In an increasingly digital age, direct ownership of media is becoming less and less possible. Whether it’s movies, music, books or video games, the shift to digital has made it more difficult for consumers to own permanent, physical copies of their favorite media. When it comes to video games, countless titles that players have spent time and money on have been taken offline by publishers, never to be played again. Legislation on this issue is patchy around the world, and some companies have gotten away with just raking in consumer money unplug from a game Months or years later. However, Ubisoft’s racing game YouTube channel Accursed Farms is launching a coordinated campaign to enforce stricter laws against the practice The crew in the centre.
The growing lack of video game ownership
Ross Scott, who runs Accursed Farms, posted one 31 minute video on the channel outlining the problem and how he believes in bringing attention to it The crewIt’s April 1st switch off could lead to governments introducing stronger consumer protections for people who buy online games. As outlined in the video, consumer rights in these situations vary in different countries. However, France has some pretty strict consumer laws and Ubisoft is based there.
“This isn’t really about that The crew
According to a Blog post that has since been deleted from Ubisoft, The crew had over 12 million players before it was delisted in December last year. Even if most of these people didn’t actively play the game at the end of its lifespan, that still means that millions of copies of the game were sold – zero of which are playable today. This has become quite common in many online games from some of the biggest companies in the industry, such as when Square Enix shut down Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier in January 2023 or Electronic Arts discontinues the mobile version of Apex Legends the following May. However, Scott assumes that players won’t take significant collective action to save these games because by the time a company makes the decision to cancel a game, most of its player base has already moved. That’s why he launched the Stop Killing Games initiative, which seeks to mobilize concerned video game fans to urge local governments to collectively examine the situation The crew. The hope is that this can lead to broader change.
How the “Stop Killing Games” initiative coordinates its actions
The Stop Killing Games website Includes step-by-step instructions for different countries and regions on how they can support the cause, whether by contacting local representatives and government bodies or simply spreading the word. However, in the France and Australia sections there are actions marked as top priority, as the amount of the donation depends on local consumer laws and whether you have actually purchased something or not The crew. If you are unsure about what you can do in your country, the website can guide you to the right channels. Some global options, such as contacting France’s General Directorate of Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Anti-Fraud (DGCCF), require first contacting Ubisoft and a two-week waiting period, which Scott fears could weaken the momentum of the movement somewhat.
“Requiring people to wait up to two weeks before taking a second step can bankrupt us,” Scott says. “Maybe I’m asking the impossible here, I don’t know. This could be exactly why the gaming industry has been able to get away with this crap for so long. Because no one has the attention span for this second step. However, some of you can do it. I know it.”
The end goal of Stop Killing Games is for governments to implement laws to ensure:
- Games sold must be left in working condition
- Games sold may not require any further connection to the publisher or related parties in order to function
- The above also applies to games that have sold microtransactions to customers
- The foregoing cannot be replaced by end user license agreements
As Scott points out, the ideal outcome is for legislation to require online games to run on player-hosted servers after developers stop supporting them, rather than requiring publishers to bear the burden of hosting the servers internally. This is often the main reason for games and services being discontinued. Companies don’t want to continue hosting online servers for games that they don’t actively support or make money from, so they shut down the games entirely. While it’s unclear how tenable these goals are, Scott says an attempt will at least help ease the uncertainty that hangs over video game ownership.
“If we win, you can imagine how good it will feel in the future knowing that all your games are safe and all you have to think about is whether you like the game or not,” Scott says. “This is my vision of gaming for the future. It’s a little different than the industry. And if we lose, at least we’ll be told straight to our faces that in a democracy you can never own video games that you pay for, no matter how many people want you to. I think this will be a civics lesson.”
Philippe Tremblay, director of subscriptions at Ubisoft, recently said the company wants players to enjoy more feel comfortable not owning the games they buy Similarly, people have gotten used to not having albums on Spotify or movies on Netflix:
One of the things we’ve seen is that gamers are used to having and owning their games, a bit like DVDs. This is the consumer shift that needs to happen. They have become comfortable no longer owning their CD or DVD collection. This is a transformation that happens a little more slowly [in games]. As players become more comfortable in this regard, your progress will not be lost. If you continue your game at another time, your progress file will still be there. That wasn’t deleted. You don’t lose what you’ve built in the game or your commitment to the game. So it’s about feeling comfortable not owning your game.
We contacted Scott and Ubisoft for this story. A Ubisoft representative said the company had no comment.