Commission will engage with industry following European Citizens\' Initiative on the disabling of videogames by publishers
ec.europa.eu
The European Commission will engage with consumers and publishers by the end of 2026 to explore ways to improve industry standards, as a response to the European Citizens\' Initiative (ECI) ‘Stop Destroying Videogames\'.\u202F

Cross posted from https://feddit.org/post/31333476

Existing EU consumer law already provides for important safeguards protecting the economic interests of consumers. Video game providers must inform consumers about the duration and the conditions for terminating the contract before the consumers signs up for the video game. […]

However, to address players’ concerns, the Commission has committed to taking several steps.

First, it will initiate an exchange with the video game industry and consumer representatives with the aim to draw up an industry code of conduct on managing video games’ ‘end of life’.

Second, the Commission will work with consumer organisations and authorities to raise awareness about the applicable rights that protect consumers, including on safeguards protecting the economic interests of consumers

Edit: edited title for more clarity.

  • SleeplessCityLights@programming.devEnglish
    2·
    5 days ago

    You get x amount of money to make a game. When you release, you used all of that x amount of money to make the game. You don’t sell well and did not recoup the cost of making the game. Now you have negative dollars to make any changes in the game. The end.

    • Miaou@jlai.luEnglish
      11·
      4 days ago

      Quite a deep and complex comment, thank you for taking the time to write it out.

      You did omit the part where it is relevant, unfortunately

      • SleeplessCityLights@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        What are your ideas on determining an expiry date? A studio has no idea if they are going to be supporting a game for 5 weeks or 5 years. There is no fair number. When you are out of money you are out of money. If you let the studios decide, they will pick 1 day. If you set it at 1 year, only the unicorns and AAA can afford to stay in business. It would probably be more profitable and better for business to forgo the EU release altogether. No exaggeration. It will even save a bunch of money on localization. The studios will weaponized capitalism.