After soaring past one million signatures and becoming a source of pride for gamers worldwide – and a growing concern for AAA publishers – the Stop Killing Games initiative continues to move mountains and mount movements, recently securing its perhaps most influential endorsement to date, coming from a Vice President of the European Parliament, the very same entity set to consider SKG’s central demand that game developers must not be allowed to delist games customers have paid for and whether it should be made law.
The Vice President in question is Nicolae “Nicu” Ştefănuță, one of fourteen VPs in the EU’s current parliament, who voiced his support for the initiative in an Instagram story over the weekend, noting that he himself was one of the petition’s signatories. “I stand with the people who started this citizen initiative,” he wrote. “I signed and will continue to help them. A game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company.”
While Ştefănuță’s stance alone isn’t the final word on whether SKG’s demands will become law – this isn’t the US Senate, there are fourteen VPs in total, and Nicu is not the most powerful out of them – it still marks a major win for Ross Scott’s movement, as one VP’s public backing may still influence others, making real change in the gaming industry more likely, at least within the EU.
At the moment, the Stop Killing Games petition directed at the European Commission has gathered over 1.33 million signatures and is well on track to hit “100% overdrive” with 1.4 million by its July 31 deadline, making it almost a certainty that the initiative will reach the European Parliament floor sometime in 2025-2026.
That said, it’s still a bit too early to celebrate victory. Just recently, a lobbying group representing big-league video game publishers – Video Games Europe – issued a statement protesting Stop Killing Games, arguing that keeping video games players have purchased accessible at all times would harm game developers.
While many were quick to dismiss the statement – which is understandable, a group with no real power lobbying on behalf of AAA publishers is arguing in favor of AAA publishers’ financial interests, not exactly something you would call a big shock– it’s a clear sign that industry heavyweights won’t back down without a fight. So if you’re a EU citizen and haven’t signed the petition yet, you can still support the initiative and help it hit 1.4 million signatures by clicking this link.
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