The European Citizens’ Collective’s petition to prevent game developers and publishers from ending support for their games has now passed 100,000 signatures and is fast approaching 150,000. At 1 million signatures, the petition can be taken to the European Commission and considered as a law.
The petition, titled “Stop Destroying Videogames,” aims to get an EU law passed that will force game developers and publishers to ensure their games are playable, even when the decision is made to cut support for any that are live service titles. This wouldn’t necessarily mean companies have to keep servers running for games indefinitely. Instead, it would mean companies must release an end-of-life patch that keeps a basic version of the game playable offline forever.
We don’t want a repeat of The Crew
While not a direct response, Stop Destroying Videogames is one of a few petitions that’s cropped up since Ubisoft decided to end support for its live service MMOCARPG The Crew earlier this year. The company went as far as dipping into users’ digital libraries and removing the game, which caused a fair bit of outrage.
In May 2024, the UK government outlined how what Ubisoft had done was technically legal in the UK. That won’t stop this petition, though, since it seeks to appeal to the EU Commission and make an impact through laws that affect countries in the EU, where Ubisoft is based.
The petition started in June 2024 and has until July 2025 to gather the 1 million signatures required. After just over a month, it is 15% of the way there, so getting those 1 million signatures doesn’t seem out of the question.
Most live service games have their time in the sun and then reach the point when supporting the servers for them becomes unsustainable. Nobody wants to wreck the planet by keeping servers for a dead game online. Not even players and video game preservationists.
However, when a game charges money for an in-game item or an upfront fee to play the product itself, many people, myself included, believe the company has a right to ensure customers can always access those products. Even if that’s just through an inferior offline version of the product.
For example, I purchased Destiny 2 at launch and have spent cash on every season pass, DLC, and expansion since then. If Bungie suddenly turned that game’s servers off, I’d have nothing to show for my money. Having an offline version that, at the very least, allows me to access and explore the worlds in the game I paid for is the bare minimum that should be expected of game developers and publishers. Hopefully, this petition can change that.
