A group of European publishers is pushing back against the ongoing “Stop Killing Games” movement, suggesting that the initiative against live-service games could severely hinder some developers. Game preservation has been a hot-button issue for many fans and developers as games and studios move towards digital-only and live-service games as their main focus. Many have expressed their worries about whether online-only games can be properly preserved or if some games, like Ubisoft’s The Crew, will be lost forever once their servers go down. Now, a new movement aimed at preserving online games is gaining major steam.
The “Stop Killing Games” movement has gained major notoriety throughout recent weeks, with the game preservation movement seeing a surge in support. The campaign, founded by popular gaming YouTuber Ross Scott, has quickly amassed over a million signatures from fans concerned about gaming’s future. The initiative has even shared some of its lofty goals for the campaign, planning to bring the movement either to the UK’s Parliament or the European Commission after gaining enough signatures. However, some European publishers are now pushing back against the movement’s ideals.
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European Publisher Group Pushing Back Against “Stop Killing Games” Movement
As reported by PCGamer, European publisher group Video Games Europe is now speaking out against the burgeoning “Stop Killing Games” movement. In an official statement, the group expressed its own stance on the cancellation of live-service games, suggesting that sunsetting games is a necessary option for many studios from a financial standpoint. The group also expressed the importance of privacy for user data and removing illegal content, with a game’s studio being liable for private servers. The group also claimed the movement would make live-service games “prohibitively expensive” to make.
The debate about live-service games has long been one of the biggest talking points in modern gaming, as many studios have moved more towards the online-only model. Many of gaming’s most popular modern games have opted for a live-service model, with games like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves seeing massive success. Online game modes have also become a mainstay of modern shooters and sports games, often seeing their online services shuttered just a few years after launch.
The movement for game preservation has often seen many developers looking to make their older games more readily accessible on modern platforms. Games like Capcom Fighting Collection 2 have sought to make older games available on modern consoles, making often rare and highly sought-after games easily accessible. Nintendo’s “Switch Online” service also offers a variety of older Nintendo games for subscribers, featuring classic games from both the developer’s home consoles and handhelds. Game preservation will likely continue to be a major debate, as fans look to prevent increasingly online games from being lost forever.
