Gamers attack industry to prevent it from shutting down games

Gamers stand up to prevent the game industry from turning off games

Can the company take up what you already paid?

There are already some people in the world of online video games. Publishers can decide to turn off the 。 server, which will often be virtually unplayable.

“Stopゲームing Game,” a consumer right campaign, launched in 2024 by Utubber, USA, is an objection to these practices.

In January, the European Commission submitted a signed request for130 13 million people, and the European Council held a public hearing in April. The campaign that began as an online campaign is now waiting for a decision from one of the most powerful agencies in the EU.

Mr. Scott’s campaign began with the announcement of a major studio Ubisoft, which will be closed in 2024.

The French company announced that the game will be offline for more than 12 million players during the duration of the game, for the reason of the future server infrastructure and license .

For players like Chemicalflood who have been playing “The Crew” forプレイヤー 10 years, this movement was personal.

I was 18 years old. He said, “It occupied a big part of life from becoming my adult.” "It was always special to me because it was a great escape from the struggle of the time.

For many years, this game has been shared with children, and he said that he enjoys exploring what virtually reproduces the US.

"The closure itself did not shake," he explained. “How did they deal with the teeth?”

For many fans like Chemicalflood and him, the problem is not that Ubisoft has ended support. It was that the player was unable to access it completely.

The announcement from Ubisoft has attracted Scott’s attention as Accursed Farms online. Scott has already created content on the issue of ownership of the game several years ago.

“I really like to see the recent work is effectively destroyed,” he said to me.

He decided to start the campaign immediately and named it "Stop。ing Games". This killing refers to “when every copy of the game sold so far becomes invalid and no one on the planet can run it.”

Mr. Wormy 4, a gamer who established the fan community “The Crew Unlimited” and led the game’s preservation activities after the game closed, said, “Someone enters your home and steals your bike and water.”

"You buy a static physical copy, take home and install the game and play for a while. And suddenly, the publisher completely destroys all copies of the world, including your games.

There is no refund and there is no actual heads up when purchasing. And there is no thing that can do to maintain it, "he said.

Industry Reactions

Ubisoft has already defended his position in court. In response to the proposal of a collective litigation caused by two players of The Crew in California, the studio said that the customer purchased a license to use the game, not the right ownership, and the player claimed that the online service was not permanently available.

After the plaintiff spontaneously withdrawing the litigation, the litigation was rejected without any pro in June 2025.

The entire game industry is also against this campaign.

In addition, we warned that the development cost of online-only games could be significantly higher in the campaign proposal.

“We will never ask companies to continue working on servers and services.” “The company can stop at any time,” said Scott.

Instead, Mr. and his 活動ian associates argue that the end of the program should be “responsible” and that the publisher is considering the “end plan” such as updating the game to work offline or releasing the software that players can continue to run.

Live Service Games

The Crew has fired a touch paper for the release of Stop ing Games, but there are many suddenly closed games.

As the online-dependent “live service” game grows throughout the industry, this issue is even more pronounced.

In May, Sony announced plans to 。 support for Multiplayer Title Destruction AllStars.

Josto van Doronen, a game business professor at Stern University, argues that many games are built around community and online exchange, unlike books, movies and music.

“The game, especially the live service game, is similar to the digital community and is much less than a consumer experience,” he said.

However, in the market where long-term successes such as Fortnight and Call of Duty are monopolized, he explained that it has become in。 difficult to maintain such a community.

As the viewer decreases, publishers often shut down the server and press the next move.

van Dreunen says, “Every new live service game creates the end of itself.”

Campaigns reach parliament

The European Commission shall respond to the European Civil Initiative (contracts submitted by the Organization) by July 27.

In March, UFC-、 Choisir, a French consumer organization, misunderstood the persistence of purchases, claiming that some of the company’s terms of contract are unfair, followed by the closure of the crew and litigated against Ubisoft. Litigation is still in progress - Ubisoft called for comments, but not commented on ongoing litigation.

The British government has been resisting new bills.

“The company that sells games must comply with existing requirements of consumer law and we continue to fix this issue,” they added.

On the other hand, U.S. 活動ists support the California-pro Game Protection Act, which requires the publisher to keep the game playable or make a refund even after the online support has ended.

This bill has already passed the Council of California and is currently considered by State Senate.

For Scott, the way from the launch of the election campaign to the discussion in the parliament was long and tired, but I couldn’t imagine it.

He and his team are aware that it may take several years, but the discussion caused by this campaign will disappear immediately.