LogIn"It is our goal to have authorities examine this behavior and hopefully end it, as it is an assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media."
Ross Scott, the creator of the Accursed Farms YouTube channel, announced the launch of a campaign aimed at ending the practice of publishers "destroying videogames" some time after release. It seems that anyone can take part in the initiative, for which the YouTuber launched a website with all the necessary information.
The essence of the Stop Killing Games campaign is to bring attention to the fact that publishers are designing games in a way that they become non-functional after support ends. This means that customers who paid for these games are left with products that are no longer usable. As a result, hundreds of games have lost functionality completely.
"An increasing number of videogames are sold as goods, but designed to be completely unplayable for everyone as soon as support ends," Scott shared in the video (via PC Games). "The legality of this practice is untested worldwide, and many governments do not have clear laws regarding these actions. It is our goal to have authorities examine this behavior and hopefully end it, as it is an assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media."
Image credit: Accursed Farms
According to Scott, in many countries, there are no clear laws on publishers killing games, and the legality of these practices is uncertain. Scott's campaign aims to raise awareness with authorities about gaming companies violating consumer rights.
Scott urges players to sign government petitions in various countries to officially address the issue and propose banning publishers from deliberately closing commercial video games after support ends.
Image credit: Ubisoft
You may wonder why Scott started this campaign just now. Well, Scott shared that he had already been compiling a database of closed games by publishers, but the last push to take action was when Ubisoft closed the servers of The Crew.
The game has over 12 million players globally, which can actually get a pretty big number of reports. As you know, developed in France, where consumer protection laws are stringent, The Crew might be an opportunity to hold Ubisoft accountable and potentially influence other companies and the whole industry.
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