‘Stop Killing Games’ Initiative Marks 721K Signatures Ahead of 31st July Deadline

With a month left to go, Ross Scott’s ‘Stop Killing Games‘ campaign and European Citizens’ Initiative has amassed 721K signatures as of this article’s publishing. This has been a boon to the campaign as since our last coverage on Stop Killing Games, the number of signatures the initiative has gathered has languished quite a bit and only recently has regained momentum thanks to coverage by social media influencers and the like.

What began as a challenge to publisher Ubisoft for shuttering the online services of ‘The Crew’ has since become a proposal to “require publishers that sell or license videogames to consumers in the European Union (or related features and assets sold for videogames they operate) to leave said videogames in a functional (playable) state.” Anyone whose played video games over the years will know the feeling of certain games becoming unplayable due to server closures and, whether it was due to end-of-life support or studio closures, the fact of the matter is that these games no longer become playable due to a constant server requirement.

This initiative “seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher”. And more specifically:

• Require video games sold to remain in a working state when support ends.
• Require no connections to the publisher after support ends.
• Not interfere with any business practices while a game is still being supported.

Note that this initiative is not demanding publishers to keep servers up for a prolonged period of time to a point of burden—it simply asks that they have planning and procedures in place to keep games functional once official support has come to an end. Games like MMORPGs will benefit heavily from this, as the trail that’s led us to this point is full of games that are completely unplayable and, most importantly (in this author’s opinion!), these are works that cannot be experienced or inspire younger generations like other art mediums. While some MMOs are lucky to have dedicated fans who have spent years reverse engineering code to make their games available once again, the vast majority of online-dependent titles do not have this luxury.

If you’d like to sign for the Initiative, visit the page here to do so and for more information. Again, you’ll need to be an EU citizen to sign—but if you’re not, spreading the word to help the campaign get the signatures it needs will help. A United Kingdom Parliament petition is also live for signatures for UK residents, and it’s still shy of its 100K signature goal that could force it onto the parliament floor—head this way to sign it. More information can be found on the official Stop Killing Games’ website, including details on how to take action in countries outside the UK and Europe.