The racing MMO The Crew no longer exists. In Australia, there is now a legislative initiative to prevent this from happening in the future
The furor over The Crew continues: The shutdown and subsequent deletion of the game from the virtual libraries of its purchasers has raised far-reaching questions about the ownership of digital games.
After the Pirate Party presented the issue to the European Commission, politicians on the other side of the world will soon be dealing with the problem too. The initiative “Stop Killing Games” has reported its first success – in Australia
Signatures against the shutdown
When Ubisoft began to make the online-only racing MMO The Crew inaccessible to buyers, Stop Killing Games filed petitions in various countries to discuss the issue. The first of these petitions is now available online and has already been signedover 1,700 times In order for the petition to be presented to a minister or MP, 50 signatures are required
The petition calls on the lower house of the Australian parliament to pass legislation forcing game publishers to leave always-online software and DLCs in a functional state after support ends Furthermore, the House of Representatives should determine that such requirements override the terms and conditions of the companies
There are still hurdles
As Ross Scott from “Stop Killing Games” writes, however, there is a problem: The petition incorrectly refers to all software, which is “too broad a scope”. An attempt must be made to “limit the choice to video games” when the petition is presented by a minister. There is no time frame for the deliberations on a possible acceptance or rejection of the petition.
However, they are “in contact with an Australian law firm” and “now have an excellent chance of drawing the attention of the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, editor’s note] to this issue, so there is still hope”.
