Stop Killing Games movement leader Ross Scott spoke in Brussels with an initiative to limit the practice of publishers "killing" games with impunity. He compared it to books: if a publisher cannot take back a purchased copy, then in the digital environment, companies do this regularly, shutting down servers and making the product unplayable.
The main example was Concord, a Sony-funded hero shooter that became one of the industry's biggest failures. The project was shut down two weeks after release.
Players were refunded, but the situation became indicative: the game disappeared even for owners of physical copies. Scott noted that the project had "no plans to end support," which is unacceptable from a consumer rights perspective.
During the hearings, he responded to arguments from lobbyists about the high cost of support. The movement proposes: not to demand eternal servers, to turn off online systems after the end of support, and to maintain a basic playable version through offline or community servers.
The discussion in the European Parliament was a step towards new rules on digital property. Scott stated that it is permissible to close a game even immediately after release, if the purchased product is not destroyed.