YouTuber Ross Scott has launched a petition “Stop Killing Games” as a way to fight against the shutdown of game servers. Initially, hope for the project was slim, but then some content creators stepped in to help him.
What is this initiative about? Ubisoft announced in December 2023 that their game The Crew would be unplayable starting in April 2024. The servers were shut down, and playing the game was no longer possible, even though players had purchased the game. Ubisoft showed their players that they do not actually own the game, but rather a license to play it.
This was the trigger for the “Stop Killing Games” initiative. YouTuber Ross Scott, the owner of the YouTube channel Accursed Farms, started the initiative and demands that games should remain in a functional state forever. Developers should either always provide servers for gameplay or allow the use of private servers.
To support the demands, petitions have been started in several countries. In the EU, a European Citizens’ Initiative has been launched. If 1 million valid signatures are collected, the European Commission is required to address this issue.
Content Creators Rush to Help
What is the current status? With his own reach, Ross Scott apparently isn’t getting far enough. One of his latest videos, “The end of Stop Killing Games” on YouTube, has gained wider attention.
He states that for him the project has reached more or less its end, even though he has put in a lot of work in the form of interviews and videos. The deadline for the EU petition, for example, only goes until July 31, 2025, and Scott Ross himself has little hope that the figure of one million signatures will be reached.
The rather depressing tone of the video likely motivated other content creators to bring attention to the petition. Content creators like Jacksepticeye, Ludwig Ahgren, Asmongold, and penguinz0 are now discussing the initiative and thus giving the project more reach.
The collaboration of the content creators is having an effect: the EU petition now stands at over 980,000 signatures, so not much is missing.
Under a video by penguinz0, Scott Ross wrote: “Thank you for telling people about this. If that isn’t enough to get people to pay attention, I don’t know what else could be.” (Source: YouTube).
If the petition is to be discussed within the European Commission and if subsequent legislation changes are made, there is a chance that the USA would follow suit with their own corresponding laws. However, whether and how this will happen remains to be seen.
The controversy surrounding The Crew also had consequences for the second part of the car game, both positive and negative. You can read more about it on MeinMMO: 6-year-old racing game suddenly has 35,000 players on Steam, yet is still poorly rated: “Stop destroying video games”
