A few days ago a international petition voted for video game preservationmore specifically in the context of titles that require connection to publisher servers, entitled “Stop Destroying Videogames”which was launched through the ECI (European Citizens Initiative), an official instrument for participation in European Union politics.
The aim is to create laws that prevent publishers from deactivating games and to leave them in a working state even after the end of official support “through reasonable means to keep them running”. The initiative was launched by German Daniel Ondruska who aims to collect 1 million signatures by July 31, 2025so that the proposal can be examined and discussed within the European Parliament.
The aims of the petition
As stated in the description documented in the Italian version of the Official Journal of the European Union, which approved its implementation, “the aim of the initiative is to “require publishers to leave in a functional (playable) state the video games they sell or license (or the related features and resources they sell for the video games they deal with) to consumers in the European Union. Specifically, the initiative aims to prevent publishers from being able Remotely disable video games before they are provided reasonable means to keep them in operation“without involving the publishers themselves.”
We are therefore talking about all those cases of games that need a constant internet connection to connect to the publishers’ servers, who once official support has ended could “simply interrupt the connection needed to use them, destroy all working copies and take far-reaching measures to prevent the customer from repairing them”, a practice that according to Ondruska “deprive customers of their purchases” and “constitutes an affront to consumer rights“, represents “a creative loss” and “questions the very concept of ownership”.
To give a concrete example, we can mention how Ubisoft recently turned off the servers of the first The Crew, removed the game from sale and deactivated the licenses for those who purchased the gamethus also preventing the possibility of starting amateur projects to keep the game active on private servers. A case that has caused much discussion.
With the ever-increasing spread of live service games, with online functionality and so on, a law that can regulate the issue of licensing and the possibility of using games even after the end of official support is a very important topic in terms of preservation, with the hope that the signature collection will reach its goal and come to the attention of the European parliamentarians.
The fact that the petition proposal has been accepted by the European Union is already a first step. Specifically, the Official Journal states, “the Commission could present a proposal for a legal act on the basis of Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which seeks to prevent publishers from remotely deactivating video games. For this reason, the Commission considers that no part of the initiative manifestly falls outside its powers to submit a proposal for a legal act of the Union for the purpose of implementing the Treaties.”
At the time of writing the petition has collected about 125,000 signatures. If you are interested, you can participate through the dedicated page on the portal of the ICE of the European Union, at this address.
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