Stop Killing Games Movement Debated in Front of UK Parliament

By Catherine Masters | November 5, 2025 | 1:45pm

Video Games News stop killing games

Stop Killing Games Movement Debated in Front of UK Parliament

After a successful petition with 189,887 signatures, the United Kingdom parliament held a debate on November 3 regarding the preservation of games tied to online servers. The petition was spearheaded by the Stop Killing Games (SKG) movement alongside similar action in the European Union and the United States.

Led by Ross Scott of the YouTube channel Accursed Farms, SKG is a consumer rights campaign interested in long-term access and preservation of games. When The Crew was delisted and taken offline by publisher Ubisoft, SKG received a great amount of attention, leading to several successful petitions worldwide. The movement has not been without controversy, with its Discord community server being shut down, pushback from the industry, and various video game makers picking fights with SKG as it grew in prominence.

SKG’s main focus is on combating the “planned obsolescence” of countless server-reliant games, including those with single-player experiences that are now unavailable. Several lawyers in the games space have given their thoughts (not legal advice) on the movement and licensing agreements in general, which you may wish to check out for further details, in addition to Parliament’s data pack.

Purchasing a game entitles the consumer to a license to play it, so long as they agree to various terms and conditions, for as long as the publisher allows it to be played. Although many games now ask players to agree to licenses upon start-up, simply playing a game constitutes agreeing to these terms. In an age of live service games like Concord and Anthem going down, people are more aware than ever of how easily publishers can revoke access to the games they have bought and invested time into.

Most Popular

This leads to this week’s debate. Petition debates in the UK government are not held to settle on an outcome there and then, but to allow ministers to raise points on an issue regarding the course of action. The debate was spearheaded by MP for South Norfolk Ben Goldsborough, who started by outlining his own love for games like Oddworld, Victoria II and Cities: Skylines. Goldsborough argued that there should be “clear notice periods” ahead of an online game being shut down and for offline modes to be provided when possible, at least preserving assets for cultural history if a game is a financial failure.

Members of parliament were keen to demonstrate their gaming bona-fides as they brought up their constituents’ concerns, with more game-related puns than you would hope a debate on artistic preservation would have. Few spoke to the nature of licenses, instead focusing on the importance of prior announcement to shutdown, which is already commonplace. The constituency of Salford has the most representation in the petition with 523 signatures, although their MP did not speak at the debate.

In her closing remarks on the debate, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Stephanie Peacock, focused on the importance of game companies communicating clearly as per the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 so that consumers are not misinformed when buying games. She also discussed how mandating long-term access to online games could “discourage the innovation” of the medium due to the costs involved, as well as the risk of “reputational harm” that games could incur for studios if turned over to fans without any kind of oversight. Games like KarmaZoo would certainly not have been released if they had to consider support as long-term as publishers like EA could afford.

As someone whose most-played game this year was live service raising sim UmaMusume: Pretty Derby, the shadow of end-of-service looms large. In a few years, 2024 multiplayer hit Helldivers II will likely not be playable at all, and the prospect of investing time or money into a game destined for deletion is deterring for many. Some companies have chosen to release the source code for their games, while others have allowed users to set up their own servers or LAN play, but none of this is an industry standard.

Parliament’s response to the petition in February asserted that “there are no plans to amend UK consumer law on disabling video games”, and it remains unclear what today’s debate may foster in the years to come. Elsewhere, the European Commission has recognised Stop Destroying Games as an EU Citizens Initiative, and their call for evidence regarding the Digital Fairness Act was promoted on SKG’s website.