The video game preservation movement has slowly been building momentum over the past few decades, growing from a few dedicated collectors securing old hardware and physical copies, to an entire pseudo political movement, with its own schisms and sub categories. And while it’s almost universally decided that people shouldn’t be throwing old video game cartridge’s into landfill anymore, and studios shouldn’t be overwriting the masters of their old games (that means you Square Enix), video game preservation’s next fight looks to be on the front of live service games.
A recent petition initiative has seen gamers try to force the issue of companies taking down and denying access to game that had fallen under the live service umbrella. In recent times, we’ve seen games like The Crew, a widely played and beloved online racer, being pulled offline, and older content, such as the original story from Destiny 2, removed entirely from the game in a process called sunsetting. This petition aims to compel publishers to leave these online games in a playable state, even after the companies no longer wish to support them.
Image Credit: Europass
Gamers Are Petitioning The EU To Preserve Live Service Video Games
As mentioned, the petition, which at the time of writing stands at over 425,000 signatures, calls for publishers to leave games in playable state after the end of their live service lifespan:
“This initiative calls to require publishers that sell or license videogames to consumers in the European Union (or related features and assets sold for videogames they operate) to leave said videogames in a functional (playable) state.”
The focus of this petition, unlike others about video game preservation, isn’t about preserving physical media or the ability to purchase older games, but instead on keeping games playable. Specifically, the initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher. It doesn’t seem too controversial that there should be some provision to protect online purchases, but the modern gaming landscape might cause problems.
The Crew. Image Credit: Ubisoft
Games as a service is an unfortunate reality. You don’t buy games anymore. Even physical copies of media you purchase are tied to licences rather than your physical ownership. This is a trend that started in the 80’s and 90’s with commercial software, and unfortunately bled over into video games. Every EULA and T&Cs you’re accepting is litigating the fact that you don’t own the game you’ve bought, instead just making a payment for a licence which can be revoked at anytime.
Live service games are even more insidious, in many ways, in that since they’re often tied to online connectivity, you can have your entire game pulled from playability at any time. That’s what happened to fans of The Crew in 2024, and although Ubisoft eventually added an offline mode, the game as it was is gone forever. What’s more, this is clearly a widespread issue for gamers, as similar petitions to the EU one have also gone up in the UK and Australia.
Gamers Will Accept Not Owning Games If They Can Play Them Forever
To the credit of the petition, it specifically states that consumers don’t want to “own” their games (presumably because we’ve already given up on owning games). Instead tries to persuade that these indefinite licences should at least come with a guarantee that games are left in a functional (playable) state after the video game publisher decides it no longer wants to support them.
It’s a compelling argument – but perhaps one that won’t pass muster under scrutiny. Because you don’t own the games, so you don’t have a right to access them after the licence expires. And thanks to the EULAs and T&Cs, the company can just stop supporting a game at any time. But perhaps most difficult would be compelling companies to do anything. It’s simple enough to forbid and regulate something through legislation, but forcing companies to spend money or active participate in something is much harder.
Unfortunately, the current European initiative has some issues. To be successful, a European citizens’ initiative has to reach one million statements of support as well as minimum thresholds in at least 7 countries. While northern European have been quick to sign the petition (between Germany, Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and The Netherlands, the seven country threshold was reached), in southern Europe, the minimum threshold hasn’t been reached at all. This means that overall, the petition is over half a million signatures off passing at the time of writing.
However, if there’s one governmental body that can bring universal global change on digital matters it might just be the EU. The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, transformed how people’s data was used. If you can believe it, prior to GDPR, any company could harvest all your personal details and keep them indefinitely, unsecured. Now companies face massive fines, no matter the country, if they don’t protect and give users the right to access and delete their data. And it’s why every website has one of those little “do you consent to us taking your data” pop ups.
The EU is large enough that the idea of not selling your games there to avoid any legislation is not an option. So if the EU does pass a grand proclamation that says companies have to keep a game online, and in a playable state, this could transform live service games, and be a massive win for video game preservation.
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