"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"

Stop Killing Games, the movement that hopes to see a future in which developers can't just take games offline and no longer allow those who have purchased them to play ever again, is back with a new update on its European Citizens' Initiative.

In case you're out of the loop, Stop Killing Games first took off in the public eye back in 2024 when Ubisoft decided to take The Crew offline… effectively making it a dead digital title for those who "owned" it.

The movement aims to make it so that companies can't just shut their games down as Ubisoft did, as it conflicts with consumer rights – particularly in Europe. It's been a long road, to say the least, but it's caught global attention.

Now, in a new online post, Stop Killing Games alleges that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot attended "an 'invitation-only' meeting with the European Commission, hosted by VGE [Video Games Europe], two weeks before the EC planned answer to our ECI [European Citizens' Initiative]."

That's not what stands out here, though. "SKG was not invited." In other words, the group wasn't included. In response, the movement includes an open letter.

"That is the opening image of this moment: Ubisoft at the table, with its CEO at the helm, in the room with senior European Commission officials shortly before the Commission is expected to answer Stop Killing Games," it writes.

"Ubisoft shut down The Crew, one of the cases that helped turn the destruction of online-dependent paid games into an international consumer issue and helped drive this movement’s most successful petition."

It continues, referencing how a French consumer group backed by Stop Killing Games sued Ubisoft earlier this year, citing misleading ownership rules.

"Ubisoft is now facing legal action over that shutdown, including from the French consumer organization UFC-Que Choisir, has faced legal action in California over the same issue, and is also under scrutiny by French and Australian consumer authorities. The timing is impossible to ignore."

The movement concludes in its opening, "The event takes place thirteen days before the European Commission is expected to answer a citizens' initiative backed by more than one million verified supporters."

As Stop Killing Games itself evidently believes, the timing certainly is notable. Ubisoft has yet to confirm the meeting or share anything about it, but I doubt it'd give much of a fruitful response at this point.

Previously, the studio responded with a less-than-ideal statement, saying, "Support for all games cannot last forever." Ubisoft also declared "we operate in a market," which means it's not viable to keep every title online or working indefinitely.

Industry lobbyists ridicule "false premise" that "consumers 'own' digital games" amid Stop Killing Games fight