This past April saw the formation of the Stop Killing Games initiative, a grass roots attempt by YouTuber Ross Scott to enact laws that halt publishers from cutting off the ability to play older games. Despite the long and doubtlessly head-spinning task he’s taken on, Scott is pushing forward, this time hoping to gather enough signatures for a European Citizens’ Initiative that’s trying to get member nations to act.
“This initiative calls to require publishers that sell or license videogames to consumers in the European Union (or related features and assets sold for videogames they operate) to leave said videogames in a functional (playable) state. “Specifically, the initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher.”
The initiative so far has over 230K signatures, which is certainly a significant number, but still falls short of the 1M total signatures that are required before the initiative’s deadline of July 31st, 2025. This is important because, as the initiative’s page explains, it has to reach one million statements of support as well as minimum thresholds in at least seven countries; only Finland has met that minimum at the time of this writing.
Scott has put out a quick synopsis video as well as a much longer FAQ about this drive, and while he appears to be a bit sure the initiative will fail, he’s still urging gamers to join in the fight. “Sign this if you don’t like having things you own destroyed,” he says. “I don’t know how much more simple I can make this.”
