We've all been there right? You paid for a game, it required an active internet connection and a couple of years later the publisher decided they're done with it and shut it down leaving you with a broken game. Annoying.
Very annoying. It repeatedly happens, mostly AAA publishers that do it and their games are often quite expensive too. One of the most recent is The Crew from Ubisoft, a game that until late December last year cost £25.99. The developers at Ubisoft Ivory Tower announced on December 14th that as of March 31st, 2024 the servers would be shut down and so it will no longer be playable for anyone. The Crew 2 is still online, and Ubisoft are about to launch The Crew Motorfest on Steam on April 18th.
So now YouTuber Ross Scott of Accursed Farms, has launched the Stop Killing Games campaign to try and better highlight the issue. As noted on the campaign website: "An increasing number of videogames are sold as goods, but designed to be completely unplayable for everyone as soon as support ends. The legality of this practice is untested worldwide, and many governments do not have clear laws regarding these actions. It is our goal to have authorities examine this behavior and hopefully end it, as it is an assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media. We are pursuing this in two ways:"
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It's definitely an interesting and often frustrating issue, especially for games that could seemingly continue to let you play offline without too much trouble. It's a complicated issue though, and the campaign might not end up going anywhere, but it's certainly going to be interesting to watch.
Unquestionably a campaign I can get behind though, because I've said for years it's a really poor situation for consumers to have your purchase suddenly stop working forever that you've not just put money into but often a ton of your time. It's a question of preservation too, the games are just — gone. I miss the days where you could just host your own server.
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Mountain Man Apr 3
This is not going to be a popular response, but if it's made clear to the customer up front that a game is being offered as a service with no guarantee of continued support, and the customer buys it with this knowledge, then a company has no moral or legal obligation to make that game playable in the event the servers are taken offline, and I don't believe they should be legally forced to any more than a streaming video service should be forced to make all of their content available in perpetuity.
The correct solution is to try and convince consumers to stop buying those kinds of products (good luck), and market forces will naturally take care of the rest.
The correct solution is to try and convince consumers to stop buying those kinds of products (good luck), and market forces will naturally take care of the rest.
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Mountain Man Apr 4
Quoting: finaldest100% behind this.The solution is simple: if a game is sold as a service, or as a code in box, and you don't want to support it with your money, then don't. There's no need for the government to get involved and make things worse, as governments notoriously do.
I want to see legislation put in place to make it illegal to take away access from a game after purchase and also bring in legislation to allow re sale of digital games.
I would also like to see physical releases with a download code banned. If I buy a physical copy then I want a fully offline playable game on the disk.
If the online multiplayer servers of a game is shut down then the games online portion should be open sourced to allow preservation.
If publishers abandon a game by not releasing a game for active purchase on any platform then that game should be considered abandonware and thus be put into public domain.
We need to fight back.
What's not so simple is asking a company to release code that they may not have the legal right to release as open source. In the case of "abandonware", the game may include licensed art and music that the respective owners haven't abandoned and can not be put into public domain.
As is usual in these kinds of debates, idealism is often in direct conflict with reality.
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Quoting: slackSorry, I see it differently. It's one thing what you think you're buying and another thing what you're paying for. In my opinion, you can never buy a game because it will always be the property of its creator. In reality you are only paying for the legitimate right to use it, with permission of its creator. You cannot resell it, nor rent it, nor make any business with that right without the permission of the creator of the game. So the creator (let's assume that the creator is the owner of the rights), at any time he chooses, can stop supporting the game.
It seems to me that if you know what you are paying for, the disappointment is less.
While this holds true for electronic 'works' in general, what I really find irritating is that for all the media (written word, music, video, games, etc) the rights management and commertialization stems from the editorial tradition. In that (until very recently), creators have to put up with publishers to get their works known and distributed. For the longest time self publishing has been (and still is in most cases) simply way too expensive. And is in that paradigm that these mega corporations got to the position we currently are. I really, really despise the model and paradigm, alas I do reckon that it has been (and for many still is) the only way to distribute works.
(In the context of gaming...) Alas, in the face of the imminent extintion of physical forms (media) for games (consoles being the last bastion), all electronic 'gaming works' are subject to these practices. A paradigm shift must occur if there is any hope to stop this from happening, and most likely, it will only happen if the gaming community also changes consumption habits of games... Campaigns like this may render the situation a tad more visible, but most likely will do little for shifting consumption habits.
At this point seems very unlikely that the industry at large would do anything in favor of the gamers, and indeed it would seem like the only plausible cause of action would be via legislation, and that may even prove difficult.
So yes, the only way to avoid dissapoitment is to avoid buying.
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Quoting: ThetargosA paradigm shift must occur if there is any hope to stop this from happening, and most likely, it will only happen ifthe revolution comes and capitalism is thrown into the dustbin of history . . .
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyThis is very much reminding me of that Cory Doctorow story Unauthorized Bread, which of course isn't in any way a satirical call to action on all this stuff.Thanks SO much for linking to this one, PLG.
I just read the whole thing, gripped until the end, whilst eating some leftovers for breakfast that, thankfully, I was allowed by my non-smart appliances to keep and consume however I wished. Excellent read, and disquietingly close to the present-day - well worth the time.
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Quoting: Mountain ManThe solution is simple: if a game is sold as a service, or as a code in box, and you don't want to support it with your money, then don't. There's no need for the government to get involved and make things worse, as governments notoriously do.
Quoting: Mountain ManAs is usual in these kinds of debates, idealism is often in direct conflict with reality.
Yeah totally crazy how some people put 100% faith in the free market magically resolving all issues on its own...
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Mountain Man Apr 4
Quoting: TheodisQuoting: Mountain ManThe solution is simple: if a game is sold as a service, or as a code in box, and you don't want to support it with your money, then don't. There's no need for the government to get involved and make things worse, as governments notoriously do.
Quoting: Mountain ManAs is usual in these kinds of debates, idealism is often in direct conflict with reality.
Yeah totally crazy how some people put 100% faith in the free market magically resolving all issues on its own...
The best way to get a company's attention is to hit them where it hurts: their profit margin. The problem here is that I don't think there are enough people who really care about this. When a game goes offline, the majority of folks will just shrug their shoulders and move on to the next one, so companies have no incentive to change. It's why "free to play" continues to be so popular -- and profitable -- despite the games themselves being objectively terrible. Another case where idealism runs face first into reality.
Since the only thing you have any real control over is your own behavior, then the best solution is to not support companies that employ business practices you happen to disagree with.
Last edited by Mountain Man on 5 April 2024 at 12:48 pm UTC
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The problem will never be solved until it is required by law for ALL software to be open sourced at no longer than ten years from date of first sale. Simple as.
Once that is international law by treaty corporate can shut whatever down whenever and in a few years the community will have the code to resurrect it at their own expense. Honestly the EU by itself could make this happen because their consumer protection courts seem to actually do something every now and again.
Also, software needs to be relocated from copyright to patent law. Basically we handle intellectual property protection completely wrong.
Last edited by jarhead_h on 5 April 2024 at 6:33 am UTC
Once that is international law by treaty corporate can shut whatever down whenever and in a few years the community will have the code to resurrect it at their own expense. Honestly the EU by itself could make this happen because their consumer protection courts seem to actually do something every now and again.
Also, software needs to be relocated from copyright to patent law. Basically we handle intellectual property protection completely wrong.
Last edited by jarhead_h on 5 April 2024 at 6:33 am UTC
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I just choose another games more often aan refund games if I notice it needs online connection. Since EA purchased Codemasters most racing games require constant online connection. I couldn't play F1 23 for months because I couldn't login to EA (because of a bug in the game) even though I purchased it true Steam. I'm just done with that crap. I'm playing more and more old roms and classic games that can be played offline. I also cancelled all subscriptions like PSN and Xbox Game Pass. It just gets too expensive. The market is destroying itself. Luckily there are enough oldies to enjoy. Sadly I also have many Xbox 360 games and that store will close soon as well. Updates were offered as dlc, so many games won't be able to update anymore. It is the dead of a whole generation.
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