What can I say... The guy did a great work. And so much still has to be done. As this is just the beginning... The most twisty ways are only ahead. I'd even say, he opened another level can of worms.
I'm not praising anybody. But, on the other hand, more of such people are needed.... if there were more of responsible and determined people, the gaming intustry, heck, the world wouldn't happen in such deep sh*t, it is at right now. It would never happen.
Legally, they'd have to release the code if they aren't transferring it. And let's be realistic, it almost always gets transferred.
Transfered, or... dumped. There are tons of great games, that came before the live service/always onlyne requirement became a thing. However, if that game by a big publisher was popular, and coincidentally still is, due to community support, the chances that it is going to to be recovered, or let alone officially revived, are miserable.
Just a bad example BF2, that was so popular and widespread. It was published at so manyways. It was even available at Steam... It is still being supported by community, and had many iterations of conversion mods, many people play it every day.
But... what was and is the stance of EA? They have sent the cease and desist, to all communty modders, including both BF2 and BF2142. Justifying it as time to move on, to the new and interesting games, to new endeavours.
Heck EA won't listen, and evaluate the data, the preferences, calls of players and community. They will rather fall, digging their faces into the ground. They already have been slammed by reviews of 2042, but they just ignore the reality, and keep pushing their cr*p to everyone throat. Yes, the game might finally aquired the playable shape. But it still if far from what Battlefield. And EA surely, wont re-release the BF2, 2142, 3, or 4 for sure. Because then, their MTX and live service riddled garbage, would plummet in sales, imediately.
And this is the same fate for all EA and Ubisoft, and many other big publishers games.
Don't get me wrong. I don't like, or play BF games. But it's still an example.
You'd be surprised how much more useful this is than absolutely nothing.
But considering your tone you're not arguing in good faith.
Yeah! So many games, so many modders and communities have emerged and gone, while waiting until the tools and code to be released. But alas! The work of hundred, in not thousands of incredibly talented and enthusiastic people, community modders/developers have drowned in vain. So many projects went nowhere. People were fixing games for decades, because the original developers left the games half way, in half-wrecked state. Heck, so many games, that community told to publishers, that they would gladly carry the burden of maintenace of the said games for free. But no publishers rather destroy the IP, than let it be successful. Let alone, be shared/distributed for free, by someone, who values it.
I don't even mention the games that are not salvagable, because of GFWL code being injected and intertwisted with the game/engine cores. Now that service is long gone, so are so many great games, that been unfortunate to implement that disease.
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.
The preservation depends a lot on the will of publishers, to share their IP. Something tells me, these folks won't do any right move, even if they would be under the gun, let alone being legally pressured. They don't fear it. They know, they will find ways to circuimvent any court decision, and continue to do what they doing, and did for decades.
Many remasters are complete garbage. They either do not implement any innovations, fixes, or even degrade in features and quality, becoming the
demasters. The sole existance of these remasters, are the evidence that they've been released, because they suit the publisher's will, and not to favor the player-base.
But I agree. The people were telling companies, what games they like, and for what features, qualities. The data is there, it's on forums, communities, discords, reddit, and other social platforms etc, it's all in public access. The statistic, of game playabiltiy, is everywhere. The companies don't give a dang. They bend the market, like the river beds.
So yeah, the publisher know very well, which games are in favor, and that they could get piles of money, by redistributing old games again, without even a single change. But the won't. Because as I've said before, this means that the publishers would have to accept, that their current ideas, concepts is DOA, it's an utter garbage. The projects, that have been fed millions into, and which brought billions in return.
I strongly doubt, that EU, even if they will do everything correct, will be able, to push the law upon the game maker companies heads.
A lot of the "illegal downloading" are mainly the result of horrible services, and always of bad accessibility. Yes, the free content will be always be in favor, because it is accessible.
Surely, many people woul keep downloading illegaly, even if they will have money to buy legaly. But many do so, due to the absence of enough money, which is financial accessibility. Be it available with e.g. adjusted price, according to the income in the particular country, there would be more sells.
Music industry has a bit better situation, because there is enough of streaming services, and the coverage is a lot bigger. Also, the "illegal" downloads, eventually benefit both publishers and the musicians, as it solves one of its issues issues- distribution, and popularizing. A lot of artists become renown, because of "illegal" spread.
On the other hand, there is the service unavailability. A lot of people, in a lot of countries, could "bite the bullet", and buy the stuff, to support the devs, for legal reasons, and to avoid the malware. So far, the game services, (outside the Steam, and maybe GoG, as the biggest among accessible storefronts) are not available everywhere. The purchaseability beyond the NA and EU is significantly lower, due to wealth difference. But it is there, nonetheless.
And more and more of publishing companies, are pushing their greedy will, and make the price region-indifferent. So the gamer in third-world country, pays the same, as the one in higher-income country, is primary market (thus sets the price).
This is opposite to bein accessible. This leads to isolation of gamers with bigger wealth, making it their only hobby, dertroying the playerbase, and unity, communications, between the players. This is against the whole point of the games- to get together people across the world, to remove the wealth, age, gender and other barriers and differences. So everyone could find a joy from both, gaming itself, and the communication.
Jacking the game prices, even retroactively, makes the games unatractive, or even inaccessible altogether, for many people. It's like the game publishers don't want for their games to be poular, or sold at all. The GPU prices put the nails into the game intustry eventual coffin.
Also, the game makers, movie makers, and copyright overall, like to use "piracy" for their bad services, and erroneous decisions. They use it as the reason, for not widen and easening the distribution. And then, the regions, where the product availability is poor they us that as a shield, to bash consumers for the raise of piracy, and untrustworthiness.
It's not a simple petition, it's a European citizens’ initiative, a european mecanism in place for european citizen to draw attention to a problem. That's a bit different than your traditional change.org petition.
The code can stay close, but the thing is there must be a way, anything up to the developer judgement, for the player to still play it. Either a solo mode or a way to play it online, and there's probably other solution. Nothing is set in stone in SKG demand, every question you can have get answered
https://www.stopkillinggames.com/faq
Even a simple petition is powerful enough, if... there is a willingness to accept and exceute it. Once, THQ (as much as Clifford B and MS/Epic) was preaching, that PC users are the bane, and they are the source of piracy, and that Space Marine would never happen on this platform. One an a half decades later, the visually astonishing successor title, was released, as much as SEGA trying to beat the dead horse, and try to resell the same old game (that wasn't even developed by them) for the second time. And this esists only, because back in 2010, THQ was forced to meet the demand and execute the petition, they themselves thought is unachievable.
