EU rules against Stop Killing Games, but after 2 years of campaigning founder insists change is coming: "Our position almost seems too good to be true"

The EU Commission has finally made its decision on the Stop Killing Games campaign, and has elected not to recommend new legislation preventing publishers from revoking access to online-only games. It's a notable blow to Stop Killing Games, but the movement's founder insists there's reason to hope for new laws regardless of this outcome.

"The Commission considers that at this stage it cannot propose a legal obligation to keep video games playable after they stop being provided commercially," according to the Commission's press release.

"This is due, also, to existing intellectual property rights. Under EU copyright law, rights holders enjoy exclusive rights over their creations. In addition to copyright, other intellectual property rights may also be relevant as they may protect different visual and technological aspects of a video game."

Instead, the Commission will meet with industry and consumer representatives "with the aim to draw up an industry code of conduct on managing video games' 'end of life,'" and promote an awareness campaign on consumer rights. In other words, very little concrete action is happening.

But Stop Killing Games founder Ross Scott seemed to anticipate this outcome. In a video posted a handful of days before the decision came down, Scott said that "we'd be happy" for the support of the EU Commission, but feared that "all we'll see is a non-binding communication and nothing changes," which is effectively what's happened.

Yet Scott argued that "the Commission's decision doesn't really matter," because Stop Killing Games already has an in to achieving its goals directly through EU Parliament by amending the existing Digital Fairness Act.

"We have made serious inroads in parliament. Just recently, we've even had an inquiry call on legislative action to the Commission signed by 45 members of European Parliament and collectively we have majority support on this issue. This means we're in a position to pass legislation on this even without the Commission's blessing," Scott explained.

"So the message from all this is don't be discouraged by what the Commission decides on the 16th. It is no longer the deciding factor in this. The EU legislation should be going through either way. Really, for the trajectory we're on, everything seems to be on course to go through in the EU and in California. I'm almost waiting for the other shoe to drop because right now, our position almost seems too good to be true."

The notion that we're once again entering a waiting game with lawmakers might be frustrating to players who've already been supporting Stop Killing Games since the movement got underway in 2024, but it does seem that, even with a negative decision from the EU Commission, organizers of the campaign are still very hopeful about the future.

"The timing is impossible to ignore": Stop Killing Games says Ubisoft attended "invitation-only" meeting with EU Commission ahead of response to campaign sparked by The Crew shutdown, but it "was not invited."