UK Government responds to “Stop Killing Games” petition
“there is no requirement in UK law” to publishers to Stop Killing Games – UK Government confirms
Following Ubisoft’s shutdown of The Crew, the company actively removed the game from the libraries of owners. This move kickstarted the “Stop Killing Games” campaign, which aims to prevent publishers from rendering their games unplayable once official support ends. Thanks to this campaign, governments across the world have been petitioned about the issue, and the UK government has responded.
Sadly, the UK’s response to the petition isn’t a positive one. The UK’s Department of Culture, Media & Sport has stated that “there is no requirement in UK law compelling software companies and providers to support older versions of their operating systems, software or connected products.” However, the government has stated that “video games sellers must comply with existing consumer law”.
In addition to this previous statement, the UK’s Department of Culture, Media & Sport also stated the following.
If consumers are led to believe that a game will remain playable indefinitely for certain systems, despite the end of physical support, the CPRs may require that the game remains technically feasible (for example, available offline) to play under those circumstances.
At a minimum, gamers should know how long they should expect their games to be playable. They should also expect some level of functionality to exist after a game’s servers go offline.
Ubisoft’s The Crew has an open-world single-player campaign. This campaign it is now unplayable thanks to Ubisoft’s closure of The Crew’s servers. This has lead to calls for Ubisoft to release a single-player patch for The Crew.
So far, over 23,000 people have signed the UK petition to “require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state”. Should this petition get over 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for a debate in parliament. This petition will run until October 16th 2024, and we urge gamers who are believe in the “Stop Killing Games” cause to sign it.
You can join the discussion on the UK’s response to the Stop Killing Games campaign on the OC3D Forums.
