Stop Killing Games Petition Tops 1.2M Signatures As Publishers Voice Opposition

Game ownership is becoming increasingly more tenuous as publishers continue to focus on digital distribution. Even a stalwart of physical game media, Nintendo, is making use of a quasi-physical solution with Game-Key Cards on the Switch 2. This reality is colliding with the prevalance of online only games, which eventually get shutdown and leave buyers hanging. But there’s a movement building that seeks to ensure access to games, with a predictable pushback from publishers.

Stop Killing Games, a movement based in Europe, looks to “challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers.” The group claims that publishers are designing games in a manner that leaves them unplayable as soon as a company decides it no longer wants to support it. Leaving customers in a lurch as they can no longer access a game they’ve likely spent some amount of money on. It also ...