Yesterday, the Stop Killing Games movement reached 1 million supporters. And in just a few hours, the European Gaming Industry Lobby responded to it. So, let’s take a look at what they had to say.

Video Games Europe is a group that speaks for the video game industry in Europe. It works on things like rules for games, keeping players safe, supporting game culture, and helping the industry grow. It started in 1998 and is based in Brussels. The group includes trade organizations from about 15 countries, as well as big gaming companies like EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Microsoft, Riot, and Activision Blizzard.

Here’s the full quote regarding future game preservation, coming directly from VGE.

“We appreciate the passion of our community; however, the decision to discontinue online services is multi-faceted, never taken lightlyand must be an option for companies when an online experience is no longer commercially viable. We understand that it can be disappointing for players but, when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws. Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.”

VGE shared a 5-page PDF. Make sure to check it out. In short, it mostly repeats things you may already know. It also explains why it’s hard to add an offline mode or keep an online game running after official support ends.

It’s important to know that Video Games Europe (VGE) is not part of the European Union, like the European Commission or Parliament. VGE works for video game companies, not for the government or for players. So, it’s no surprise they answered the way they did. Their board includes people from big companies like Warner Bros, EA, Activision, and Nintendo. That means they will always try to protect what’s best for their companies. Simply put, they mostly care about business, not players. After all, these are the same companies that led to the creation of the Stop Killing Games movement.

In short, this is a nothing-burger. This statement is neither a positive nor a negative thing. It also does not undermine the purpose of Stop Killing Games. So, it will be interesting to see how the European Union will respond to it.

For the time being, consumers can only vote with their wallets. If you don’t like these online practices, you should simply avoid buying online-only games. I know it sounds harsh but once you buy a game these days, you agree to its EULA. And the EULA of all online games cover the fact that one day they will no longer work. So, once you agree to the EULA, you lose any right to complain.

I know some people want to play some online-only games. But right now, there isn’t much you can do. The only real way to make a difference is with how you spend your money. You should start choosing where and how you spend it. Sounds ridiculous but that’s how things are in 2025.

Stay tuned for more!

Video Games Europe is a lobby made up of several of the world’s biggest publishers to try and advocate for European game devs. However, their response to the Stop Killing Games initiative isn’t exactly supportive of what EU gamers are advocating for.

Stop Killing Games hit 1 million signatures despite doubts that the petition would get enough signatures to get the notice of European legislators. In the wake of this milestone, Video Games Europe felt the need to respond as the largest video game lobby in EU.

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And, while the statement opens with the lobby’s board claiming that they “appreciate the passion of our community” in regards to wanting to keep games around, they shut down the ideals of this initiative in every other part of the statement.

They claim that, if Stop Killing Games’ demands were to be made law, that game development would become “prohibitively expensive”.

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Video Games Europe fights back against Stop Killing Games

In the wake of games like Anthem being shut down and never accessible again, people who want games to be able to exist in perpetuity continue to advocate for games being developed with sustainability in mind.

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Stop Killing Games wants to make it mandatory for devs to either create ways for a game to exist offline or to offer up a version of the game that fans can maintain after its life cycle ends. However, Video Games Europe is completely against the idea.

“The decision to discontinue online services is multi-faceted, never taken lightly and must be an option for companies when an online experience is no longer commercially viable. We understand that it can be disappointing for players but, when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws,” the statement reads.

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Electronic Arts EA is permanently shutting down Anthem, making it unplayable forever

“Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.”

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This view aligns heavily with that of Pirate Software, someone who has publicly decried the Stop Killing Games movement and sided with the view of publishers and developers who don’t want to take on the extra expense.

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However, it’s worth mentioning that Video Games Europe’s lobby is stacked with people representing some of the biggest publishers in the industry like Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Games, Activision, EA, Microsoft, Square Enix and more.

Studios under every single one of these publishers’ umbrellas have shut down servers for a game, with the product being permanently unavailable even if players paid full-price for it. In most cases, users aren’t offered refunds for their in-game purchases or the purchase of the game itself.

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Video Games Europe have made it clear that they’ll be working against the ideas outlined in Stop Killing Games’ mission statement.

A petition to preserve video game access recently achieved an important milestone of one million signatures, but it has two more challenges to overcome before reaching the final level. The “Stop Killing Games” movement reached a million votes earlier this month, meaning the European Union will have to consider adopting legislation addressing this issue. However, the petition first has to deal with the threat of potentially fake signatures and the resistance from major game studios and publishers.

The Stop Killing Games initiative, created by Ross Scott, aims to pass new laws to ensure that video games still run even when developer support ends. The petition was a direct response to when Ubisoft delisted The Crew from online stores, shut down the game’s servers in 2024, and revoked licenses from players who bought the game. Scott and other critics felt Ubisoft’s actions set a dangerous precedent for gamers who may lose access to their purchased games at a developer’s whim.

Even though there are enough signatures to move to the next step, Scott explained in a YouTube video that many of these may have been incorrectly filled out, while others could have been falsely submitted. The movement’s founder said, “This is not a change.org petition, this is a government process,” adding that “spoofing signatures on it is a crime.” To ensure enough legitimate signatures are collected, Scott said that there needs to be at least 10 percent more to cover the potentially invalid ones. As of July 6, the petition has earned more than 1.2 million signatures.

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Beyond the signatures, a European advocacy group that includes major gaming studios and publishers like Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Nintendo released a statement opposing the movement.

“Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable,” the statement read. “In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.”

In a longer report, the Video Games Europe group said that this initiative would “raise the costs and risks of developing such games,” create a “chilling effect on game design” and “act as a disincentive to making such games available in Europe.”

There have been many instances where players were exempted from playing their favorite online game after that game being delisted by the developers. That’s when the ‘Stop Killing Game’ campaign stepped up.

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This consumer driven movement was set up to save the games from being lost forever due to their poor performance in the market, despite being owned by several owners. However, it seems not everyone is supporting this approach.

Pirate Software refrains to stand besides the ‘Stop Killing Games’ campaign

It all started in 2024 when a YouTuber named Accursed Farms aka Ross Scott started a campaign called Stop Killing Games in response to Ubisoft’s decision to take down The Crew. This was an online-only open world racing game released in 2014, which garnered fair response in its initial days, but later on faded away completely.

That is why Ubisoft shut down all of its servers in March 2024, making the game completely unplayable as there was no offline mode. This was actually a huge blow for all those who bought this game, and no one was issued any refunds. That is why Scott stepped up with this European initiative.

Stop Killing Games got huge support across the majority of the gaming community, but some still debunked this campaign. One of them is YouTuber Pirate Software aka Jason “Thor” Hall.

As of now, there are over 800k signatures to this petition and this European Citizens’ Initiative is just 20% away from reaching its goal.

Stop Killing Games

But Pirate Software has straightway refused to sign this petition. According to him, this campaign itself isn’t specific and even claimed that “It would impact every live service game that exists.” Pirate Software also stated that the SKG campaign doesn’t want single player games to have DRM that the developers can turn off.

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On the other hand, Ross Scott also hit back and claimed that Pirate Software completely made up false impressions. Scott explained that this campaign never pushed the developers to convert every online game to single player titles.

The end of Stop Killing Games

He also stated that this campaign was initiated to make the publishers emphasize on giving a clear life-span plan of every game out there. Despite the backlash from Pirate Software, it seems Ross Scott has got

.

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“Stop Killing Games” is a consumer-led movement that does exactly what the name suggests.

Spearheaded by Ross Scott (Accursed Farms), its main goal is to preserve access to video games even after “official support” comes to an end.

Since launching in April 2024, the movement has gained serious momentum, striking a chord with players who are tired of seeing games they’ve paid for become completely unplayable once servers shut down.

Despite what is seemingly a positive campaign, one indie developer and former Blizzard staffer has been vocal in their opposition, actively discouraging people from signing the petition and pushing back against the movement’s message. However, in a textbook case of the Streisand effect, the drama pushed the petition to new heights, and may now trigger serious legislative discussions as a result.

Here’s what Stop Killing Games is all about, how it almost died, and then ended up being stronger than ever — and why the “backlash” ultimately helped the movement hit its goal.

What is the “Stop Killing Games” Movement?

The core principle behind the movement is that players are losing access to games they’ve paid for once the servers for those games go offline. This isn’t just a hypothetical; it’s already happening. Titles like The Crew, Battleborn, and many others have been fully disabled or delisted from digital storefronts, leaving players who invested time and money with essentially nothing to show for it. Literally today, EA announced that Anthem will be sunsetting its online services too.

Games like Anthem revolve entirely around online play, which naturally require online infrastructure and on-going investment to function. However, the issue goes beyond just live service titles where multiplayer is the focus.

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Increasingly, single-player games require a constant internet connection to function, whether it’s DRM, server-side progression, or episodic content being locked behind download server, once support ends, players often lose access to games they thought they owned. Shutdowns are especially prevalent in mobile gaming as well, even for titles that don’t require any form of multiplayer or online functionality.

These shutdowns often happen with little warning and no compensation. In the case of The Crew, Ubisoft told users they couldn’t complain about the shutdown because, despite paying for the game, they never actually owned it.

The Crew is one of many high-profile games that were arbitrarily shuttered. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Stop Killing Games is pushing back against this exact practice. Its core belief is that if a game is sold, it should always remain playable in some form, even after official support ends.

Ross Scott has proposed several solutions to achieve this, such as including offline modes, making server software public so communities can host their own, and introducing legal protections that enforce these rights. The focus isn’t on keeping every game running forever, but on giving players the ability to preserve them if they want to. In support of the cause, Ross noted that 68% of 700 online-dependent games are already unplayable or will become unplayable soon.

Microsoft has been better than most big companies with regards to game preservation, enabling support for backward compatibility with original Xbox and Xbox 360 games on modern Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. However, even this requires some online functionality, and furthermore, Microsoft itself is unable to provide access to some of the games owing to licensing rights on older titles. In some cases, the entities that “own” the games no longer even exist.

Legislation could help justify an expansion of formal backward compatibility programs like Xbox’s, even in cases where licensing rights are unobtainable. The Forza racing games, with its licensed vehicles, is a notable example of a franchise where expiring licenses lead to the delisting of games. Owners can still play them, but increasingly, Microsoft is shifting its operation away from disc-based games to digital-only, which, again, prevents full ownership and the guarantee of perpetual access.

Blizzard notoriously ended up reviving World of Warcraft “Classic” in response to pirated servers, after saying things like “you think you want it, but you don’t.” Turns out that people really did want it, and WoW Classic helped buoy user engagement at a time where the game was otherwise in decline.

Speaking of Blizzard …

PirateSoftware Pushes back, by misunderstanding the movement

In December 2024, Jason Hall, known online as PirateSoftware, is a former Blizzard employee turned Twitch streamer who regularly shares commentary on industry issues. However, his stance on Stop Killing Games had been far from supportive. He criticised the movement as being too vague, overly idealistic, and ultimately impractical.

PirateSoftware argued that it places an unfair burden on indie studios by expecting them to provide post-shutdown access. He also pushed back on the idea of government involvement, suggesting it would create more problems than it solves.

Hall’s video sparked immediate backlash within the gaming community. Many felt that he had misrepresented the movement’s goals, painting it as more extreme than it was. Despite the criticism, the video led to a visible drop in petition signatures in early 2025, as confusion about the campaign’s intent spread.

In response, Ross Scott published a detailed FAQ and follow-up videos throughout January and February 2025, clarifying that the movement’s goal was not to keep every game online forever, but to ensure that players had some legal means and protections to acquire continued access once official support ends

Despite PirateSoftware’s efforts to stop the movement, support from major content creators helped reignite interest by mid-2025. MoistCr1TiKaL released multiple videos, disputing PirateSoftware’s take and defending the core message of Stop Killing Games.

Around the same time, in June/July 2025, PewDiePie and Jacksepticeye also publicly voiced their support, amplifying the campaign’s reach. SomeOrdinaryGamers has been discussing and supporting the topic as far back as 2024, and helped popularise the quote “Piracy isn’t stealing if Buying Isn’t Owning…”, in 2025 after Ubisoft made their comments regarding not owning games.

Join the Movement: How to Support Stop Killing Games in the EU & UK

The movement started to gain traction again, thanks largely to content creators stepping up and calling for action, and the continued effort of Ross Scott who has championed this movement for so long. But without real tangible change, nothing will stop companies from continuing to make games, take our money, and then pull those games offline.

Awareness alone isn’t enough to stop this from happening. People need to sign the petition and continue providing support for the initiative.

The petition hits 1 million signatures. (Image credit: Windows Central)

Ross Scott’s original goal was to reach one million verified EU signatures, which would force the European Commission to formally consider new legislation. This being the same commission that pushed Apple to adopt USB-C in its iPhones, showing that pressure from the EU can influence major tech policy.

With the milestone now officially reached, Ross still urges people to sign the petition due to concerns over unverifiable or potentially invalid signatures, the bar has effectively been raised. The current target now sits at 1.5 million to ensure that, even after validation, the petition qualifies for review. This development highlight just how important continued support is, even after reaching the initial goal.

It’s important to remember that this movement is ultimately about game preservation. It’s about being able to return to that online-only game you bought years ago and still have a way to play it, even if it’s just through peer-to-peer matches with friends or by joining a server hosted by the community.

This isn’t about demanding publishers keep servers running forever or that every feature necessarily remains intact. It’s about giving players the tools and freedom to keep these games alive in some form, long after official support has ended. The heart of this movement is truly about preserving access to the games we’ve paid for, enjoyed and still care about.