Today the European petition for Stop Killing Videogames reached 1M signatures: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home.
Basically this is a petition to the European Commission to examine and respond to the recent pratiques of videogame companies that shutdown games that players paid for. The most notorious example that caused this petition is the Ubisoft game The Crew, but we have a good example of this kind of pratique here at Blizzard: Overwatch 1.
If such petition was signed some years ago, today Overwatch 1 would still be a playable game. They shutdown that game and brought us a cash grab cheap copy called Overwatch 2, which is literally a downgrade to the original game.
Fortunately we have the power to change things. With this petition European Commission is forced to take an action against those cases. Even if the threshold as been reached today, we may need more signatures since some of them may be considered as invalid.
I hope an action is taken quickly because this impacts all Blizzard games: OW2, WOW, COD, Diablo etc… they will all be shutdown one day! And you’ll loose every investment you made in those games…
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Destiny 2 removed loads of the content I paid for. They said it was performance issues and being a live service game they are entitled to take everything away!!
Yes they can, there is no law protecting us against those actions. You better sign this petition if you are over 18y.
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it’s woeful just how behind our governments are with dealing with digital issues and the law - fomo stores, battlepasses - pay to play online bs - it should all have been stopped years ago - but here we are…
Good luck guys - I’m not in the EU but if you are you should go and and sign - this can only make gaming better. Give em a slap.
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Problem is, even with the petition, nothing will change.
40% and growing of gamers time is spent on live service games. New “normal” games coming out are fighting for a smaller and smaller audience whilst becoming more and more expensive to make.
Eventually, people have to cut their losses.
We, as gamers, need to stop spending so much time on games like this that want you have your full attention (and wallet), and spend more time and money on good, well made, indie games.
We need to change the game with actions, not just signing an easily ignored petition.
What are you saying.
If EU reviews those actions and starts imposing new laws for videogame end of life regulations, companies are forced to change.
Signing a petition that will lead to new laws, it’s also an action.
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Like I said. The petition won’t change anything. Sadly, lobbyist will carry more weight. And look who’s lobbying against it. It isn’t a short list of random individuals.
Same happened when EA got away with their gambling investigation. They donated to the government, suddenly the government can’t find an issue despite all the experts saying they were in the wrong.
Don’t get me wrong. The petition is the right cause. The problem is, games getting shut down and companies being closed is largely down to the habits of the players.
People being pro this petition and still logging all the time they do in OW is a slightly odd stance.
40% of gamers time is spent on live service games, that can just suck up all your money without putting any real effort in (see GTA, FIFA so on). Whist simultaneously asking for bigger and bigger games, which end up costs insane amounts to make.
The best course of action we as players can do is change how we spend out time and money. Cut down how much OW, Fortnite, MR, GTA online you play. Buy and play more independent games.
The petition will open some people’s eyes. Governments won’t give a damn. We still have all the power though.
Problem is, most of the people incharge don’t even know how to properly work their phone. Let alone understand or even care about videogames
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the stop killing videogames movement has reached its 1M signatures nonetheless, the corporations who are only trying to get every dim you have will soon know there error in their ways.
as things should.
Good job in spreading the message.
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https://www.videogameseurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/VGE-Position-Discontinuation-of-Support-to-Online-Games-04072025.pdf
Doubt it. They’ve already said they acknowledge it, but tough luck.
This is exactly what you should do. Cut down on your time and investment in the games from companies signed up to Video Games Europe. Spend less time in love service games and back, good independent games.
I’m honestly surprised more companies haven’t done this sooner. Given that we don’t actually own the games. Once the games ended, or your access is removed (banned) you should be expected to get rid of anything until you buy another license to access it.
Unisoft have just worded it terribly. And it looks shocking to people who don’t pay attention and think they own games.
This is why you always buy physical media kids.
This is great news it’s time to take a stand…
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Remember, 6.1m people signed the petition to cancel Brexit. It was ignored.
1.2m for a subject governments and law makers don’t care about… Seems unlikely.
Different story. That petition was worthless since 17m persons signed a referendum supporting the Brexit.
Also referendum > petition in any governament.
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Indeed. But they were voting based on lies and misinformation. So the petition simply asked for it to be cancelled and done again.
But, alas. Petitions are always ignored, unless it is convenient for the government.
Could it be used as “good news” to cover bad. If so, you might see something happen. But it’s probably way too small for that.
It’s the right cause, just the wrong execution. A lot of time effort being spent talking about it when people could actually act, like you suggested. Stop buying these companies licenses. Stop giving them your time.
Actions speak far louder. Boycotts are far more impactful that some digital signatures.
Problem will be, how many of the 1.2m truly care and how many are just signing because others have. If we say 900k truly care. That’s not enough to really make anything happen. It’s a good start though.
People thought the same about Loot boxes and here we are, some countries have them forbidden, game companies have to create things “around that” etc.
Time to stop giving them all the power and zero responsibilities.
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Agree. That’s why people need to stop feeding the eco system.
Get out of games made by the Video Games Europe group of companies. Hit them where it actually hurts them.
At the end of the day though, nobody is asking you to spend money on a video game, Servers get shut down all the time. Especially when a new game is released, yes Blizzard jumped into the F2P model simply for prophet, but that is EVERY game company these days. The Petition is good, but as gamers we need to make a stand with our wallets, the moment people stop buying skins and other crap that literally does not exist. The sooner they will stop with monetization
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Bro we’re talking about paid games not F2P, can’t you read?
Both are relevant to the petition though. Paid or free, the concept is still the same. You get a licence to access. They just fund the game in different ways (or if you’re EA, you do both).
That being said, it’s gone a bit quiet now. Could be in the “hopefully sweep it under the carpet” phase.
Edit… Found an article talking about it and discussing the person that started it…
“He also revealed that he hasn’t “had time to play a game for close to a couple months”, stating that he aims to go on a “standby break” from the campaign.”
So, if the campaign has legs, it’ll be alright. If not, it probably dies out from here.
1.4m signatures feels way too low though. Seems not many knew about it, or cared enough.
It’s on hand of politicians now, it can take years until we got news 
Next step is to validate the signatures, this can take a couple of months.
If it has 1M valid signatures it will be discussed by politicians, this can take couple of years.
It doesn’t matter.