Stop Killing Games

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[EU] Stop Killing Games:

The consumer movement to stop game publishers from intentionally destroying older games with kill switches.

The goal is to reach 1 million signatures in the EU so that the european parliament will respond to the initiative that then leads to regulation that requires end-of-life plans for games to stay playable.

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EU Final Day: 31/7/2025.

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The industry's position paper on our initiative (www.videogameseurope.eu)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Vittelius@feddit.org to c/skg@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Videogames Europe didn't just release a short press statement yesterday, they also released thus much longer position paper.

Warning: Reading it might cause brain damage

Video Games Europe represents 19 European and international video game companies and 13 national trade associations across the continent.

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[–] towerful@programming.dev 7 points 3 weeks ago

I read the first bold statement on the first page, and knew that they had missed the point.

The right to decide how, when, and for how long to make an online video game services available to players is vital in justifying this cost and fostering continued technical innovation. As rightsholders and economic entities, video games companies must remain free to decide when an online game is no longer commercially viable and to end continued server support for that game

I absolutely agree with this statement.
I don't expect a video game to be online forever.
However, I do expect companies to have an exit strategy for an online game beyond "just switch off servers".

Maybe this means removing party/matchmaking systems and just making it P2P or LAN only.
Maybe this means releasing a self-hostable server.

As it currently stands, a game can rely on a closed source "black box" software that only official server providers can get access to in order to provide game servers. The moment those servers close, the game can be unplayable and worthless.
Which is what needs to be addressed.