Video Games Europe has released a statement following the successful ‘Stop Killing Games’ movement, which has passed over one million signatures.
The ‘Stop Killing Games’ campaign has surpassed 1.2 million signatures at the time of writing, which aims to stop publishers from taking games offline.
The campaign’s creator, Ross Scott, argues that the practice is “a form of planned obsolescence and is not only detrimental to customers, but makes preservation effectively impossible. Furthermore, the legality of this practice is largely untested in many countries.”
Following the campaign smashing the record, Video Games Europe has issued the following statement:
“We appreciate the passion of our community; however, the decision to discontinue online services is multi-faceted, never taken lightly and must be an option for companies when an online experience is no longer commercially viable. We understand that it can be disappointing for players but, when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws.
Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss our position with policy makers and those who have led the European Citizens Initiative in the coming months.”
For those wanting to sign the petition to Stop Killing Games, you can do so here.
What do you think of Video Games Europe’s response? Let us know through the Insider Gaming forum today!
For more news, check out Edward Kenway’s voice actor hinting at the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remake, and the Rogue Prince of Persia being rated in Australia for consoles.
Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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