According to Mortiz Katzner of Stop Killing Games, the EU citizens’ initiative fighting for better accessibility for online games has reached nearly 1.3 million verified signatures. The actual tally shows 1,294,188 verified signatures, with German folks leading the charge with 233,180 signatures. France (145,299), Poland (143,826), Spain (143,826), and the Netherlands (90,413) round off the top 5.
All of these signatures are fully verified, meaning every single signature is from a valid EU citizen. The original creator of the Stop Killing Games movement, Ross Scot, also uploaded a YouTube video confirming the tally.
What’s Next?
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Originally, the Stop Killing Games movement was a product of Ubisoft shutting down The Crew. This was an always-online racing game from Ubisoft, meaning it doesn’t work without an internet connection. When Ubisoft pulled the servers, it rendered the game entirely unplayable and inaccessible, even if you want to play it as a single-player game. The backlash to this decision was so massive that Ubisoft was basically forced to give The Crew 2 a hybrid offline mode.
And that is exactly what the Stop Killing Games movement is pushing for. There are a bunch of online games out there that simply won’t work when the servers are pulled. With signatures verified and well over the 1 million threshold from at least seven EU countries, the initiative is ready for the next phase: submission to the European Commission in Brussels. Creator Ross Scott says they expect this to happen next month, in February.
The organization will hand over the paperwork, and it will kick off a mandatory Commission response within three months. This will likely include a public hearing where supporters will debate lawmakers, potentially leading to proposed legislation. Yes, there’s a good chance of creating legal precedents for consumer rights here.
This movement is directly taking the fight to publishers to force them to implement robust offline/hybrid modes prior to server shutdowns. Over 1 million signatures is no joke, and this is a huge win for games uniting in something they believe in. Oh, and since I’ve mentioned Ubisoft a fair bit here already, it’s worth knowing that they’re having their own issues with share pricing and an “organizational restructuring.”
