Scott says. “We are saying you can shut down your games whenever you want, but you have to do that responsibly, in a way that doesn’t take back rights you already sold to customers.”
Even after a year of campaigning, it is still too early to tell if Stop Killing Games will actually have any impact. The deadline for the petition to be submitted for review is soon approaching, and even after that step, legislation still has to be passed. There are still plenty of opportunities for it to die on the rack. Still, it is clear that Scott has pushed the issue far enough to the point where it could make an impact.
