Hi all, there is a new e-petition started by the guys at Stop Killing Games. This has been started, in no small part, thanks to Ubisoft making the game “The Crew” unplayable for all owners world wide.
Excerpt from their website:
An increasing number of videogames are sold as goods, but designed to be completely unplayable for everyone as soon as support ends. The legality of this practice is untested worldwide, and many governments do not have clear laws regarding these actions. It is our goal to have authorities examine this behavior and hopefully end it, as it is an assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media.
Petition Request:
- Require software sold in Australia to remain in a functional state after the end of the product’s support period, continuing to operate without any intervention from the publisher.
- Require publishers selling additional features/assets for their software to leave said software in a functional state after the end of the product’s support period, so customers can continue to utilise features/assets they purchased without any intervention from the publisher.
- Establish that these requirements supercede software End-User License Agreements, as many such licenses attempt to strip customers’ right to ownership over their purchased goods, as guaranteed under schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
Obviously, if you own “The Crew”, you can go right to ACCC or your states/territory consumer protection body to make a complaint. The website even has a guide to file a complaint to the ACCC.
Video from the guy who is starting the campaign: The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games.
If you feel strongly enough on this issue, please go ahead and sign the petition. I think it would be great if the government could get their eyes on this and make some legislation around this so game publishers can’t weasel their way out of us owning our purchased game software.
Just look at Valve, they were pretty much forced to make a refund policy for us.
The e-petition closes on the 20th of May at midnight. Thanks for your time 😀
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Oh yes, make sure to verify via the email sent.
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I love the wording of the petition:
functional state after the end of the product’s support period, continuing to operate without any intervention from the publisher.
This completely circumvents the garbage argument that it costs money to keep software running after a certain date. If a car company claimed that letting their cars continue to work after 5 years would cost them money then we’d laugh at them. Software and computers, however, are magic.
Separate to idiotic moves to make standalone software phone home, we do need to have updated laws that deal with products and services that depends on third party infrastructure to exist.
For example, many cloud dependent “smart” home products have been crippled or bricked by their vendors disabling or limiting cloud services. In those cases, consumers deserve a remedy if the change happens soon enough after purchase.
And should vendors be required to open their hardware once it exits support?
It would be nice if “smart” home devices fell under this category. If the devices software is the reason that the device fails to continue to work, then they should be held responsible, and made to remedy a fix…or full refund.
Full refund, inflation adjusted.
Thanks, wasn’t aware there was a petition. Signed it.
