The Stop Killing Games petition has officially reached 1.4 million signatures, pushing the initiative closer to being formally reviewed by the European Commission.
The campaign, spurred in part by Ubisoft’s closure of The Crew servers in 2024, calls for legal protections that would prevent game publishers from rendering purchased titles unplayable once their servers are shut down.
The milestone comfortably surpasses the one million signature threshold required by the EU Citizens’ Initiative, and the additional signatures provide a buffer in case any entries are deemed invalid during the verification phase.
Ross Scott says the campaign is “all but certain” to move forward
“We have cleared 1.4 million signatures! I think this means the initiative is all but certain to proceed to the EU Commission. I think the only scenario it won’t be is if we had botnet spoofing on a large scale earlier, so more people signing still helps,” said campaign creator Ross Scott in a July 20 X/Twitter post.
Previously, European Parliament vice president Nicolae Ștefănuță voiced support for the petition, stating, “I stand with the people who started this citizen initiative. I signed and will continue to help them. A game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company.”
Not all involved parties have voiced their support, however. Publisher trade group Video Games Europe pushed back earlier in July, claiming the proposals would “curtail developer choice”. These concerns aligned with those put forward by Twitch streamer Pirate Software, who has been accused of misrepresenting the campaign’s goal.
The petition is currently being verified by authorities across EU member states. If validated, it will move on to formal presentation before the Commission later this year.
