Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera, Babylon’s Fall, and Rumbleverse are a few of the many games that were unfortunately closed for good last year. This is the inevitable fate of many live-service games; each of them will succumb to the test of time and close down when publishers decide it’s not worth keeping them online for players anymore.
All of that could change, however, if gamers stand together to ask for it. One person is trying to kickstart this movement, and with your help, they could be successful.
You Have the Power to Save Games Like Call of Duty
Publishers are destroying games they’ve already sold to you. That’s what happens when games like Battlefield 1943 and Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera shut down after you’ve already bought them or paid for microtransactions.
Why invest in games at all if they’re doomed to be erased from existence with no legal way of playing them, just because publishers decide it?
Sure, you can argue whether The Day Before should’ve been nuked before release, but people paid for it, and they should be able to play it.
It hurts the consumers who spent money on these games, it hurts all of the staff who put blood, sweat, and tears into this piece of work, and it hurts media archival efforts.
In a bid to save the future of gaming, a group of dedicated individuals has started a European Citizens’ Initiative petition to accomplish three major goals.
The initiative would:
- Require video games sold to customers to be in a reasonably working state at the time of shutdown/end of support.
- Prohibit any requirements for video games sold to customers to connect to the publisher or affiliated parties after support ends.
- Require the above to also apply to video games that sell game assets or features (microtransactions) to customers.
While the results of this initiative would only apply to the EU, this could have a domino effect across the globe. Plus, most games are sold in the EU, and would be affected by these laws, were they passed.
Would Publishers Ever Agree to These Rules?
It shouldn’t be a controversial opinion to expect that you can keep a product that you paid for until the end of time.
As Ross mentions, the current practice can be compared to buying a car from a salesman and then having it repossessed after a certain amount of time without getting your money back.
While these rules are very pro-consumer, they’re not trying to be anti-business either. The initiative won’t force publishers to give up their IP rights or source code, endlessly support the product or host servers, or assume liability for customer actions.
People simply want to keep the games that they paid for. While this practice of making products that people paid for unusable is very prevalent in the gaming industry, it doesn’t have to be.
Do you agree with this initiative? Why or why not? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue in the comments below!
