The Stop Killing Games initiative exceeds 1,200,000 signatures so that the EU Prohíba “kill games” when closing its servers

One of the scourges that ravages the world of video games today is servers dependence of companies that, at a given time, can close leaving millions of users without the possibility of playing. This occurs in multiplayer titles, and also in games of a player who require continuous Internet connection. At the time that a company, for the reason it deems appropriate, decides to close the servers, the players who had paid for the game will run out of it.

Seeking that the authorities take sides in this controversy arises the “Stop Killing Games” initiative, that would come to translate as “stop killing games.” This initiative has already taken several measures in different countries such as France, Germany, Canada, USA, Australia, the United Kingdom and the EU in general.

In the case of France, different entities on Ubisfot’s decision to close the Servers of The Crew (announced a new game and canceling the previous one) have submitted claims at the legal level), in other countries that same protest has been climbed to different entities, while for the EU there are several active campaigns, some of them seem to indicate that the video game developers who carry out these practices would be skipping the Directive 93/13/ECC.

The most important, however, is a request to the European Union to create a law that prohibits companies “intentionally destroying video games that have already sold.”

A simple solution would be to allow users to create their own servers, as many games have done throughout history, leaving users to continue creating their own games

At the date of writing of this article, Stop Killing Games has already achieved more than one million signatures, specifically around 1,236,744, and Any citizen of the European Union can vote through the following link: Stop Killing Games with the following proposal:

They are destroying video games! Most video games work indefinitely, but are increasingly designed to stop working as soon as editors stop providing support. This effectively steals customers, destroys games as an art form, and is unnecessary. Our movement seeks to approve a new law in the EU to end this practice. Our proposal would do the following:

• Require that the video games sold be kept in an operating state when the support ends.
• Require that there are no connections with the editor after the end of the support.
• Do not interfere with any commercial practice while a game still has support.

The industry begins to make lobby in this measure as it reaches more people

Naturally, video game distributors have shouted in the sky, claiming that doing that would be multimillion -dollar losses and starting to press the EU to prevent this measure from reaching fruition. Even using excuses that private servers would not be a viable alternative for security and rights reasons.

Specifically, The developer lobby “Europe Games” has published the following statement:

We appreciate the passion of our community; However, the decision to suspend online services is multifaceted, it is never taken lightly And it 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 happens, the industry ensures that players receive a fair notification of possible changes, in accordance with local consumer protection laws.

Private servers are not always a viable alternative for players, since the protections we implement to protect their data, eliminate illegal content and combat the insecure content of the community would not exist and would expose the holders of rights to responsibilities. In addition, many titles are designed from scratch to be exclusively online; Indeed, these proposals would limit the options of developers by excessively ensure the creation of these video games.

We appreciate the opportunity to discuss our position with political leaders and those who have led the European citizen initiative in the coming months.