In January, a petition landed on the European Commission’s desk with nearly 1.3 million signatures – a protest against game publishers who switch off online servers, leaving paid-for games unplayable. The petition, from the consumer rights campaign Stop Killing Games, triggered a public hearing in the European Parliament in April. Now the campaign awaits a decision from one of the EU’s most powerful institutions.
The campaign began after the French studio Ubisoft announced it would shut down its online-only racing game The Crew in 2024, citing “upcoming server infrastructure and licensing constraints”. The game had attracted more than 12 million players during its lifetime. For players like Chemicalflood, who had been playing for nearly a decade, the move felt personal. “I was around 18 at the time of the launch – it was a big part of my adult life growing up,” he said. “It was a great escape from hardship at the time, so it has always been something special to me.” Over the years, the game became something he shared with his children, who enjoyed exploring its virtual recreation of the United States. “The shutdown itself wasn’t upsetting,” he explained. “But how they handled it was the kick in the teeth.” For Chemicalflood and many fans, the issue was not that Ubisoft ended support, but that players lost access altogether.
“Nearly 1.3 million people sign petition against game publishers disabling paid-for games, prompting EU hearing”
The announcement caught the attention of American YouTuber Ross Scott, known online as Accursed Farms, who had already been creating content about ownership of games. “I just hate seeing creative works effectively destroyed,” he told the BBC. He quickly launched Stop Killing Games – the “killing” referring to when “every copy of that game that’s ever been sold has been disabled, and no one on the planet can run it”. Whammy4, a gamer who founded the fan community The Crew Unlimited and helped lead preservation efforts after the shutdown, likened it to “someone just breaking into your home and stealing your bike or your car”. “You buy a physical copy of a game, you bring it home and install the game, you play it for some amount of time. Then all of a sudden the publisher completely destroys all copies of the game worldwide, including yours. No refunds, no actual heads-up at the time of purchase, and nothing you can do to keep it at all.”
The European Parliament hearing in April gave the campaign a platform, but the final decision rests with the European Commission. Whether the commission will force publishers to keep games playable – or let the industry continue to switch off servers – remains the central question.