this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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This feels like a workaround for a core problem: Media (particularly games) are no longer transferable goods.
What's needed is a proper legal standard WRT resale-ability and server support. Clear requirements on what a piece of software must be able to do without its private and impossible-to-acquire cloud server, and clear requirements on allowing transfers of ownership of non-recurring-subscription-based digital goods.
"Stop Killing Games" is precisely the action campaign that is meant to get this type of conversation into the halls of governments everywhere.
The idea of this campaign is that lobbying for law changes is very expensive and consumers won't have the cash to compete against industry giants. It sucks. It's classic regulatory capture.
Instead, this campaign targets consumer protection laws in jurisdictions with teeth. France, in particular. If we can get a regulator to issue a substantial fine in France, then we've effectively won without needing legal changes.
Companies will need to choose to not do business in the EU or meet the requirements implied by the agency's decision; the hope is that there's a flat judgement that making the game unplayable requires a full refund to every consumer, or a fix to make the game work offline.
Then, companies will need to ensure that they have a plan in place to allow for offline play. If that's "baked in" to the design from inception, then it's not a big deal. It worked for the industry for decades until they realized that live service games offer new revenue streams.
As an added bonus, there's hope that microtransaction/DLC purchases will also need to be maintained; this would effectively mean that, if they take the MTX/DLC/purchase DRM servers offline, they would need to allow anyone to use any of their MTX/DLC, presumably by including a window to download the files to run everything DRM-free.
I hope that all makes sense. Essentially, The Crew might be the weakest link that brings this entire unethical business practice to its knees.