this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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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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[–] Allero@lemmy.today 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

This is actually addressed as well. The initiative doesn't oblige currently developed or already released games to have such features, as it recognizes all the financial/legal complications that may arise. It only concerns future games, and refers to the experience of many old games being initially designed with player servers in mind, rendering it possible to play them even now.

It is absolutely possible and normal to do this, and it's really only the recent practice to act otherwise, which is why Stop Killing Games arose just now.

That being said, of course this decision would affect the developer's bottom line. First, as another commenter mentioned, they won't be able to push new games so aggressiely if players can stick to the old one, forcing them to focus on quality and originality of content, which are both more expensive. Second, publishing server code renders them unable to break licenses and steal server code, forcing to make in-house solutions or compromise with open-source. This is, by the way, why Microsoft only now opened the code of MS-DOS - it waited until all the potential lawsuits on IP infringement are expired.

Stop Killing Games will force more transparency, and developers hate that, because they don't want to admit they manipulated players and broke the law to get here. But they should never have done either in the first place.

[–] CannedYeet@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What law is a developer breaking when they shut down an old game?

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago

None, and that's subject to change by Stop Killing Games.

By breaking the law, I meant stealing IP of others and obfuscating the code so that no one would find out.