Stop Killing Games, a “consumer movement started to challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers,” has been picking up speed recently. It recently hit one million signees on its European Citizens’ Initiative petition, the minimum amount it needs for the European Commission to officially respond to it. Now, the EU lobbying association Video Games Europe has offered its own statement arguing against the Stop Killing Games movement.
“We appreciate the passion of our community; 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,” the statement reads on Video Games Europe’s website. “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.”
Video Games Europe also released a position paper going into more detail as to why it’s against the Stop Killing Games movement.
For some context, Stop Killing Games does have a lengthy FAQ section that addresses some of the concerns laid out by Video Games Europe.
The Stop Killing Games movement started last year, led by YouTuber Ross Scott, as a result of Ubisoft deciding to shut down the servers for The Crew in March 2024 (Ubisoft is also facing a lawsuit due to this decision). Some other big examples of big games going offline since then include the hero shooter everyone loved to dunk on, Concord, and it was announced just last week that servers for BioWare’s Anthem will be shutting down next January.
The petition’s deadline ends later this month on July 31, so the results of any legal decisions if the European Commission decides to proceed with investigating the issue are likely years away.
