Brussels – The video games market in the European Union generated 23.48 billion euros in revenue in 2022, four times the digital music market’s revenue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of gamers increased: in 2021, over half of people aged between 6 and 64 played video games. This is according to a 2023 study (latest available data) produced for the European Commission by Ecorys and KEA. Despite these figures, consumers are reporting an increasingly frequent phenomenon: many games require a constant internet connection, allowing publishers to remotely disable legitimately purchased video games, without justification or alternative solutions.
For this reason, on 19 June 2024, the Commission received and registered an Initiative signed by more than 1.2 million European citizens calling on publishers “who sell or license video games to EU consumers to leave said video games in a functional (playable) state.” In the past, the signatories explain, buyers of video games would purchase a physical copy that could be used indefinitely. In the current digital environment, however, “video games are played online, which raises new issues regarding their lifecycle.” The request, therefore, is that publishers should not be able to remotely deactivate a video game without providing reasonable and autonomous means to continue playing it.
The Commission is now required to give its opinion by 27 July 2026, stating whether or not it intends to act on the initiative. According to the organisers, the current practice “constitutes an affront on consumer rights”. The Commission, as stated in its implementing decision, “could submit a proposal for a legal act aiming at the prevention of the remote disabling of video games by publishers on the basis of Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.”
The ‘Stop Killing Games’ coalition is gaining momentum. In France, it has been supported by the UFC-Que Choisir association, which brought a case against the video game manufacturer Ubisoft at the Créteil Court after the shutdown of The Crew’s servers. The association is seeking a landmark ruling that would determine whether the purchase grants players a fully independent right of use.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
