‘Stop Killing Games’ creates an NGO in Europe and another in the United States to stop the “destruction of video games”

The European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Stop Killing Games’ (‘Stop the destruction of video games’) has announced the foundation of two NGOsone in the European Union and another in the United States, which will work to prevent development companies from making it impossible to access video games, in case their servers are closed.

‘Stop Killing Games’ is a campaign that seeks solve “planned obsolescence” of video games that, despite not having “a declared expiration date”, lead them to disappear, without the possibility of continuing to play or preserving them when the servers are closed, as specified on its website.

That is, the campaign denounces that although there are video games that are sold without an explicit expiration date, they are designed to cease to be playable when support ceases, since with the acquisition of the digital product you only obtain a license to use, not ownership. “This practice is a form of planned obsolescence and is not only harmful to customers, but makes preservation effectively impossible,” the initiative states on its website.

Within this framework, ‘Stop Killing Games’ began to act internationally in April 2024 to fight against these types of practices, carrying out various actions to stop “the issue of challenging the legality of publishers by destroying video games that they have already sold.”

Now, the content creator and founder of the initiative Ross Scotthas explained in a YouTube video the next steps of ‘Stop Killing Games’, which go through the creation of two NGOsin Europe and the United States, for “keep the pressure” to video game companies in the long term, as well as working for a potential expansion to other regions.

In addition, they are preparing a 500 page legal document to analyze the legality of this type of practices within the sector, which will cover the challenges and opportunities posed by the protection of video games as cultural assets.

Previously, ‘Stop Killing Games’ has already made great progress in its initiative in Europe, since last September they managed to gather 1.45 million signatures to access the legislative route and for both the European Commission and the European Parliament to evaluate the proposal.