I'd hope that a more general principle could be established here, something to do with whether ongoing costs are legitimate. E.g. streaming services and MMPORGs have continuous operating costs so a subscription fee makes sense. But single-player games don't : sure, you can pay for upgrades and DLC but there's no reason you should be compelled to do so. Likewise e-books should still be readable if the original distributor collapses.

If passed, the law would 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," even in the event that the servers are shut down or the studio closes.

"An increasing number of publishers are selling videogames that are required to connect through the internet to the game publisher, or 'phone home' to function," the petition reads. "While this is not a problem in itself, when support ends for these types of games, very often publishers simply sever the connection necessary for the game to function, proceed to destroy all working copies of the game, and implement extensive measures to prevent the customer from repairing the game in any way."

Understanding that developers and publishers can't support games forever, the initiative would expect "the publisher to provide resources for the said videogame once they discontinue it while leaving it in a reasonably functional (playable) state." That means giving players the tools to host the game on their own servers, for example, and removing the requirement for games to connect to the publisher's (defunct) servers in order to be played. This is what the developer behind Knockout City did when it pulled the plug on the game's official servers.

#Games
#Technology
#Politics

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/if-1-million-people-sign-a-petition-a-ban-on-rendering-multiplayer-games-unplayable-has-a-chance-to-become-law-in-europe/

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