An international petition for the preservation of video games, more specifically those titles that require a connection to publishers’ servers, entitled “Stop Destroying Videogames”, was launched a few days ago through the ICE (European Citizens Initiative), an official tool for participation in European Union politics.
The aim is to create laws that prevent publishers from deactivating games and leave them in a working state even after the end of official support “through reasonable means to keep them running”. The initiative was launched by German Daniel Ondruska who aims to collect 1 million signatures by July 31, 2025, so that the proposal can be examined and discussed within the European Parliament.
The aims of the petition
As stated in the description documented in the Italian version of the Official Journal of the European Union, which approved its implementation, “the aim of the initiative is to “require publishers to leave in a functional (playable) state the video games they sell or license (or the related features and resources they sell for the video games they deal in) to consumers in the European Union. Specifically, the initiative aims to prevent publishers from remotely deactivating video games before reasonable means are provided to keep them in operation” without involving the publishers themselves”.
A dirt race in The Crew
This is all about games that require a constant internet connection to connect to publishers’ servers, who, once official support has ended, could “simply cut the connection needed to use them, destroy all working copies, and take far-reaching measures to prevent the customer from repairing them,” a practice that Ondruska says “deprives customers of their purchases” and “is an affront to consumer rights,” represents “a creative waste,” and “calls into question the very concept of ownership.”
To give a concrete example, we can mention how Ubisoft recently turned off the servers of the first The Crew, removed the game from sale and deactivated the licenses of those who had purchased the game, thus also preventing the possibility of starting amateur projects to keep the game active on private servers. A case that has caused a lot of discussion.
Some characters from the action RPG Genshin Impact, which requires a constant connection to the Hoyoverse servers
With the ever-increasing spread of live service games, with online functionality and so on, a law that can regulate the issue of licensing and the possibility of using games even after the end of official support is a very important topic in terms of preservation, with the hope that the signature collection will reach its goal and come to the attention of the European parliamentarians.
The fact that the petition proposal has been accepted by the European Union is already a first step. Specifically, the Official Journal states, “the Commission may submit a proposal for a legal act on the basis of Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, aimed at preventing publishers from remotely deactivating video games. For this reason, the Commission considers that no part of the initiative manifestly falls outside its powers to submit a proposal for a legal act of the Union for the purposes of implementing the Treaties.”
At the time of writing, the petition has collected approximately 125,000 signatures. If you are interested, you can participate via the dedicated page on the European Union ICE portal, at this address.
