Stop Killing Games nears 1 million signatures goal, but it might not be enough

The Stop Killing Games initiative, sparked by Ubisoft's announcement to shut down the servers powering the game The Crew, is 99% of the way to its goal of reaching 1 million signatures.

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Ubisoft sparked the Stop Killing Games initiative after it announced it was shutting down the servers to The Crew, rendering the game impossible to play, as The Crew is an online-only game. The initiative is an international consumer rights campaign that calls upon lawmakers in numerous countries to prevent publishers from making it impossible to access online-only games after they have been sold to consumers.

The initiative has so far received 999,000 signatures, meaning it's nearing its goal of 1 million. But that might not be enough to see any meaningful change, as a portion of those signatures will be deemed invalid by the European Commission after they are vetted. Stop Killing Games is aware of this and even wrote, "at least 1.2 - 1.3 million, and ever more buffer to account for invalid signatures!" The initiative has until July 31 to reach its goal.

"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," reads the initiative

"Existing laws and consumer agencies are ill-prepared to protect customers against this practice," the initiative explains. "The ability for a company to destroy an item it has already sold to the customer long after the fact is not something that normally occurs in other industries."

"With license agreements required to simply run the game, many existing consumer protections are circumvented. This practice challenges the concept of ownership itself, where the customer is left with nothing after 'buying' a game," explains Stop Killing Games

You can sign the Stop Killing Games petition here.