Gamers want to enable a bill with a petition that prevents the shutdown of games, and the European gaming association has responded.
How do gamers want to save the games? The YouTuber Scott Ross, aka “Accursed Farms,” started an initiative called “Stop Killing Games,” under which a petition was launched on August 1, 2024.
This petition aims to ensure that publishers are encouraged to offer games in a playable state even when development on the games has stopped. To achieve this goal, it was necessary for the petition to collect one million signatures by July 31, 2025, so that the European Union could discuss the proposal as a draft bill. The petition’s goal was recently reached after YouTubers and Twitch streamers came to help.
The racing game The Crew is one of the games that serves as motivation for the initiative. Ubisoft took The Crew offline and removed it from the buyers’ libraries. Even players who purchased the game physically can no longer play.
Video Game Association in Europe is not on the side of gamers
What kind of association is this? After the petition collected one million signatures, the European video game association “Video Games Europe” has now commented on the initiative (via videogameseurope.eu).
Video Games Europe represents the interests of the video game industry at the European level. It is the primary lobbying organization for the industry in Europe and negotiates with the European Union to safeguard the interests of publishers and developers. Video Games Europe also manages the PEGI system, which aims to establish a unified youth protection in Europe.
The association is not an institution of the European Union, but a privately held interest representative.
What does the association say? Video Games Europe has published a five-page statement in which they comment on “Stop Killing Games.” In it, the association explains that a bill as requested by the petition could have a chilling effect on game design.
Moreover, the association believes that the decision of when to cease support for a game should remain in the hands of the companies.
Thus, the association is likely not a supporter of the bill, even though it does support professional efforts to preserve video games.
Companies should have the right to make decisions
How does the association justify its position? The association is convinced that companies must have the freedom to decide for themselves when the financial support of a game is no longer worthwhile. The statement reads:
“The right to decide how, when, and for how long online video game services are made available to players is essential to justify the associated costs and to promote ongoing technical innovation.”
Furthermore, the association states that such a law would harm the development of games:
Imposing a legal obligation to maintain server support indefinitely or to develop online video games in a specific technical manner that allows for permanent use would increase the costs and risks associated with developing such games. It would have a chilling effect on game design and serve as a hindrance to providing such games in Europe.
For the association, it is clear that such a law would mean a significant intervention in the development phase and would additionally disregard concerns about player safety and technical security.
Currently, there are still concerns about whether there could be issues with the petition. Since it is a political process and not a petition on a little-known and unofficial petition platform, fake signatures could distort the outcome and mean a failure of the initiative: One of the most important petitions for gamers has still achieved its goal, but there could be a problem
