Stop Killing Games has hit their latest setback, but this one is quite serious.
In response to their huge European Citizen’s Initiative campaign, the European Commission said this:
The Commission considers that at this stage it cannot propose a legal obligation to keep video games playable after they stop being provided commercially. This is due, also, to existing intellectual property rights.
The Commission did say they will take other actions to address SKG’s concerns. They are drafting a code of conduct to manage end of life for video games, and will launch a new campaign to make sure consumers know about their digital content rights as is.
In response, Stop Killing Games says they will bring the issue to the EU Parliament, this time as an amendment to the Digital Fairness Act. Stop Killing Games had previously failed to convince UK’s CMA to draft new rules or legislation.
Stop Killing Games has already swayed some EU Parliament members to their side, but it’s clear that they haven’t achieved consensus on it yet. It will still take a few months more, possibly even years, before we find out how their push in the EU Parliament fares.