An EU initiative wants to save video games. That actually sounds good, but former Blizzard employee and “developer type” from Twitch Jason T. Hall aka “PirateSoftware” sees a great danger in it.
What kind of initiative is this? The initiative “Stop Destroying Videogames” by YouTuber Scott Ross aka “Accursed Farms” as part of his project “Stop Killing Games”, abbreviated as SKG, aims to prevent publishers from “destroying” video games.
Games are to remain playable even when the publisher stops supporting them and shuts down the servers. On August 1, 2024, a petition that 1 million EU citizens must sign was launched for it to be discussed as a possible draft law.
You can support the initiative through the official EU website for citizen initiatives. The whole thing was sparked by the shutdown of the racing MMO The Crew by Ubisoft.
The initiative generally receives a lot of support from influencers in the gaming scene, as it is viewed as consumer-friendly. However, a well-known Twitch streamer is now sharply criticizing the plan.
On April 1, 2024, Ubisoft shut down the servers of the racing MMO The Crew and reminded gamers that they own nothing.
Who is supposed to do all this?
Who is the developer? Jason Thor Hall is a former Blizzard employee and cyber security expert who is now working as an indie developer and streams on Twitch under the name PirateSoftware. His expertise, his illustrative explanations, and his understanding of the all-powerful algorithm made his channels grow at an incredible speed.
In a Twitch stream on August 2, the developer addressed the initiative – and made it clear that he is anything but thrilled. Hall primarily criticizes the “vague” language of the initiative. In his view, this could potentially encompass all multiplayer games under any resulting law.
What is the criticism? The developer considers this unjustified for live service games, as you are not paying to own the game, but to experience the service of being able to play the game.
Although SKG specifies that publishers do not have to provide servers or resources, such a law would require them to find another way to keep their game playable. For example, by allowing private servers or converting the game into a single-player title.
Hall asks who is supposed to do this work. After all, games are usually discontinued because they are no longer profitable – not only by publishers but also by developers. The developer fears that indie studios would face penalties if they could not afford to convert their games into single-player titles.
Initiative could do more harm than good
Hall sees particularly critically a point that Ross counted as a plus for the initiative in his video: The YouTuber said that politicians neither have much knowledge of video games nor much interest in the topic. Therefore, politicians could occupy themselves with a topic they consider unimportant, thus avoiding unpleasant and more difficult issues.
However, the developer sees this as dangerous: Yes, politicians may not understand, they might not even understand loot boxes. This could lead to government overregulation. With such an initiative, you would be giving a government a weapon to march through the gaming industry and indiscriminately attack things, Hall states.
Is there a response? In fact, Ross has contacted the developer and offered him a conversation. Hall’s reaction suggested some misunderstandings that the YouTuber would like to clarify. For example, “real service games” like World of Warcraft would be exempt from any resulting law.
Ross acknowledges that he and Hall likely have fundamentally different views on whether it is a problem when games are made permanently unplayable.
However, Hall declined a clarifying conversation, referring to Ross’s assumption that he could push through a law by offering politicians an “easy victory”. The developer finds this reasoning “disgusting”. He has no respect for that.
