Stop Killing Games (SKG), also known as Stop Destroying Videogames (SDVG), is a consumer movement that seeks to preserve video games after they are taken offline. It was started in 2024 by Ross Scott in response to the shutdown of Ubisoft's The Crew, a 2014 racing game that required a constant internet connection despite being mainly single-player. It uses various legal avenues to push for requiring video game publishers to keep games playable and in a reasonably functioning state even after their discontinuation, challenging the industry trend of selling games as a revocable license or service that can at any moment be rendered obsolete by the publisher.
Stop Killing Games quickly garnered popularity, being covered by various YouTubers and news outlets. It was praised by various celebrities, politicians and game developers for tackling a long-lasting problem in the video game industry, though some were sceptical, citing issues with licensed and proprietary content as well as increased development costs due to preservation efforts.
Stop Killing Games has launched multiple government petitions, of which the most prominent is a European Citizens' Initiative named Stop Destroying Videogames, which received around 1.3 million valid signatures. Additionally, a UK Parliament petition managed to amass enough votes for an official debate, though it was ultimately decided that no amendments to existing law would be made.
Background
The Crew was a 2014 racing game developed by Ubisoft Ivory Tower and Ubisoft Reflections and published by Ubisoft. The game was designed to require a constant internet connection to Ubisoft's online servers to play, including for play in single-player. By December 14, 2023, Ubisoft delisted the game and its expansions from digital platforms, suspended sales of microtransactions, and announced that the game's servers would be shut down on March 31, 2024, citing "upcoming server infrastructure and licensing constraints". Ubisoft offered refunds to people who "recently" purchased The Crew, though the time window for an eligible refund was not specified. The servers were shut down as planned on the announced date. Days after the shutdown in early April 2024, Ubisoft began revoking licenses from players who had bought The Crew.
Ross Scott is a YouTuber primarily known for his machinima series Freeman's Mind and the owner of YouTube channel Accursed Farms. He has been critical of the shutdown of online-only games, describing the practice as an "assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media" and comparing it to movie studios during the silent film era "burning their own films after they were done showing them to recover the silver content", while also pointing out that "most films of that era are gone forever." In 2019, Scott criticized games as a service, calling it fraud.
Overview The main goal of Stop Killing Games is to prevent video game publishers from unilaterally rendering purchased games unplayable, typically by shutting down servers for online-only games. The majority of online-only games become inaccessible after discontinuation, with fewer titles receiving official offline patches despite public outcry. Fan-made patches to keep games playable after their shutdown require a dedicated community and run the risk of receiving a takedown notice from the publishers due to alleged copyright or trademark infringement. A problem since the 2000s, it has been exacerbated over time by the increasing prevalence of digital rights management systems and the decline of private server options.
A central concern of Stop Killing Games involves online-only games and downloadable content being listed on storefronts prominently as a purchase instead of as a rent or lease, despite the possibility of access being remotely denied to the purchaser (without an expiration date at the time of purchase) by the publisher for any or no reason. This practice is widespread across the gaming industry and untested in courts. Historically, video games have frequently been dismissed as children's toys and associated with geek culture from their inception until approximately the mid-2000s. Consequently, politicians have largely overlooked issues related to video game preservation and have marginalized video games as a legitimate art form. Stop Killing Games seeks to convince lawmakers of the artistic value of video games and their importance as a product, emphasizing the necessity of preservation efforts and addressing concerns regarding the apparent lack of user ownership and potential consumer law violations by publishers.
Stop Killing Games does not demand for games to be supported and updated by their developers forever, rather arguing that they should be required to be left in a reasonably functional state after discontinuation, such as by introducing an offline mode or the ability to host private servers. Scott also clarified that the movement does not focus on the delisting of games from storefronts as long as they are still playable by buyers after discontinuation, and that they do not focus on any financial censorship issues.
Stop Killing Games uses government initiatives and other legal avenues in order to pursue regulation in favor of game preservation. Countries with strong consumer protection laws, such as France and Germany, are prioritized within the movement's reach. Other countries are less available, such as Brazil, due to lack of The Crew sales data, or the United States, which Scott wrote off as a fruitful legal or political arena for any initiative as a result of the precedent set by the court ruling .
Members Ross Scott is the founder of the movement, spearheading it until his standby break in August 2025. Moritz Katzner is a German political operative involved with SKG since 2025, being the strategy lead behind the European Citizens' Initiative and the two official non-governmental organisations launched in February 2026, as well as one of the organizers of the movement alongside Daniel Ondruška. Jonah Goldman is the director of operations performed in United States. The European Citizen Initiative was spearheaded by a number of volunteers from across Europe.
Activities
2024
In April 2024, after the shutdown of The Crew, Scott released a video titled "The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games" on his YouTube channel introducing Stop Killing Games and launched a website for the campaign. He also encouraged multiple petitions for Stop Killing Games, such as the UK Parliament petition and the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) in the European Union, the latter of which gained over 350,000 signatures in the first two months.
At the same time, public complaints about The Crew shutdown to consumer agencies were also encouraged, such as the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Protection in France and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in Australia. The European Citizens' Initiative was later renamed to Stop Destroying Videogames, with Scott opting not to use the word "kill" to avoid confusion with the topic of violence and video games. The initiative's organisers have been reported to cooperate with members of the European Parliament, Niklas Nienaß from the Green Party and Patrick Breyer from the Pirate Party.
The UK government responded to the Parliament petition, stating that "there is no requirement in UK law compelling software companies and providers to support older versions of their operating systems, software or connected products". On May 30, 2024, the petition was cut short due to the calling of the 2024 general election in the country. A new petition was started, quickly gaining over 10,000 signatures, which was the amount needed for a guaranteed response for the government.
2025
In February 2025, the UK government responded to the new petition, stating that it had "no plans to amend consumer law on digital obsolescence", but pointing out that "if consumers are led to believe that a game will remain playable indefinitely for certain systems, despite the end of physical support, the CPR may require that the game remains technically feasible ... to play under those circumstances". In May 2025, Scott published a spreadsheet containing various online-only video games and their playability status. Rock Paper Shotgun reported that 68% out of the 738 games were either unplayable or at risk. Only 16 games that were playable after discontinuation have been salvaged by the developers, with the other 110 being fan-preserved.
While the European Citizens Initiative gained many signatures at the start, it quickly lost momentum, stagnating at around 450,000 signatures, 45% of the 1 million signatures needed for Commission representatives to act on the petition. In June 2025, Scott uploaded a video, expecting the initiative to fail and outlining that the problem with the insufficient signatures "isn't getting gamers to care about games; it's getting people to care about anything". Support for the initiative increased greatly after the release of the video.
On July 2, 2025, the UK Parliament petition reached 100,000 signatures, meaning it was considered for debate in Parliament. One day later, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) reached 1 million signatures, making it eligible for debate in the European Commission. However, Scott stated that more signatures were still needed to offset invalid ones. The UK petition went on to close on July 14, 2025 with 189,887 signatures. For the ECI, an additional target of 1.4 million signatures was set, which was achieved on July 20, 2025. Scott also stated that a cryptocurrency under the title of Stop Killing Games had nothing to do with him or the campaign, calling it a "scam".
On July 21, 2025, Scott said that a transparency complaint had been filed against the EU petition, accusing the campaign of failing to "provide clear, accurate and comprehensive information on the sources of funding for the initiative exceeding €500 per sponsor". Scott rejected the claim, noting having no financial support on the EU petition and claiming that the organisers "literally asked EU representatives if it was okay for [him] to assist them in the capacity [he] have been back in spring 2024... [and] they said what [he has] been doing is fine". He also stated that the EU petition is separate from the Stop Killing Games campaign and has its own organisers, of whom he is not a part of. While the complaint was filed anonymously, Scott suspected video game industry representatives to be behind it.
On July 29, 2025, Scott encouraged his YouTube viewers to send feedback to the EU's Digital Fairness Act public consultation. On July 31, 2025, the Stop Destroying Videogames European Citizens Initiative closed, with a final signature count of . Initial validation by the initiative estimated that 97% of the signatures were valid, making it likely the petition would require addressing by the EU. On August 4, Scott opined that Stop Killing Games has "changed the timeline, or is attempting to" and that "without [Stop Killing Games], The Crew would have been just another shutdown", noting the lack of response from various previously discontinued games, most notably Overwatch. He also stated that he hasn't "had time to play a game for close to a couple months", aiming to go on a "standby break" from the campaign. On October 26, Stop Killing Games organiser Moritz Katzner shared the progress of the ECI validation and the Digital Fairness Act, the latter of which was described as "record-breaking", and revealed their intention of cooperating with other game studios, clarifying that "the vast majority of studios—especially European ones, both indie and AAA—have always listened to players and strived to do right by the community" and that the issue of game preservation "is driven by a powerful few who do not represent the values of creators or players."
2026