MMO Game Preservation Efforts Require One Million Signatures to Propose EU Law

Ubisoft’s shutdown of The Crew sparked a European petition to prevent similar closures of online games. Read on to learn more about the petition and their fight to preserve digital purchases.

EU Gamers Fight to ‘Stop Killing Games’'Stop Killing Games' Petition Needs One Million Signatures in One Year

A growing number of European gamers are rallying behind a citizen’s initiative aimed at preserving digital purchases. The "Stop Killing Games" petition is calling on the European Union to enact legislation that prevents game publishers from rendering games inaccessible after ending support.

Ross Scott, one of the organizers of the campaign, showed full confidence that the initiative could pass, stating that, among other things, "the initiative is in line with other consumer policies." The proposed law would only be enforceable within Europe. However, Scott expressed hope that passing legislation in such a significant market would encourage a similar trend globally, whether through legal mandates or industry standards.

Passing it into law will be a challenging endeavor, however. The campaign must navigate the "European Citizen’s Initiative" process, requiring one million signatures across different countries in Europe to gain enough recognition and submit a legislative proposal. Eligibility is straightforward; applicants must be a European citizen of voting age, which varies by country.

The petition launched at the start of August and has already gathered 183,593 signatures. While there’s still a long way to go before reaching the goal, the campaign fortunately has a full year to achieve this.

The Initiative Plans to Hold Publishers Accountable for Server Shutdowns

The Crew, an online-only racing game released in 2014, became the focal point of this issue when Ubisoft abruptly terminated its online services in March of this year. This move effectively erased 12 million players’ investments in the game.

The harsh reality is that when servers for online-only titles go dark, countless hours of investment are lost forever. Despite being only halfway through 2024, games like SYNCED and NEXON’s Warhaven have already been announced for closure, leaving players with no consolation for their purchases.

"It’s a form of planned obsolescence," Ross Scott said in his video on YouTube. "Publishers are destroying games they’ve already sold to you but keeping your money." He drew a parallel to the silent film era, when studios were "burning their own films after they were done showing them to recover the silver content." Due to this, "most films of that era are gone forever."

According to Scott, they would only ask the developers and publishers to "leave the game in a working state at the time of shutdown." In fact, the initiative states that the proposed law would mandate "publishers that sell or license video games 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." The specific method for achieving this is up to the publishers.

The initiative even intends to hold free-to-play games with microtransactions accountable. Scott explains, "if you purchased a microtransaction as a good, then the game is made unplayable, well, then you just lost your goods."

This has been done before. For example, Knockout City was shut down in June 2023 but was subsequently released as a free-to-play standalone game with private server support. All items and cosmetics are now accessible for free, and players can even create and host their own servers.

Despite this, there are some things that the initiative would not require publishers to do. These are:

⚫︎ Require publishers to give up intellectual property rights
⚫︎ Require publishers to give up source code
⚫︎ Require endless support
⚫︎ Require publishers to host servers
⚫︎ Require publishers to assume liability for customer actions

To support the campaign, visit the "Stop Killing Games" website and sign the petition. Do note, however, that each person can only sign once. If you somehow make a mistake, your signature will be invalid. Thankfully, their website provides country-specific instructions to help prevent this.

Ross Scott emphasized in the video how, even if you are not from Europe, you can still help by spreading word of the initiative. Ultimately, their goal is to create "a ripple effect on the videogames industry to prevent publishers from destroying more games."