Ross Scott, YouTube channel owner The Haunted Farmteeth, Online Campaign The campaign is against the video game industry practice of game publishers ending technical support for video games, rendering the games unplayable. According to Scott, the campaign is in response to video game publisher Ubisoft's decision to end support. CrewIt is an online-only video game that was first released in 2014.
What is the campaign about?
The video game industry has gradually transitioned from selling physical copies of video games to a digital business model where games can be purchased online and played through online servers operated by video game publishers. The transition to publisher-supported servers has improved the consumer experience in many ways: publishers can seamlessly update existing games and make them accessible across multiple devices (consoles, PCs, smartphones, etc.), and smaller publishers can release new games without dedicating resources to physical distribution. However, video games that run on publisher-supported servers become unplayable once the servers are no longer maintained.
In March 2024, Ubisoft announced that it would shut down the servers. CrewThe company cited server infrastructure and licensing constraints as the reason for dropping the video game. Crew It was originally released in 2014 with a reported player base of 12 million, though it is unclear how many of these players were active at the time of Ubisoft's announcement.
in video His posts The Haunted Farm On his YouTube channel, Scott argues that a publisher's intentional retirement of a video game is similar to a seller destroying a physical asset that a consumer has purchased. Scott applies this concept to the purchase of virtual items within a game (new characters, accessories, etc.) after the initial purchase of the game itself, since such items become unusable once the game is retired.
Although the sale of video games generally constitutes a revocable license from the game publisher to the consumer, legal grey areas may exist in countries where national consumer protection laws take precedence over license agreements. That said, existing consumer protection laws were enacted with physical products in mind and do not necessarily anticipate sellers destroying digital products after purchase.
The campaign began in France, where Ubisoft is headquartered and where consumer protection laws are relatively strong. The campaign has since spread to other countries, petitioning governments to enact laws that would prohibit video game publishers from rendering games inoperable. The campaign calls for laws that would require publishers to make the modifications necessary to allow games to run on third-party servers without ongoing support from the game publisher.1
Why is this campaign important?
If this campaign and similar efforts result in new legislation, video game publishers may face increased scrutiny and increased litigation risk when video games are discontinued. This development highlights the importance of game publishers retaining legal counsel that can provide timely advice on complying with consumer protection laws and other relevant doctrines in contract law, such as implied duties of good faith and fair dealing.
This issue may have implications beyond the gaming industry, as the prevalence of digital products in industries such as education and healthcare may raise similar consumer protection questions regarding maintaining the operability of such products in the future.
For more information, please feel free to contact us. Victor Ji Or Wilson Sonsini's Litigation Practice. For more information regarding gaming companies generally, please contact one of our lawyers. Electronic games Practice and learn more about practice scramble.
[1] Before publisher-sponsored servers became the industry standard, many online multiplayer games were hosted on private consumer servers that were directly connected to each other to enable gameplay.
