The "Stop Destroying Games" petition reached 1.4 million signatures. If they can be validated, the European Commission will evaluate whether new laws are needed to save online games when they are discontinued.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/08/13/citizens-petition-stop-killing-games-reaches-14mln-signatures-likely-triggering-eu-review
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00:00The Stop Destroying Video Games petition has reached over 1.4 million signatures across the European Union.
00:10If validated, the European Commission will have to examine the initiative and decide whether or not
00:16to present a proposal to the European Parliament aimed at preventing video game distributors from blocking their titles.
00:23It is a form of kind of planned obsolescence. Many games, I can send you a list, there are about a thousand of them that we just researched a couple of months ago,
00:33where they have an online component. And that online component, when it gets turned off by the publisher, not editor, but the publisher of the video game, that game is unplayable.
00:47Those who began the petition gave the example of the online racing game The Crew, launched in 2014 by the French company Ubisoft, which has not been accessible since 2024.
00:58They denounce a growing practice that, in their view, undermines consumer protection and destroys cultural heritage.
01:05All we are asking is, when the game is turned off, so that it has an end-of-life plan. So it remains reasonably playable, we don't expect it to be completely playable with all the bells and whistles,
01:17just that the core of the game is still playable for a person who legally bought it.
01:23Video Games Europe, the lobbyist for the video games industry, said in a statement published in July that shutting down an online game must be an option for companies when it is no longer commercially viable.
01:36They added that private servers are not an alternative, as there would be no data protection, no removal of illegal content and no fight against dangerous content.
01:46They also assert that this would increase the cost of creating video games.
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