Stop Killing Games Petition Passes 1 Million-Signature Milestone—Now One Step Closer to EU Parliament

[Cpt.Jank]

The Stop Killing Games movement aims to preserve the ownership of video games by requiring game publishers to leave their games in a "playable state" when they eventually discontinue support. "Stop Killing Games is a consumer movement started to challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers. An increasing number of video games are sold effectively as goods - with no stated expiration date - but designed to be completely unplayable as soon as support from the publisher ends." One commonly cited example of this is The Crew, which was shut down by Ubisoft earlier this year, after 10 years on the market. The initiative, started and fronted by Joe Scott of the Accursed Farms YouTube channel, just announced that it has officially passed 1,000,000 signatures on its European Citizen's Initiative petition, which effectively means that it is one step closer to being granted a hearing in the EU parliament, which could potentially result in new consumer protection laws in support of the movement's goal of protecting game ownership and preserving video games.

According to Scott in a new YouTube video addressing the million-signature milestone, the movement and its EU petition aren't yet at the finish line. For one, there is a strong likelihood that the petition hasn't actually received a million distinct signatures, due to issues like invalid signatures caused by errors and signature spoofing by well-intentioned people outside the EU trying to add their signature to the pile. As a result of these issues, Scott is asking viewers to continue pushing the initiative so that it can continue gaining steam. Ideally, he says, the petition would reach 140% of the required signatures before the July 31 deadline. According to the Stop Killing Games Tracker site, which is not officially affiliated with the initiative, the EU petition has received nearly 500,000 signatures in the last week alone, suggesting that it may reach the 1,4 million-signature threshold before the July 31 deadline if things continue at the current rate.

Scott also mentioned that petition to the UK government has also surpassed 100,000 signatures, which could also result in the matter being brought before the UK parliament.

UK citizens and residents can sign a petition where, if it passes 100,000 signatures, new law will be considered to be brought before Parliament for debate to prohibit publishers from destroying video games that customers have already paid for.

However, Scott is not particularly hopeful that this will be enough to get a law passed in the UK, since the matter has already been dismissed by the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, with the body declining to amend or create any laws. Instead, the DCMS said that companies selling games in the UK must abide by existing consumer protections laws. Being able to go directly to the UK parliament means that the petition would effectively go around that department.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Onasi]

“The initiative, started and fronted by Joe Scott”

I didn’t know Ross had an evil twin. Seriously, it takes 3 seconds to check.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

now it will be decided how much lobbyists can bribe to get votes in their favor against.

Something like this cant be done in the US there is too much money floating around Congress against anything the People want.

 

[Kohl Baas]

Thanks for the info, signed it right now.

 

[happytohear]

Big ups to PirateSoftware for uniting the people on this one!

 

[TheLostSwede]

Looks like i signed this some time ago.

 

[Hakker]

glad that it's passed the 1 million but really on to the 2!!!!

Big ups to PirateSoftware for uniting the people on this one!

Don't know if he is so happy about it he gets absolutely roasted for not understanding a thing about the initiative. He went full corpo mode on that one and showed the wrong colors.

 

[Shihab]

Hmm. Those sought after regulation feel like they would make making online and live service games much more difficult, perhaps even deter some from making them.

To be clear: I'm taking this as a good side effect.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

As for the UK petition. I know that the UK Gov definitely wont give an F about it. Its filled with old hams that dont understand tech and gaming.

On a more serious note. All you need to look at is the way they handled all the in game loot boxes/microtransaction and legalised gambling stuff when it came to a lot of EAs games. Folks in Parliament couldnt care any less if they tried.

 

[Tpanon]

What happens when the company behind the game goes bankrupt, or is otherwise closed down and no one is left to change the code?
What happens when the entire (multiplayer?) game is build around a robust client/server model, and you want to take the server part out of it? You just change literally the entire game to fit that?

It's a lovely dream to preserve games. But I don't see this as realistic at all.

 

[R-T-B]

What happens when the company behind the game goes bankrupt, or is otherwise closed down and no one is left to change the code?

Legally, they'd have to release the code if they aren't transferring it. And let's be realistic, it almost always gets transferred.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Leave it to EU to actually care and make laws on behalf of people or consumers, in general.
Compared this to US, Japan, China, etc, where the laws are only made to benefit the rich and powerful.

 

[Tpanon]

Legally, they'd have to release the code if they aren't transferring it. And let's be realistic, it almost always gets transferred.

No problem. Here you go.
Here is our undocumented spaghetti code... of course without the 50 patented modules for video, sound, physics, compression, network etc. etc. that we have been paying other companies for on a yearly basis. Of course we cannot release other peoples code.
"Good luck"

 

[azrael]

Signed. Shared.

 

[Nostras]

No problem. Here you go.
Here is our undocumented spaghetti code... of course without the 50 patented modules for video, sound, physics, compression, network etc. etc. that we have been paying other companies for on a yearly basis. Of course we cannot release other peoples code.
"Good luck"

You'd be surprised how much more useful this is than absolutely nothing.
But considering your tone you're not arguing in good faith.

 

[Chomiq]

Big ups to PirateSoftware for uniting the people on this one!

The guy with a catchphrase of "eat my entire ass" has nothing to do with the success of this initiative, Ross did most of the good PR and helped push to meet the goal. Hell, they were at 700k signatures a week ago when I signed.

 

[Tpanon]

You'd be surprised how much more useful this is than absolutely nothing.
But considering your tone you're not arguing in good faith.

I am actually. I would love to see it happen. There are just too many examples where I think it won't happen anyway. I'm trying to be realistic about it.

 

[Nostras]

I am actually. I would love to see it happen. There are just too many examples where I think it won't happen anyway. I'm trying to be realistic about it.

I think that really depends on whatever legislation is exactly going to be written to address this.
Knowing the EU they will actually address this, but leave open some egregious loopholes.
The question is, what hoops are there to be jumped through?

 

[Macro Device]

Sorry, wrong passport. Can't sign this thing. :/

 

[Vayra86]

What happens when the company behind the game goes bankrupt, or is otherwise closed down and no one is left to change the code?
What happens when the entire (multiplayer?) game is build around a robust client/server model, and you want to take the server part out of it? You just change literally the entire game to fit that?

It's a lovely dream to preserve games. But I don't see this as realistic at all.

But we are already preserving games. Its a whole scene and it will never go away. Its also something I would prefer to do legally.

The only reason companies don't do it is because they think it hurts their bottom line. But it ain't like that at all. Look at the popularity of remasters. People will pay again for the same shit in a new coat. And again, and again. The funny thing is, it seems some companies are starting to realize this, as they bundle their vanilla version with a remaster that already gets sold at a lower price than a new game. There is real money here, not lost money, but more money, for minimal effort.

Similar things apply to piracy and 'illegal' downloading, even of music (I do think movies are exempt, they're literally a one-time affair for most, piracy definitely hurts it). Lots of music gains traction because it is available for free. Not because its behind a paywall, and this applies to games too. Heck, even companies know this when they release F2P content - pay later, whatever you like! And people... pay.

 

[dyonoctis]

What happens when the company behind the game goes bankrupt, or is otherwise closed down and no one is left to change the code?
What happens when the entire (multiplayer?) game is build around a robust client/server model, and you want to take the server part out of it? You just change literally the entire game to fit that?

It's a lovely dream to preserve games. But I don't see this as realistic at all.

Nowadays any license worth grabbing isn't going to stay an "orphan", they will be bought by another company that will handle the support. Just look at what Happened with THQ

 

[Vayra86]

No problem. Here you go.
Here is our undocumented spaghetti code... of course without the 50 patented modules for video, sound, physics, compression, network etc. etc. that we have been paying other companies for on a yearly basis. Of course we cannot release other peoples code.
"Good luck"

Here's an LLM.
"Now what, son"

 

[Chaitanya]

From what I understand this is just gets the foot through the door and the most important step will be people showing up or providing feedback during drafting stage of the legislation and out number the scumbag industry lobbyists. So best luck for the movement and I really hope it goes somewhere.

 

[ymdhis]

The number sounds impressive, but did online petitions ever reach any actual parliament in the history of online petitions?

 

[Bomby569]

Leave it to EU to actually care and make laws on behalf of people or consumers, in general.
Compared this to US, Japan, China, etc, where the laws are only made to benefit the rich and powerful.

there are definitely differences and good things, but don't think for a moment this is paradise or that the rich and powerful don't make their own weather, look at the EU's recent change to airplane baggage for a clear f u to EU consumers.


Anyway those 1M will have to be checked one by one by the countries, so 1M may not be enough depending on how much bad signatures there are. Keep signing.

The number sounds impressive, but did online petitions ever reach any actual parliament in the history of online petitions?

all the time, in my own country and in the EU in general. The UK also has a history of doing so. The Swiss are even further ahead with the referendums.