Hello, my favorite readers. I hope everyone is staying cool in what feels like hell’s boiler room these days. Normally I try to write happier columns since it prevents the chief editor from glaring at me like he is trying to shoot lasers from his eyes. For the most part, I have made do in my columns with chronicling about older games and revisiting some newer ones that went through updates. Now, however, I want to talk about something at the forefront of the game industry. There is a movement called “Stop Killing Games” that says on its website that its purpose is “A consumer movement started to challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers.” What they mean is that gamers buy titles expecting to be able to play them ad infinitum. However, once publishers shut down the servers, those titles become unplayable.

I wanted to take some time to explain how the industry got here and offer a few personal opinions on the matter. While most people are likely shouting “Ubisoft, duh” at their monitor, I believe it starts a little earlier with Amazon. In 2020, they were sued via class action lawsuit (see here for awesome coverage from the University of Miami Law School). The suit claimed that Amazon took people’s owned materials away, namely movies that they had bought for streaming through that platform. Amazon countered by saying that their terms and conditions, something we all obviously read, states that purchases are all “non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-commercial, and limited license access.” Put simply, your purchase is just paying for a license to stream or to watch a movie as much as you want, but only for as long as it remains on the platform.

Like many of you before this lawsuit came out, I was under the assumption that if I bought something, that it was mine. So, I would argue that Amazon set the foundation for the current legal issues we are having within the game industry. As much as I hate linking to a competitor, IGN has done some great coverage on the Ubisoft “The Crew” lawsuit in California. Long and short of it, Ubisoft killed the servers to the 2014 racing game The Crew, which makes it unable to be played. Two members brought a class action lawsuit against Ubisoft for deceptive advertising and breaking California’s law on gift cards expiring. As of the most recent article I have seen, Ubisoft is currently trying to get the case dismissed.

I am not going to dive into the nuances of the legal arguments in these cases as I am not a legal professional. I wanted to use this column to give my thoughts on this issue and provide my insight on this industry crossroads. I know that many will shout that this issue is purely a consequence of “corporate greed.” I mean, sure, that always plays a small part in most incidents like this. When you have a publicly owned, for profit company whose shareholders want profit maximization at all costs, it will cause these sorts of issues. But instead, I would argue that the majority of this (I say majority and not all) is just a natural endpoint given the way that gamers now spend their time.

There are a lot of gamers who play games only for the online multiplayer or ranked matches. While there are players who play multiple games of varying genres, we all know people who play nothing but titles such as Madden, Destiny, Overwatch, and others like that designed for multiplayer. These live service games require lots of players, usually microtransactions, and they’re expensive to maintain servers for, especially over time. Anthem is a cautionary tale of what can happen. It launched in 2019, and EA will be shutting the servers off forever in 2026, making Anthem unplayable. As the industry trends shifted to online live-service games, this is unfortunately the new norm.

That said, the companies are not completely without fault on this issue either. Companies don’t have to discontinue physical media. For example, did you know that when people buy some physical games for the Nintendo Switch, what they are really getting is a digital code? Not every title we play needs to be connected to the internet or some game server non-stop either. One of my issues with the NBA 2K series for the Switch was if I paused it and put it to sleep mode to use the restroom or make dinner, I was disconnected and booted to the main menu.

Also, game publishers should not forget that there is still an appetite for non-live service games, as evidenced by the success of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster (which never had an online component in any form) and Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, which had one of the most engaging single player stories to come out in many years.

My personal opinion is that the game industry is at a major crossroads. IGN noted that young Americans are spending 25% less on games today than they were at this time last year. Economic headwinds are likely going to hit the market as well. Publishers and gamers are going to have to meet each other halfway. My advice to gamers, find some titles that you can play offline that you enjoy because I don’t expect the industry to change this license model any time soon.