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Stop Killing Games delivers 'absolutely incredible' hearing in European Parliament: 'There was no [parliament member] that wasn't responding positively' (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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It's amazing what a difference a little bit of time can make: Two years after kicking off what looked to be a long-shot campaign to push back on the practice of shutting down server-dependent videogames once they're no longer profitable, Stop Killing Games founder Ross Scott and organizer Moritz Katzner appeared in front of the European Parliament to present their case—and it seemed to go very well.

Official Stream: https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstreaming/committee-on-internal-market-and-consumer-protection-ordinary-meeting-committee-on-legal-affairs-com_20260416-1100-COMMITTEE-IMCO-JURI-PETI

Digital Fairness Act: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14622-Digital-Fairness-Act/F33096034_en

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[–] 60 points 4 months ago (15 children)

Hopefully we wont see bad actors just pivot to f2p and have a few microtransactions to actually unlock the games.

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  • [–] 35 points 4 months ago*

    Some mobile games already work that way where they claim to be f2p but it‘s just a demo of the actual game with ingame purchases for the other levels. However annoying, it‘s not flat out scamming customers like shutting down servers months after release is. Perhaps devs should still be required to label it as a demo just in case though.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I played and enjoyed a game based on this principle (Dreadnought). I ran out of bullshit I wanted to buy to keep the game going. Also the whole community was probably a few hundred people at the end. It eventually shut down. Not that there would be much to do solo but fan-run servers would've been cool.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    I absolutely loved that game. I was really bummed when they shut it down but like you said there was maybe a handful of people that played it. Reminded me of EVE Online without all the bullshit.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    I don't think that would work. They could lock their games behind a monthly subscription. At that point you're paying for temporary access with clearly defined end date and thus the game getting shut down later is no longer fraudulend. At that point you just have to not be a dumbass and rent a game instead of buying one.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    To elaborate a bit on the "unlocking" of the game: It could be that you get "1000% more exp gain permanently" or "gain a crucial resource from every mission permanently, which is usually locked behind a daily mission", a one off microtransaction that makes the game playable in a sense – but it's not "purchasing" the game, its just an account feature. I hope these arguments won't hold, but I always feel that bad actors find ways to bypass rules ...

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Wouldn't work. If SKG succeeds, it would be illegal shut down the game and thus invalidate all these permanent transactions (no matter how "micro" they are) people paid for.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Even subscription games should be made playable/hostable after they are shutdown. No game should be immune.

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