Edit2: As of third of July we’ve achieved the minimum amount of 1 million signatures! But organizers recommend as many signatures as possible to cover for possible invalidations (1.5M would be ideal). If you have not yet signed, you can still help!
Onto the post.
Yarr citizens of the high seas! The Stop Killing Games movement is still ongoing and we’ve recently had a second wind. It’s within reach!
We’re all lovers of media in here, and games currently have no safeguard that guarantees that they won’t be locked down long after being released and abandoned. If crackers help us, they can still be played long into the future, but many times there isn’t such a possibility, specially in multiplayer games.
This initiative seeks to change that by mainly:
- Disallowing planned obsolesce in paid video games. (Ex: By disallowing phone-home based DRM after the game reaches end of life. Like in Ubisoft’s The Crew)
- Ensuring that paid multiplayer games can still be reasonably played long into the future. (Ex: By releasing relevant server hosting software)
If you didn’t sign yet, there is only one month left. Tell your friends too.
Do you live in the EU?
- You can sign it here: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home
Do you live in the UK?
- You can also sign a different one here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/
Do you live elsewhere or would like to know more?
Disclaimer: Reminder post, sort of relevant since piracy movements have much to benefit from this initiative.
Have a fine day!
Either stopkillinggames.com has crashed…
Or the counter has exceeded its max possible value.
UPDATE:
We’ve done it.
Don’t stop signing up!
Get these damn numbers as high as they can go!
…
Clocked at about 16:13 UTC/GMT, or 4:13 PM UTC/GMT, Thursday July 3rd, 2025.
…
Fuck July 4th.
Gamers…
This is our independence day.
yayy! nearly there
An important reminder that if this can be enacted into law, there is a chance it would not only apply to games but also at some point maybe to all software that does not require a server to operate most basic functions (ie. looking at you adobe)
Sign it, and get your friends and family to sign it because the proposal is pretty common sense: if you buy something, you should own it.
Another reminder that if enacted, in practice this is not only for Europeans.
If games have to be reasonably playable in Europe then they will be reasonably playable everywhere.
This benefits all consumers one way or another.
More importantly though, for everything, like the comment I’m replying to mentions: If you buy something you should own it.
Personally hoping this opens the door to discussing planned obsolescence in the digital realm as a whole, from games to software. It’s corporate wild west over here.
Sign it, and get your friends and family to sign it because the proposal is pretty common sense: if you buy something, you should own it.
ESPECIALLY when it’s advertised as ownership and not a rental service.
This is mainly why I signed it. I honestly don’t care about new games, and the whole narrative around the campaign is frankly infantile, but it should at the very least be a start towards fighting such practices in general.
I’ll agree to disagree, but nevertheless thank you for your support.
Remember everyone, 1 million is a MINIMUM goal. Keep signing afterwards if/when we reach the milestone, as some signatures can be declared invalid due to errors like wrong spelling, so we need every single person we can get in the EU to sign this!
100k left
Shared the link. Hope you guys get the numbers you need 🙏🏽
UK petition has less than 5k to go!
WTF! How did it hit target already? Hope there wasn’t any bot farming involved…
Otherwise, pleasantly surprised!
Don’t think it’s bot farming. There’s a lot of muscle being thrown around and it’s trending.
Let’s gooooooooo!!!
How is that petition even valid? For example, as a non-EU citizen, what’s to stop me from just selecting Finland and entering bogus info? Does that mean as a US citizen I get to decide EU laws?
Additionally, from the “initiative seeks to…” part, none of that is listed on their website as goals. They don’t list any goals which is kind of problematic if you have an EU petition. Its a petition to do what specifically (show me a goal)?
EDIT: I just read through the Past Actions & Results of their site. Of the completed Actions, all of the them have failed. I then realized this petition doesn’t require EU to pass anything, only that a committee look at it. I feel like this is a really well intentioned activity that ultimately will fail due to poor execution. Even if the petition succeeds, no action has to be taken by EU member nations and historically hasn’t.
Does that mean as a US citizen I get to decide EU laws?
No, not how petitions work in the EU. Nominally it means they can force the EU parliament to bring underway legislation concering the topic, albeit there isn’t really a control mechanism for this. But say they do it anyways lest they lose even more credibility, considering games despite having existed for at least 50 years at this point are foreign objects to basically everyone that is the leftovers in the EU Parliament Ubisoft or whatever is gonna send two lobbyists and it ends up at at some sort of EU law that says “under reasonable circumstances video games should have to be playable after the copyright holder abandons service except if it costs them any money”
Nominally it means they can force the EU parliament to bring underway legislation concering the topic
If that’s true, why have all the other Actions failed? This is like the 10th(?) time they’ve tried and the furthest they’ve gotten is the EU saying that it is up to member nations to address.
And going further with that, all you need is 1 million signatures to change EU law? There are 449 million people in the EU. That would mean that 0.22% of your population gets to dictate what laws are made for the other 448 million people. Coming from a country that is quickly becoming authoritarian and non-democratic, that seems fairly non-democratic.
If that’s true, why have all the other Actions failed?
Cause it’s nominal and “bring underway legislation” is a catch all term. Petitions to democratic parliaments are bullshit, why would any of them care about - as you point out - a single issue thaat 0,22% of the population signed up for?
They might have to have it as a point of order for the next meeting, in which they all decide “nah, no legislation needed, shit’s fine” and be done with it. That’s how most petitions go, anyways. You cannot force a law into existence by petitions.
Exactly like you said. I think this whole thing is really good intentioned, but its just not feasible. I think if people don’t want companies to do this sort of thing, they should just stop buying crap from those companies. Maybe not quite accurate, but its like crack-addicts complaining about the quality of their crack to their dealers. The dealer knows they aren’t going to stop buying crack, so why would they change anything.
On the flipside I don’t think just boycott works, not with the way IP law is structured. If you want true archival of games that has to be put into law, otherwise eventually somebody just buys the Remnants of Ubisoft and figures all those long life SSDs aren’t worth it to keep around anymore.
I think if you wanted to do this you have to just get politically involved like in general. You can’t single issue this, there’s too many hurdles. From gerontocratic parliaments over to IP laws and a general populaces ignorance as to how important keeping history and archives is this was never going to fly. Very much a true love is possible only in the next world - for new people. It is too late forus. wreak havoc on the middle class thing.
These people aren’t involved though. They just signed a petition. That’s near zero effort. The majority of these people think that petition passes = new law. That’s not what the petition does. That’s a main issue I have with all of this (in addition to the other points). The EU committees have previously stated its on the member nations to legislate this, not the EU itself. After the committee on petitions looks at this, the most they can do is refer it to another committee for fact-finding. This is where it has always died for the reason just mentioned. The question I’d have for the people who sign this is: if the EU has stated it is not within their power to legislate this, why do you think after 3-4 asks that they suddenly would now have the power to legislate?
hell yes a petition will show them for sure
