On July 7, 2025, the gamer initiative Stop Killing Games gathered over 1.2 million signatures to preserve delisted games. The petition served as a response to Europe’s AAA developers who discontinued services on previous titles. Now, Ubisoft has updated their EULA terms of service, asking their customers to uninstall and delete their purchased products, whether they are delisted or new. Other AAA game studios are prepared to follow suit.
Stop Killing Games Fight For Game Preservation
Since the mid-2010s, AAA publishers have been delisting games whether a console is near the end of its lifespan or a game’s development team no longer wants to provide support. Nintendo is known for this tactic to resell games as console ports. Behind the scenes, the Big N continues to search and purge console emulators. Many gamers turn to emulation to experience the original product before it is discontinued. Others use it to play through fan-made rom hacks or modded versions for fun.
A few companies have continued to offer digital support to preserve their game state. Sam & Max Remastered Trilogy developers, Skunkape Games, provided the original Telltale seasons as free downloadable content. Runescape’s Jagex offers Old-School Edition for new and veteran players. Yet, many AAA publishers refused to step forward to join game preservation.
Stop Killing Games responded to the crisis after multiple European developers halted further development on games with a long or short life. Ubisoft’s The Crew sparked the petition after the developers delisted it from purchase in March 2024.
According to the initiative’s official page, these discontinued services have mainly affected Germany, Australia, and France. The Assassin’s Creed has a long history of removing games from stores when they are no longer deemed profitable. Delisting has become a problem for consumers as it violates their ownership rights.
AAA Publishers Rebel Against Gamer Petition
During the petition, European game developers formed Video Games Europe (VGE), a lobby group against the Stop Killing Games initiative. An insider source informed 80 Level that their members are mostly composed of Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, EA, Bandai Namco, Microsoft, and Ubisoft. VGE described itself as “an entity financially interested in preserving the status quo.”
The lobby group representatives sent a five-page document after the campaign’s success. Their members believe it is legal for a publisher to have the final say to discontinue game sales and its service. They argued that maintaining multiple game servers will result in high expenses. YouTuber Ross Scott (Accursed Farms) gave a powerful response to VGE’s rebuttal against Stop Killing Games:
“A radical assault on consumer rights and even the concept of ownership itself. [VGE] ideologically opposed to us being able to retain our games. Remember, everything [the lobby group is] doing is saying here is their excuse for taking away your purchase with no timeframe given and destroying it forever.”
Ubisoft’s Updated EULA Says Termination is Inevitable
On the same day as Stop Killing Games’ victorious milestone, Ubisoft further escalates the game preservation crisis with a new End-User License Agreement. Their updated rules enraged consumers who purchased physical and digital copies of their published games.
Section 4 requires consumers to give Ubisoft consent to monitor their RAM to search for unauthorized third-party program modifications. Section 5 says any defects on a physical game disc or cartridge can be immediately replaced if the consumer has a purchase receipt. Section 8 states that if consumers fail to comply, Ubisoft will send a termination request. It will ask them to uninstall and delete their published games from their game library.
Ubisoft’s EULA update influenced consumers to sign the Stop Killing Games initiative, adding to a total of 1.3 million signatures. Other game preservation petitions are following in its path. EA announced it will close BioWare’s Anthem online co-op. The fanbase requested to have a solo mode with optional P2P servers. User King_2780 created the dedicated petition page “Save Anthem.” Their goal is to have EA release its server files to keep the game alive. The European Commission is currently reviewing the petition to ensure all signatures are from European citizens.
