Stop Killing Games is a movement dedicated to challenging the legality of publishers disabling games they have sold to customers. The Stop Killing Games petition has reached over one million signatures and has prompted a response from Video Games Europe, the body that represents game developers and publishers in the EU.
As expected, Video Games Europe has pushed back against the Stop Killing Games movement, laying out the difficulties developers face keeping servers up and running.
A setback for Stop Killing Games supporters
Here is the full statement from Video Games Europe:
“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. 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.”
As Stop Killing Games highlights, players are paying for these games and aren’t reimbursed if the game is shut down and becomes inaccessible. Video Games Europe remains on the side of the developers and publishers they’re designed to represent.
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