EU Citizen's initiative to pass legislation to stop game publishers disabling games we paid for
EU Citizen's initiative to pass legislation to stop game publishers disabling games we paid for
Videogames are being destroyed! Most video games work indefinitely, but a growing number are designed to stop working as soon as publishers end support. This effectively robs customers, destroys games as an artform, and is unnecessary. Our movement seeks to pass new law in the EU to put an end to this practice. Our proposal would do the following:
- Require video games sold to remain in a working state when support ends.
- Require no connections to the publisher after support ends.
- Not interfere with any business practices while a game is still being supported.
If you are an EU citizen, please sign the Citizens' Initiative!
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I love the idea, but I can’t see it actually working. Developers would just sell even more games as subscriptions instead of selling licenses, regardless of any interactive online content or lack thereof. (Think of EA’s 2013 release of SimCity with always-on DRM, for example.) Then when they want to shut their servers down, they just stop selling subscriptions and wait until the last one expires.
The trick is to make it possible to host your own servers. Just like Counter Strike.
And it's exactly what the EU wants.
I think that's fine, tbh. Not as many customers will pay $80+ for a subscription. Then companies that sell games with more ethical business models will be more competitive, too.