00:00I might be late to the party, but I have been covering this particular topic before.
00:05And there was a new development because the European Commission has declined to propose
00:10new laws requiring publishers to keep video games playable after official support ends,
00:15which essentially means it's a setback for the Stop Killing Games initiative.
00:19For those of you who don't really know what Stop Killing Games initiative is, it's basically
00:24a movement that was started because players became increasingly frustrated with publishers
00:29selling games that later became completely unplayable when online services were shut down.
00:34And the spark that started it all was the shutdown of The Crew by Ubisoft in 2024.
00:40Also, contrary to some headlines, the campaign is not asking publishers to support games forever.
00:45The core demands are very simple.
00:47The first one is if a game is sold to customers, it should remain playable after official support
00:52ends.
00:53The second one says that publishers should not be able to remotely destroy access to a
00:57purchased game.
00:58The third one is all about shutting down servers, which basically means that companies should
01:03provide an offline mode or allow community-hosted servers where technically possible.
01:08And finally, consumers should know before buying if a game has a planned expiration date.
01:13Obviously, as you might expect, publishers are against this.
01:17They argue that maintaining end-of-life versions can be expensive.
01:20Releasing server software may expose proprietary technology.
01:24Some games are fundamentally designed around online infrastructure.
01:28And intellectual property rights give them control over how their games are distributed
01:33and used.
01:33Anyway, the Commission argued that existing intellectual property laws grant publishers exclusive control
01:40over their games and that current EU consumer protection rules already require companies
01:45to disclose contract terms and termination conditions.
01:48But the thing is, publishers rarely, if ever, clearly inform customers how long online games
01:56will remain operational before purchase.
01:58And in all my years of gaming, I have never seen that disclaimer ever.
02:03Also you might say that this leaves consumers paying full price for games that can become completely
02:09unusable once servers are shut down.
02:11Now, despite the Commission's decision, Stop Killing Games organizer Ross Scott says the movement
02:17remains on track.
02:18According to our boy Scott, the initiative no longer depends on the Commission because
02:23it has gained significant support within the European Parliament.
02:26And while Parliament cannot introduce new legislation on its own, it can amend existing proposals,
02:32potentially allowing Stop Killing Games goals to be included in future legislation such
02:37as the Digital Fairness Act.
02:39So, as a result, supporters believe the push for stronger consumer protections against game shutdowns is far from over, even
02:46if the Commission is currently unwilling to take direct action.
02:49I think the core argument behind Stop Killing Games is reasonable, especially when it comes to highlighting a genuine consumer
02:56rights issue.
02:56I mean, picture this, you buy something, someone pulls the plug and then what do you do?
03:01Your product is basically non-existent and you cannot use it no matter what you do.
03:06Also, like I said before, many publishers are not transparent about how dependent a game is on online infrastructure.
03:13I mean, you can kinda figure it out if you have enough experience, but not all people have that particular
03:20set of skills.
03:22Most of people just wanna plug and play.
03:24They don't really care about the background stuff.
03:26Another point is that players often discover a game's expiration date only when shutdown announcements are made.
03:32We have seen this so many times and there are so many examples when this happens.
03:37You will see some kind of a blog post, announcement or whatever, and in maybe one month or even less,
03:44your game is basically dead.
03:46Not to mention, if you pay a full price for a particular game, that creates an expectation of long-term
03:53access.
03:54And that's why everybody's using the crew as the best example, because a game people paid for became entirely inaccessible
04:01after server shutdown.
04:02And it's very easy to see why people are upset.
04:05Also, the lobbying on the other side isn't idle at all.
04:10They will do almost everything and anything in order to stop this, because for them, this is just extra cost,
04:17because they don't really care about consumers.
04:19Because if they did, we wouldn't have these particular problems to begin with.
04:23Also, since we have more information, and by we I mean general public, I suspect many consumers would think twice
04:30before buying games,
04:31particularly the ones that have that online component.
04:34Because if a publisher has some kind of a disclaimer saying, for example, that this game requires publisher-operated servers
04:41and may become permanently unplayable if those servers are shut down,
04:45that would probably be the reason why publishers aren't eager to advertise this.
04:49Overall, when you look at things, I think the broader issue is really about transparency.
04:55Bunch of modern games are effectively services, but they are often marketed and priced like products.
05:01And that's basically where the tension is coming from.
05:04Now, if the EU eventually acts, and I don't think they will, I think the most likely outcome isn't a
05:10law forcing every game to remain playable forever.
05:13However, it's more likely to be stronger disclosure requirements and some obligations for publishers to provide an end-of-life
05:20plan,
05:20which would be a much more practical compromise.
05:23Again, I don't think that's going to happen, especially now that the commission has declined to propose new laws in
05:30order to address this particular situation.
05:32I mean, when it comes to this thing, I was hopeful, but I wasn't hopeful to a point where I'm
05:38blinded not to see or notice that things might not go as planned for Stop Killing Games people.
05:44Because publishers aren't going to be idle.
05:46No way in hell.
05:47They're going to just sit there and do nothing.
05:50And knowing people, they mostly act like sheep.
05:53They don't really care if something happens, they will rage a bit, and that's about it.
05:58Nobody is going to act in order to contact the publishers in order to get some kind of an explanation
06:03why they shut down the particular game that they were playing.
06:06But in any case, as always, I really hope that something positive will come from this particular movement.
06:12And who knows, maybe something will happen.
06:16It's just the question of when and in what format.
06:19And that's basically, that's the news.
06:22Thanks very much for watching.
06:23And as always, like, share, subscribe, comment, all that good stuff.
06:27And that's it from me, until the next one.
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