Stop Destroying Videogames petition heads to the European Union

Back in April 2024, I wrote about the Stop Killing Games initiative from Ross at Accursed Farms. Now, it's heading to the European Union with a European Citizens' Initiative you can give you vote to. Sorry fellow Brits, but thanks to Brexit we can't get involved in this. If you're part of the European Union though, you can now truly try and make your voice count.

As a reminder on what it's all about from the ECI:

This initiative calls 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.

Specifically, the 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.

The initiative does not seek to acquire ownership of said videogames, associated intellectual rights or monetization rights, neither does it expect the publisher to provide resources for the said videogame once they discontinue it while leaving it in a reasonably functional (playable) state.

It's a worthy cause, because some publishers do have a habit of shutting down games when they move on, leaving players with nothing to show for it even though they paid for it. Games that contain a single-player element especially should always have an option to let you continue on. It's a bit more complicated for online-only games, say for those that have micro-transactions and battle passes, but still you're often spending a whole lot of your money to be again left with nothing.

Check out the initiative and give your vote. See more on the Stop Killing Games website.

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