The campaign to “Stop Killing Games” surpassed 1 million signatures, European regulators to discuss it
Last year, “Stop Killing Games” emerged as a consumer-led campaign urging game developers and franchise owners to keep older, often obsolete, games available to players. Now the campaign has crossed a significant threshold, gathering more than 1 million authenticated signatures, which is the minimum required for popular campaigns to be considered by the EU regulators.
Organizers behind the initiative recently confirmed that the petition has exceeded 1.29 million verified signatures. Reaching that level compels the European Union’s top institutions to formally review the proposal, which seeks to restrict disposable game-as-a-service models.
The movement was founded by Ross Scott, who initially compiled a list of games that were rendered unplayable after publishers shut down their servers. The campaign quickly attracted public attention and pressure, prompting publishers to defend their practices.
With many online games becoming obsolete once their servers shut down, players became increasingly irritated, especially when some games were extremely short-lived and ceased operations within months. The goal is not to keep games online indefinitely, but to offer players an option to keep playing. Many games that had been killed off were kept alive using special servers operated by gamers themselves. This method lies in a legal grey area, with many companies trying to shut down such servers even when there is no other way to reach the games.
In the coming weeks, European commissioners are expected to meet with representatives from Stop Killing Games to discuss the challenges posed by game-as-a-service products. The European Parliament will also take part through a public hearing.
Last year, Stop Killing Games became very popular among gamers, garnering millions of signatures (though only European signatures count in this context) and drawing responses from major game studios, including Ubisoft and EA.
