European Citizens' Initiative To Strengthen Consumer Protections And Stop Planned Obsolescence In Video Games Needs More Signatures

Videogames have grown into an industry with billions of customers worth hundreds of billions of euros. During this time, a specific business practice in the industry has been slowly emerging that is not only an assault on basic consumer rights but is destroying the medium itself.

An increasing number of publishers are selling videogames that are required to connect through the internet to the game publisher, or "phone home" to function. While this is not a problem in itself, when support ends for these types of games, very often publishers simply sever the connection necessary for the game to function, proceed to destroy all working copies of the game, and implement extensive measures to prevent the customer from repairing the game in any way.

This practice is effectively robbing customers of their purchases and makes restoration impossible. Besides being an affront on consumer rights, videogames themselves are unique creative works. Like film, or music, one cannot be simply substituted with another. By destroying them, it represents a creative loss for everyone involved and erases history in ways not possible in other mediums.

Existing laws and consumer agencies are ill-prepared to protect customers against this practice. The ability for a company to destroy an item it has already sold to the customer long after the fact is not something that normally occurs in other industries. With license agreements required to simply run the game, many existing consumer protections are circumvented. This practice challenges the concept of ownership itself, where the customer is left with nothing after "buying" a game.

- European Citizens' Initiative

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/faq

Giant FAQ on The European Initiative to Stop Destroying Games!

Piracy is unfortunately NOT a solution to this problem because these games rely on central servers in order to work. This Initiative IS the solution if it can get the signatures:

✂️ Why "Piracy will save us" is wrong

✂️ "Piracy will save us" + "physical not digital" in the context of games as a service

✂️ Ross's response to "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"

How do you pirate your way around THIS?

"If there's no ownership, piracy isn't theft" pt 1

Response to "If there's no ownership, piracy isn't theft" pt 2 compared to Ross's route

Pirate Parties have endorsed this though:

European Pirates endorse citizens’ initiative to protect gamers rights | European Pirate Party

The Pirate Party of Greece on the Stop Killing Games Initiative – A Few Modest Proposals – Κόμμα Πειρατών Ελλάδας – Pirate party of Greece

Piratenpartei: Unterstützt die EU-weite Bürgerinitiative Stop Killing Games! | Piratenpartei Deutschland

Pirate Party UK: "Supported by Stop Killing Games and Pirate Party UK, we stand up for your rights as a consumer and for the preservation of creative works. Let’s demand that publishers honour our purchases and stop killing our games. #PiratePartyUK #StopKillingGames petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70..." — Bluesky

What's the alternative?