While the Stop Killing Games initiative seemed to have come to a standstill, it is once again gaining momentum thanks to social media and coverage by gaming outlets.
Ross Scott’s campaign and European Citizens’ Initiative is aimed at preventing developers from pulling the plug on games they no longer want to develop and support. You probably know the feeling when your favorite, say, MMO or online-based game gets shutdown by the developer and you are no longer able to play it.
Stop Killing Games was born as a response to one of the biggest shutdown controversies of recent times when Ubisoft pulled the plug on The Crew, rendering it completely unplayable for the game’s owners. Naturally, this is just one such occurrence, as many other games have died in the past. Only a few were resurrected once fans got their hands on the source code and were able to somehow revive these titles.
This is what Stop Killing Games stipulates:
- Video games sold are required to remain in a working state even after dev support ends.
- No connections to the publisher should be required after support ends.
- There should be no interferences and tampering with any business practices as long a given game is still being supported.
It’s not that the publishers and developers are to be required to ceaselessly keep servers up and running, but they should plan ahead to ensure that their games are still working after they decide to cease support.
If you’d like to sign the Stop Killing Games initiative, click here for more information. This applies to EU citizens only, though, but you might help spread the word even if you’re not based in the EU or the UK.