Sign The Stop Destroying Video Games Initiative
"You don't have to care to sign"
If you are in the EU I would ask that you sign the Stop Destroying Video Games Initiative, also known as the "Stop Killing Games" consumer movement. The why is the following, to quote the initiative itself, emphasis in bold is mine:
This initiative calls to require publishers that sell or license videogames to consumers in the European Union (or related features and assets sold for videogames they operate) to leave said videogames in a functional (playable) state.
Specifically, the initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher.
The initiative does not seek to acquire ownership of said videogames, associated intellectual rights or monetization rights, neither does it expect the publisher to provide resources for the said videogame once they discontinue it while leaving it in a reasonably functional (playable) state.
A link to sign the petition is here: https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home
No registration is required.
More specific information on the initiative can be read here in English, with other languages available: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000007_en#
If you are not in the EU, then please tell any and all of your friends, family and associates in the European Union. The deadline for the petition is just a few weeks away, July 31st 2025, and it is just a few thousand shy of its goal of one million signatories. A similar proposal to the UK government already met its goal of 100k signatures and is due to be debated in parliament.
Sign the fucking petition.
Edit: No sooner than I wrote this yesterday that the signature amount was already past 1 million - this does not mean you should not sign it. Sign the fucking petition.
Why should you care?
You don't. You're being asked to sign a petition. In return for doing so, you won't have to care about this. The people arranging this initiative are the ones that care.
Sign the fucking petition.
What's this got to do with indie games?
Video games have inherited a lot of bad habits from tech companies and mobile app development - in some cases very literally, as in people who worked in the latter have migrated to the former. I have worked in both sectors for a significant amount of time and this anti-consumerist behavior is arguably one of the worst ones I've personally witnessed. If you're a millennial such as myself, chances are you probably had at least one phone app you paid money for that you used years ago, or bought and never got round to it… and now you can no longer access it on your current device.
As a very obvious and personal example, I once purchased a copy of two games all the way back in 2012 for my Apple account. The two games were Plants vs. Zombies HD, and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. I own neither of these games anymore on iOS because they do not exist on my Apple account. Plants vs. Zombies HD got taken down, replaced with a free to play version called Plants vs. Zombies™ that instead of being a fully functional game now includes microtransactions. I have no idea why I cannot download FF Tactics: WotL from the App Store. I still have the receipt that was delivered electronically for both games thirteen years ago. Though I was in Russia at the time and paid for it with Russian money, I have other paid apps on iOS bought with that same money that still function as intended years after the fact.
The apparent reason I cannot access either of these games on my current iOS device is because I no longer have an iPad. The iPad I did have stopped functioning altogether in 2014, not just physically (the screen would appear to power on but nothing would display) but also in terms of the software and hardware - it was an "old" tablet despite being purchased about two years prior in the departure lounge of a London airport, and a new generation of iPad was due to replace it.
Why this happens is because Apple deliberately engages in what is called planned obsolescence which is a practice that should be considered deeply illegal and is with "traditional" hardware. You can easily buy replacement parts for your washing machine or dryer in the EU because manufacturers are legally obliged to provide after market parts for a couple of decades. By contrast, a new Apple device and operating system "upgrade" appears every year. Each time it does, any app that doesn't keep up with the OS updates becomes non-functional. Meanwhile, older devices cannot be upgraded beyond certain OS versions because the physical chips superglued inside lock you to that version. Yes, this is a highly lucrative business, and the current market cap of Apple at time of writing is approximately 3.17 trillion (with a T) dollars.
Other companies have watched Apple pull this stunt over and over the past two decades and get away with it, so one must assume the thinking is if the biggest player in town is doing it, why can't we? You have likely heard of Nintendo doing the exact same with its eshop for the WiiU and the 3DS, which effectively forces customers to buy the same digital product again for an all-new device. Sign the fucking petition.
What about what that one person said online?
Aren't you meant to be signing the petition or telling a friend about it? I'll only point to one individual who put up a recent video that motivated me to finally post about this initiative, because they're not only smart but also have a broad understanding of how and why markets work the way they do (which of course means they are routinely ignored). It neatly summarizes the entire situation surrounding this movement, the industry reaction to it, but most importantly puts the focus on you the consumer and why this matters to you.
Now sign the fucking petition.