There’s a fresh update from the organisers of the Stop Destroying Videogames citizens’ initiative, that being the petition asking EU lawmakers to look into the issue of publishers rendering online games unplayable when servers are switched off. Despite some concerns on their part a few months ago, the group claim that while the signatures they amassed are still being verified, “early reports from several countries” suggest “around 97%” of these are valid.
For context, just a few months ago, those supporting the EU initiative were pretty concerned that alleged faking or spoofing of signatures on the petition could potentially inhibit its ability to land in front of policymakers. YouTuber Ross Scott, a voice of the wider Stop Killing Games campaign who’s spent a lot of time raising awareness of the similarly-named but distinct Stop Destroying Videogames’ initiative, said at the time this had left the organisers unsure of how many signuatures they’d actually amassed.
In a Reddit post over the weekend, those behind the initiative have confirmed it gathered around 1.45 million signatures before the July 31st deadline. “Verification is now underway, and early reports from several countries show around 97% of signatures being valid — excellent news that puts us in a very strong position going forward,” they continued.
That verification process is set to take around three months, at which point – assuming all’s gone well – the group will be able to formally pass the initiative along to EU politicians, who’ll then decide how to respond. Just to recap, the initiative is asking for game publishers to be required to provide “reasonable means” for any games with servers being shut down to remain playable “without the involvement from the side of the publisher”.
Until that point, the organisers plan to keep working to make sure the initiative “cannot be ignored”, via the likes of reaching out to EU politicians, setting up more formal community structures, and “countering misinformation and industry lobbying”. “Some of this work must remain behind the scenes for now — past attempts to undermine the initiative have shown us the risks of being too open,” the group claim. “But rest assured: important groundwork is being laid.”
The EU initiative is one of a few irons that the wider Stop Killing Games movement have in the fire, with similar actions in France, Germany and Australia also awaiting responses. “As long as we get a major market prohibiting game destruction, I think we’ll largely win this globally,” Scott said last month. “I don’t see lots of new stuff on the horizon later. I think we either win on at least one of these or if they all fail, then it’s over.”
Stop Killing Games was originally spurred into life by Ubisoft shutting down The Crew. A fan-made revival of the racer, dubbed The Crew Unlimited, has released today, September 15th.