Stop Killing Games

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[EU] Stop Killing Games:

The consumer movement to stop game publishers from intentionally destroying older games with kill switches.

The goal is to reach 1 million signatures in the EU so that the european parliament will respond to the initiative that then leads to regulation that requires end-of-life plans for games to stay playable.

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EU Final Day: 31/7/2025.

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We Need to Protect Our Games From Publishers! (infosec.pub)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/skg@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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[–] Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Is there a good read/video about what exactly the movement wants? I looked through the side bar, and I understand that companies ending support for online only games seems to be the big problem

My question is: What does a solution for that look like? Forever servers aren't feasible in any capacity, especially if a company wants to make a sequel.

Any links/info would be greatly appreciated!

[–] blueryth@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

The FAQ explains this with a few existing examples.

This isn't about running a game indefinitely, but laying out a plan in which the game is still playable by users after the developer ceases support. Games are so varied, so the end-of-life plan may include a lot of different solutions, but here's a few ideas:

Remove online service checks, considering there aren't servers anyways. This works for games that are largely playable in an offline capacity regardless.
Release server binaries or source. There's a lot of this already either with existing or RE'd servers. Any MMO with a private server is a good example.
Transition gameplay to offline modes. This is a lot more involved, but has been done before.

This isn't about burdening the developers, though all solutions do have developer impact. This is more so about requiring developers to consider the full life time of the product. I'm a developer that has only worked on live-service games. I have very little to show to anyone without a time machine.

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