This weekend, the Stop Killing Games movement reached a critical milestone to become a European Citizens’ Initiative, but not everyone is on board. Video Games Europe, a trade association representing game developers and publishers in the EU, released a statement on Friday pushing back against Stop Killing Games.
Video Games Europe said in its statement, “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.”
Video Games Europe’s case is that it can be too expensive for developers and publishers to offer private servers or single-player modes in games that lose online multiplayer support, and that open or fan-supported versions of these games could present legal liabilities for companies, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity and content moderation.
The other side of that coin, as the Stop Killing Games movement points out, is that players are paying for these games. They don’t (usually) get their money back if the game is shut down, so they’re effectively paying for a product that’s taken away from them. Of course, developers and publishers will argue players aren’t buying a product but a license to access a game, but that’s not how many players look at it.
As the official Stop Killing Games website explains, “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.
“This practice is a form of planned obsolescence and is not only detrimental to customers, but makes preservation effectively impossible. Furthermore, the legality of this practice is largely untested in many countries.”
Regardless of what Video Games Europe has to say on the movement, it’s clearly gaining popularity with gamers after garnering over a million signatures for its EU petition. Unfortunately, even if the Stop Killing Games movement eventually succeeds in creating some sort of policy changes, they will only apply in the EU (and potentially the UK, as well), so publishers and developers may still be able to permanently shut down games in other parts of the world.
