Ross Scott, best known for his YouTube channel Accursed Farms and the Freeman’s Mind series, has launched a worldwide initiative called Stop Killing Games. Its main goal is to raise awareness and make publishers stop destroying video games after discontinuing their support.
Ross Scott
Scott announced the Stop Killing Games campaign in a new video. He pointed out that as more games nowadays rely on publisher-controlled servers, more titles than ever are at risk of becoming unplayable if a company decides to abandon them.
Here is Scott’s rationale behind launching the initiative, explaining why he thinks players should care about publishers killing video games:
“While videogames are primarily just for entertainment and not of much consequence, the practice of a seller destroying a product someone has already paid for represents a radical assault on consumer rights and even the concept of ownership itself. If this practice is not stopped, it may be codified into law and spread to other products of more importance over time, such as agricultural equipment, educational products, medical devices, etc. It is important [that] consumers maintain a basic level of rights so as not to be overrun by predatory practices. Additionally, videogames are unique creative works. The concept of destroying every existing copy of a book, song, film, etc. would be considered a cultural loss for society. While a less recognized medium, videogames still deserve to have basic protections against the complete and willful destruction of many of its works.”
He has been studying this issue for a while, but a starting point for the Stop Killing Games campaign was the shutdown of The Crew. Back in December, Ubisoft announced that the game’s servers will stop working on April 1. With 12 million players across the globe, there is a chance of raising awareness of the broader issue and perhaps making government around the world examine this practice in the industry.
“If we can find even one major country to penalize this practice, that might fix everything,” Scott explained. “If a company knows they have to let you keep your game in one country, they may as well make it a global policy because then they’ve already done the work. It really could take just one victory to end this.”
In addition, France, where Ubisoft is headquartered, has strong consumer protection laws, so if the initiative succeeds, this may launch a chain of events and become a precedent.
In his video, Scott also shared a list of games killed by various publishers over the years. A portion of it can be seen in the screenshots below.
Image credit: Accursed Farms
To unite gamers and help them take action, Scott launched the Stop Killing Games website, which contains a detailed FAQ and is translated into 15 languages. Every person willing to participate can select their country and see a list of options available. For example, those who don’t own The Crew can sign an official citizens’ initiative sent directly to their government, which should be more effective than web petitions on platforms like Change.org.
Options available for gamers based in the EU
Scott underlined that he doesn’t want publishers to support games forever. Instead, he is asking to let people still play games. He cited several examples of companies not making online-only titles unplayable once their servers shut down, with Sony allowing to play single-player modes of Gran Turismo Sport or Velan Studios letting users run private servers.
Game preservation is a serious issue in the industry. For example, a study conducted by the Video Game History Foundation showed that only 13.27% of classic video games published in the US are currently available for purchase.
In his video, Scott concluded that as far as he knows, “no one has ever challenged the legality of game destruction and certainly no one has attempted it on this scale.”