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Express Tribune
13-07-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Stop Killing Games petition gains support from European Parliament vice president
Nicolae Ștefănuță, Vice President of the European Parliament and a representative from Romania, has voiced support for the Stop Killing Games (SKG) petition on Instagram, urging Europeans to sign the initiative. The discussion around permanently shutting down games has drawn varied opinions. According to online discussions, the SKG petition has received positive responses from many players. At the same time, organisations such as Video Games Europe and creators like Pirate Software have raised concerns about potential legislative impacts on the industry. For petitions like SKG to be formally considered by European lawmakers, they require over a million signatures from EU residents. While support from those outside the EU is noted, it does not contribute to the signature threshold needed for parliamentary attention. Nicolae Ștefănuță shared on Instagram, 'I stand with the people who started this citizen initiative. I signed and will continue to help them. A game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company.' "I stand with the people who started this citizen initiative. I signed and will continue to help them. A game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company." Thank you @nicustefanuta ! — Stop Killing Games Official (@StopKilingGames) July 12, 2025 He also stated that despite concerns raised by industry groups regarding development costs related to game preservation, the focus should remain on consumer rights and ownership of purchased products. It is important to note that support from individual politicians does not guarantee legislative action. However, according to supporters of the campaign, this marks a notable step in advancing discussions around the preservation of games in the European Union.
Euronews
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
‘Stop Killing Games' petition may trigger change to EU video game laws
The European Commission will likely have to decide whether the European Union needs new laws to force video game companies to preserve discontinued online games, after a successful citizens' petition. A European Citizens' Initiative called Stop Killing Games surpassed one million signatures in at least seven member states, which is the threshold to force the Commission to consider issues raised by the public. The petition argues that when video game makers decide to sell or discontinue online games, they typically sever the server connection needed for the games to run, effectively 'destroy[ing] all working copies of the game'. 'This practice is effectively robbing customers of their purchases and makes restoration impossible,' the petition reads. 'It represents a radical assault on consumer rights and even the concept of ownership itself'. Organisers Aleksej Vjalicin and Daniel Ondruska had until the end of July to collect one million signatures to officially send the petition to the Commission for further study. Launching 'overdrive mode' Vjalicin previously told Euronews Next that they mounted the campaign after Ubisoft, a French gaming company, shut down support for 'The Crew,' an online-only racing game that launched in 2014 and has a player base of roughly 12 million. The Stop Killing Games petition reached 1.25 million signatures, though they still need to be validated before the Commission will consider the issue. Vjalicin said he and the petition's supporters are "extremely thrilled" about reaching the milestone and "appreciate each and every signature that brought us closer to this critical milestone". They still hope to promote the campaign in what he's calling "overdrive mode" to collect "as many signatures as we can," because some might be invalidated during the EU's review. Few EU petitions have reached at least one million signatures since the programme launched in 2012. The Commission has replied to 10 petitions, while another four are being verified or under consideration. What is the petition asking for? The petition asks video game companies to create an 'end-of-life' plan for a game they have decided to discontinue before they turn off the servers that support it, so people can continue to play it. It argues that video games are 'unique creative works' and killing these games 'represents a creative loss for everyone involved and erases history in ways not possible in other mediums". The petition asks that any EU legislation also include protections for in-game features that players have bought. Industry group Video Games Europe said in a position paper on the petition last week that the decision to discontinue a game 'is multi-faceted and is never taken lightly". The group argues that players 'are given fair notice of the prospective changes,' in accordance with consumer laws. If the petition were to become law, Video Games Europe believes it would give companies 'significant' engineering problems, undermine their ability to develop new games, and could 'erode' intellectual property rights. What happens next? The Stop Killing Games initiative will not necessarily become EU law, given the Commission will still decide whether or not to draft new legislation. The organisers still have a few steps before policymakers will even consider the petition. First, 'designated authorities' in all EU countries will carry out exhaustive or random checks to make sure the signatures are legitimate. A certificate with the number of valid signatures will be sent from each national government to the organisers. Once they've received all of those documents, the petition can then be submitted to the Commission, which will hold a 'structured discussion' with the organisers. The European Parliament typically holds public hearings in the following months to help draft the EU's response. The Commission then replies to the petition with the measures it will take – if any – along with a timeline for their implementation. If it decides to pursue new legislation, any proposal will go through the regular lawmaking process.
Time of India
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The 'Stop Killing Games' initiative responds to criticism of its movement from lobbying group Video Games Europe
AllBollywoodCelebscoopHollywoodOriginalsBinge Ross Scott of 'Stop Killing Games' has responded to Video Games Europe's criticisms. | Credit: X The 'Stop Killing Games' initiative has been gaining momentum since the end of June 2025, with the movement's European Citizens Initiative crossing 1 million signatures on July 3. The success of the movement has prompted a response from video game lobbying group, Video Games Europe. The industry group disagreed with the aims of the movement, claiming that 'Stop Killing Games' was ignoring the multifaceted nature of game development, and that implementing the initiative's proposals would make game development prohibitively expensive and increase the legal liability faced by publishers. As a result, 'Stop Killing Games' organizer Ross Scott released a response video where he addressed, and often debunked, many of the claims made by Video Games Europe. Ross Scott of 'Stop Killing Games' addresses industry lobby I think Video Games Europe making a PirateSoftware-tier flimsily reasoned statement against Stop Killing Games while having all these infamously anti-consumer companies directly involved with them says a lot. This is exactly why Stop Killing Games needs to succeed. — Rin | 凛 (@TheIshikawaRin) July 7, 2025 Ross Scott's video went over the statement released by Video Games Europe, and in doing so, he pointed out areas of agreement, and areas where he believed the industry group was being deceptive or misleading. Ross stated that if anything, this response from Video Games Europe meant that movement was actually having an impact. Ross was also unsurprised that Video Games Europe opposed the initiative, as he believed that the industry group was driven by business interests who did not care about game preservation and instead wanted to maximize their bottom line, unlike actual game developers and fans. When it came to Video Games Europe saying that publishers had a right to discontinue online games, Ross agreed. He simply wanted to give others the ability to archive discontinued or unsupported games. Later arguments from Video Games Europe, however, drew a harsher response as he believed they were made in bad faith. Ross pushes back on many of Video Games Europe's claims The first major claim Ross took issue with was the idea that game publishers would be held legally liable if they ever allowed third parties to modify their games. Ross had a hard time believing such an eventuality couldn't be addressed in an End User License Agreement (EULA). Another argument Ross argued against was the idea that developing online titles with the regulations 'Stop Killing Games' was suggesting would make the process prohibitively expensive. Ross pointed out that a lot of the expenses incurred in online game development were the result of incorporating micro-services and platform integrations that could be done away with without rendering the game unplayable. Ross also argued that since the proposed regulations wouldn't be retroactive, publishers could start reshaping their development roadmaps accordingly should any of the initiative's ideas be taken onboard. Ross ended his response by admitting that he wasn't necessarily trying to convince the lobbyists themselves, but rather the average player, who might get taken in by arguments that he believed were made in bad faith. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. First Published: Jul 08, 2025, 03:05 IST Pulak Kumar is an entertainment and current events writer who got his start with bylines in Sportskeeda and Koi Moi. He's immensely passionate about understanding and analyzing the latest happenings in Hollywood, anime, gaming and pop culture. Read More 8/7/2025 3:17:7
