Stop Killing Games has been having a bit of an uphill battle for a while, as the initiative had lost a lot of momentum. What began as a retaliation to Ubisoft cancelling The Crew and even disabling offline modes, essentially invalidating the purchase for those who wish to continue playing, has become a rollercoaster of emotions for those who follow it.
For the uninitiated, the Stop Killing Games movement kicked off back in April 2024 as a means to bolster videogame preservation, a rapidly dying craft in 2025. Several hurdles and issues have prevented the movement from progressing meaningfully, and needing 100,000 signatures (in the UK) and 1,000,000 signatures (in the EU) was an uphill battle that was all too necessary.
Originally opposed by Thor from PirateSoftware, the initiative struggled to hit the ground running, and stagnated at only a few hundred thousand signatures. It wasn’t until a later controversy involving the YouTuber during streams of the World of Warcraft creator guild OnlyFangs that the petition gained momentum.
After controversies surrounding the booting of PirateSoftware hit the internet, YouTubers covered it far and wide, with one of the biggest ones being MoistCr1TiKaL or penguinz0 receiving four million views. This surge of coverage from the videogame industry’s biggest influencers gave it the traction it needed, not because the Stop Killing Games initiative was unwanted, but because it was uncovered at large.
Since then, the petition has been able to accrue the necessary signatures in both the EU- and UK-based petitions, but the fight isn’t over yet. Though the signature numbers has finally surpassed the recommended minimum for some of the most influential governments to talk about the movement, the potential risk of fake signatures puts it on shaky ground.
Covered by the YouTuber who is spearheading Stop Killing Games, Ross Scott has mentioned that there is no way for anyone to know how many signatures are fake until the time has passed. Once it is done, fake signatures, wrongly signed ones, and other issues may bring the number down below the required number and invalidate the whole movement.
As a general rule of thumb, Ross Scott suggested aiming for 1,400,000 signatures, giving a good buffer for failure and those who may have used other means to sign despite not living in the EU. As it currently stands, it is sitting at 1,350,000 signatures (at the time of writing), narrowly reaching the second goal. Meanwhile, the UK-based petition has already closed its doors, having reached nearly 200,000 signatures (or double the needed minimum for parliament discussion of 100,000).
The Video Games Europe has left a statement to Stop Killing Games, defending publishers’ rights to kill online functionality. The members of the Video Games Europe are the following:
- Activision Blizzard
- Associação de Empresas Produtoras e Distribuidoras de Videojogos (Portuguese Video Game Producers and Distributors Association)
- Asociación Española de Videojuegos (Spanish Video Game Association)
- Association for the Nordic Game Industry
- Bandai Namco
- Electronic Arts
- Embracer Group
- Epic Games
- ESL Faceit Group
- GAME Digital
- Games Denmark
- Italian Interactive Digital Entertainment Association (IIDEA)
- Level Infinite
- Microsoft
- Netflix
- Niantic
- Nintendo
- Verband Österreichischer Videospiele-Unternehmen (Austrian Video Games Association)
- Romanian Game Developers Association
- Riot Games
- Roblox
- SEGA
- Syndicat des Éditeurs de Logiciels de Loisirs (French Video Game Publishers Association)
- Serbian Games Association
- Swiss Interactive Entertainment Association
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Square Enix
- SUPERCELL
- Take-Two Interactive
- Ubisoft
- UK Interactive Entertainment Association
- Video Games Federation Belgium
- Dutch Video Games Industry
- Video Games Poland
- Warner Bros Games
- ZeniMax
While the petitions are near to coming to a close, the battle will be far from over. But thus far, this has been the biggest movement to try to secure videogame preservation in the modern age.
