Stop Killing Games: Difference between revisions

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m webservice config change on eci.ec.europa.eu
Industry push back: Typo 2024 to 2025
 
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==Campaign history==
==Campaign history==
On April 2, 2024, Accursed Farms posted the video "The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games"<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE "The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games"] ''Accursed Farms.'' April 2, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2025.</ref>. In the video, Ross Scott explains the issue with modern gaming, where video game publishers often take advantage of laws.<!-- We need to explain the topics that Ross Scott discusses. For example, what points does he bring up? I haven't done this yet as that would require me going through the half-hour video and I don't have the time just yet to do that. If anybody else could do this, that would be amazing! -->
On April 2, 2024, Accursed Farms posted the video "The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games"<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE "The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games"] ''Accursed Farms.'' April 2, 2024. Retrieved January 24, 2025.</ref>. In the video, Ross Scott explains the issue with modern gaming, where video game publishers often take advantage of laws.<!-- I wished to include a history of Ross Scott fighting to preserve games but I don't know if this is the best place -->
 
Ross W. Scott has a history of advocating for game preservation and decrying what he calls "war on ownership" for over 12 years<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=12 May 2025 |title=Stop Killing Games: A History |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlOX3wRQvUg |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=Mrglanet YouTube Channel}}</ref><!-- We need to explain the topics that Ross Scott discusses. For example, what points does he bring up? I haven't done this yet as that would require me going through the half-hour video and I don't have the time just yet to do that. If anybody else could do this, that would be amazing! -->


===UK Parliament petition===
===UK Parliament petition===
On April 16, 2024, a UK Parliament petition titled "Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state"<ref name=":0">[https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/659071 "Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state"] ''UK Parliament Petitions.'' December 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2025.</ref> began collecting signatures. The petition intended to create laws to prevent publishers from removing the ability to play games after purchase. The petition was subsequently closed on May 30, 2024 due to the UK general elections<ref name=":0" />, preventing further signatures. It reached 27,341 signatures and was originally scheduled to close on October 16, 2024<ref>[https://www.gamesindustry.biz/uk-government-responds-to-stop-killing-games-campaign "UK government responds to Stop Killing Games campaign"] ''Games Industry.'' May 15, 2024. Retrieved on January 24, 2025.</ref>.
On April 16, 2024, a UK Parliament petition titled "Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state"<ref name=":0">[https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/659071 "Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state"] ''UK Parliament Petitions.'' December 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2025.</ref> began collecting signatures. The petition intended to create laws to prevent publishers from removing the ability to play games after purchase. The UK government answered on May 2, 2024 but the petitions committee requested Government to revise their response<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 May 2024 |title=UK Original petition: Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state |url=https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/659071 |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=UK Parliament Petitions (archive)}}</ref> .  The petition was subsequently closed on May 30, 2024 due to the UK general elections<ref name=":0" />, preventing further signatures. It reached 27,341 signatures and was originally scheduled to close on October 16, 2024<ref>[https://www.gamesindustry.biz/uk-government-responds-to-stop-killing-games-campaign "UK government responds to Stop Killing Games campaign"] ''Games Industry.'' May 15, 2024. Retrieved on January 24, 2025.</ref>.


On January 14, 2025, Lewis Evans created a petition titled "Prohibit publishers irrevocably disabling video games they have already sold"<ref name=":1">[https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/ "Prohibit publishers irrevocably disabling video games they have already sold"] ''UK Parliament Petitions.'' January 14, 2025. Retrieved January 24, 2025.</ref>  closely following the prematurely closed petition in 2024. It is yet to receive a government response and is due for one on January 30.
On January 14, 2025, Lewis Evans created a petition titled "Prohibit publishers irrevocably disabling video games they have already sold"<ref name=":1">[https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/ "Prohibit publishers irrevocably disabling video games they have already sold"] ''UK Parliament Petitions.'' January 14, 2025. Retrieved January 24, 2025.</ref>  closely following the prematurely closed petition in 2024. It is yet to receive a government response and is due for one on January 30. Ross Scott published a video listing the events of the original petition, the government response and the creation of new petition<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 Jan 2025 |title=Stop Killing Games: UK Edition |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQnZ91mUB0E |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=Accursed Farms}}</ref>


On February 3, 2025, The UK Government responded to the Petition, “There are no plans to amend UK consumer law on disabling video games. Those selling games must comply with existing requirements in consumer law, and we will continue to monitor this issue.”<ref name=":1" /> As of July 2nd, 2025, the petition reached the goal of 100,000 signatures to be considered for debate in the UK Parliament.
On February 3, 2025, The UK Government responded to the Petition, “There are no plans to amend UK consumer law on disabling video games. Those selling games must comply with existing requirements in consumer law, and we will continue to monitor this issue.”<ref name=":1" /> As of July 2nd, 2025, the petition reached the goal of 100,000 signatures to be considered for debate in the UK Parliament.
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For a European citizens' initiative to be valid, it must obtain at least one million valid signatures and meet the minimum thresholds in at least seven countries. The deadline of the initiative is on July 31, 2025. As of June 25th, 2025, there are over 500,000 signatures and the threshold has passed for over ten countries.
For a European citizens' initiative to be valid, it must obtain at least one million valid signatures and meet the minimum thresholds in at least seven countries. The deadline of the initiative is on July 31, 2025. As of June 25th, 2025, there are over 500,000 signatures and the threshold has passed for over ten countries.


since July 3, access to the website eci.ec.europa.eu seem to be restricted to visitors that are outside of the EU, (999,472 counted)
As of July 3, 2025, the European campaign has reached its goal of 1,000,000 signatures.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stop Destroying Videogames |url=https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250703072953/https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home |archive-date=2025-07-03 |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=European Union Online Collection System}}</ref>
the webserver just replies a 403 policy_denied.
 
===Industry push back===
On July 4, 2025, one day after the campaign reaching 1,000,000 signature Video Games Europe, an industry lobby group, released an statement on Stop Killing Games<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 Jul 2025 |title=Statement on Stop Killing Games |url=https://www.videogameseurope.eu/news/statement-on-stop-killing-games/ |access-date=2025-07-09 |website=Videogames Europe}}</ref> on their website and published a 5-page position paper<ref>{{Cite web |title=Why providing continued support do not work for all games |url=https://www.videogameseurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/VGE-Position-Discontinuation-of-Support-to-Online-Games-04072025.pdf |access-date=2025-07-09 |website=Videogames Europe}}</ref> against the campaign where it outline perceived problems seen by the industry even though some of those perceived problems were already clarified by the lengthy FAQ section provided by the campaign.
 
Video Games Europe response is not only unsurprising but also expected since their board is composed by major publishers like EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony and they see no problem in how the industry works today.


==Video game preservation==
==Video game preservation==