Latest news with #EUDigitalFairnessAct
Euractiv
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Euractiv
The Brief – Geek petition risks turning Europe into the Havana of the game world
European holidaymakers visiting Havana love to photograph its streets. Charming scenes depict the city's faded old-timers; the pastel vintage cars are a tourist favourite and transport the viewer back to a bygone era. Behind the pretty picture is a tale of economic isolation that Europe would be wise to heed – not only in the physical world but in the virtual world, too, as a successful EU petition by gamers upset at companies for 'killing' their favourite games could end up with the EU being pulled from the entire global market. In 2014, Ubisoft released the popular racing game called 'The Crew' – an online game that by May 2017 had 12 million players worldwide. In 2024 the game's servers were shut down, much to the consternation of its loyal remaining fans who sought to keep it alive. Ubisoft ignored them. Their outrage led to the 'Stop Killing Games' movement – a petition signed by over one million European citizens, earning it a place on the agenda in a consultation for the upcoming EU Digital Fairness Act. The onus is now on the European Parliament and Commission to decide how to proceed. But despite the group's good intentions, their call for legislation to prevent companies from 'killing' video games risks creating a bureaucratic monster that will damage developers and consumers alike. Most modern games regularly check in with the developer online to combat piracy – this function should be stopped from 'disabling' games, the petition argues. Then, firms should provide 'reasonable means' to keep the games running. In practice, this could mean forcing firms to eventually surrender their intellectual property – from characters to settings, including their branding – to the public domain or keep it running forever. Much like with regular bureaucracy, firms would have to devote (limited) resources to assessing the new requirements and how to comply with them – ad infinitum for any future product sold in the EU. Europeans would suffer from such arduous rules that are sure to turn away many of the small and medium-sized firms that make up most of the industry, worth some €200 billion worldwide. While industry titans like Ubisoft, with a turnover of over €2 billion, can order their legal department to ensure compliance with annoying EU rules, many firms would simply block sales to Europe. To see what this might look like, we don't need to go as far as Cuba; Belgium issued a restrictive ruling on in-app gambling in 2018 that has already had a disruptive effect for gamers. When Umamusume, a Japanese mobile game inspired by horse racing, rocked the Western gaming world, confused Belgian residents found they were barred from downloading or playing it. Instead of complying with local rules to be able to sell in Belgium, firms just abandoned the market – a rational choice when assessing the cost-reward calculation. If the EU demands a wholesale surrender of intellectual property for the benefit of gamers, firms might instead decide to abandon or restrict their sales in the EU. One industry insider called this a 'very real risk'. The truth is that Europe's games market may not be worth the effort – just three EU countries appear in the ten biggest markets and all of Europe together still only ranks third after the US, which is the biggest, and China, which is the fastest-growing. All too often, European bureaucrats overestimate their heft – the era of the so-called Brussels effect when EU rules could shape the world is long gone, if it ever existed at all. Rather than a gamers' Eldorado, Europe could become the Havana of the game world. Roundup The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Germany took part in manoeuvres off Norway's northern coast as part of a broader deployment to patrol the High North. The operation also aims to secure sea lanes and monitor undersea activity. If aviation was fully taxed... – Currently, only intra-European flights are covered by the EU emissions trading system. If this were extended to all aviation, total revenues could reach a staggering €1.1 trillion, according to a new study by Carbon Market Watch. SAFE bids exceed €150 billion – Loan requests from 18 countries under the European Commission's SAFE defence programme exceed the €150 billion available. Last Wednesday, loan interest totalled €127 billion, but this figure reflects only the lower end of countries' requests as capitals have to submit both a minimum and maximum bid. Across Europe Major Ukrainian poultry firm MHP has sealed a deal to acquire a 92% stake in Uvesa, one of Spain's leading poultry and pork producers, consolidating control of Europe's chicken market. The deal expands the presence of Kyiv-based MHP inside the EU. Irregular flights raise EU alarm – The flights from Minsk to Benghazi have raised concerns that Russia is helping to drive a new wave of irregular migration to southern Europe. Brussels fears Moscow may be weaponise migration to sow division within the EU – a tactic it has used before. Sweden under pressure to admit wounded Palestinians – Despite an EU-wide slow reaction, 14 EU countries, including Italy, Romania, and Spain, are currently assisting with medical evacuations from Gaza, according to the EU mechanism.
Euractiv
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Euractiv
Gamers flood EU consultation in push for rules to make sure the fun never stops
Furious at the shutdown of an online racing game, The Crew, gamers worldwide are teaming up to get the EU to regulate this notoriously lawless corner of the entertainment industry and make sure online games aren't abruptly pulled offline. A consultation for the upcoming EU Digital Fairness Act (DFA), which will focus on online consumer protection, is getting a lot of attention from angry video gamers. They see it as a vehicle to get the EU to force the industry to keep online video games playable once developers stops supporting them. The movement of online gamers, called Stop Killing Games, started last year after The Crew, which could only be played online, was shut down despite being marketed without an expiry date when it was launched back in 2014. Fast forward to this summer and the Commission kicked-off a public consultation on 17 July for its upcoming DFA proposal. In the two weeks since then, this EU request for views from citizens and businesses has collected almost 3,000 responses, which is highly unusual for such a wonky process. The overwhelming response is, however, no accident. The consultation caught the attention of this existing movement of angry gamers who are triggered by the prospect of the EU coming up with standards to protect consumers online. They want the new rules to also safeguard the longevity of the online games they purchase. Keen not to let this (possibly forlorn) hope slip from view this week, gamers have organised a mass response via the social media platform Reddit. Ready player EU A shortcut to explaining all the fuss is the Stop Killing Games campaign, which has been channeling gamer rage over beloved titles being withdrawn from the market by profit-focused games developers. The issue, per the initiative, is that online games become "unplayable" as soon as support from their publisher ends. This is because servers are switched off since maintaining them is no longer profitable. The practice remains largely unregulated worldwide. The pro-gamer campaign, which has been coordinating consumer responses internationally, recently crossed the 1 million signatures threshold to qualify for a Commission response under the European Citizens Initiative, as we reported previously. But Stop Killing Games didn't stop there. The initiative's organiser, Ross Scott, launched a Reddit thread three days ago to ask signatories to fill the Commission's DFA consultation too, and press the EU for rules that safeguard the purchase of online video games. "We have a new option that could get a new law introduced," proclaims Scott in a YouTube video at the top of the Reddit thread. The video goes on to urge gamers "to start protecting games you've already paid for." "We are asking for video game publishers to leave copies of video games they have sold to customers in a reasonably working state once they end support without requiring any further intervention from them," Scott explained to Euractiv. "There are additional nuances, but that's ou[r] primary ask," he added. His call-to-action appears to have worked – the Commission's feedback page shows that numerous citizens have already filled out the consultation, with several more months for it to roll. "I would like to express my support for the Stop Killing Games initiative and urge lawmakers to consider it as a relevant and worthy cause that aligns with the core goals of the Digital Fairness Act," opines one response. "It is very annoying to have games you bought with your own money taken away," points out another. Still, some gamers are divided on whether the DFA will address their concerns. "It seems this piece of legislature [DFA] is about regulating markets themselves rather than the products being sold," noted one Reddit user. The ball is now in the Commission's court. (nl, jp)
