A campaign calling on publishers to ensure that purchased video games remain functional after support ends has received more than 1.4 million signatures.
Thanks to the campaign, players made it clear that they want more than just new games. Stop killing games players are calling for games they paid for to not disappear from the scene just because the publisher shuts down servers or stops support. The initiative arose after the servers were shut down in Crew and titles with a similar scenario.
The petition, registered as the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), exceeded its target 1,000,000 signatures and in July 2025 it reached approx. 1.4 million. At the same time, the British version of the petition has passed the 100,000 signature mark, which means it will be discussed in the UK Parliament.
However, the UK government already announced at the beginning of the year that “has no plans to change consumer protection laws regarding digital obsolescence”“despite the fact that he intends to address this issue.
The initiative encourages publishers to plan games from the very beginning. “outdated” version – for example, the possibility of an offline mode or hosting private servers, instead of making the game unplayable after the official servers are closed.
If the petition is properly verified (at least 1,000,000 valid signatures from seven EU countries), the European Commission usually has 6 months to publicly respond or comment on next steps.
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Source : Zing
