'Stop Killing Games' European Citizens' Initiative crosses 1 million signature goal, but there's a catch
With the European Citizens' Initiative petition crossing 1 million signatures, there's an increased likelihood that the European Commission will consider new laws to bolster game preservation and better regulate video game companies.
However, there's a catch, as 'Stop Killing Games' organizer Ross Scott explained in his update video after the signature target was hit.
Many of the 'Stop Killing Games' signatures might be invalid
Ross pointed out the likelihood that many of the signatures were either improperly filed or fraudulently submitted by people not in the European Union. He reiterated that this wasn't just a change.org petition, and that the European Commission would treat the prevalence of fraudulent or improper signatures very seriously.
Ross wasn't sure how these illegitimate signatures would impact the initiative's overall goals, but he has set up an 'overdrive' target of 400,000 additional signatures to account for these discrepancies.
Ross made a deliberate effort not to sound too optimistic about how things were going, as he believed he was in a 'fog' and unsure of how successful the initiative actually was.
However, the deadline for the European Citizens' Initiative petition is the end of July, which gives the movement a generous window to course-correct and bolster the campaign.
'Stop Killing Games' is a reaction to contentious industry practices
The 'Stop Killing Games' initiative has passed 1,000,000 signatures pic.twitter.com/UkuXWU2mFk
'Stop Killing Games' is a dedicated movement to advocate for game preservation that coalesced into its current state after Ubisoft's decision to completely pull 2014's The Crew from all storefronts, as well as shut down the game servers and render it completely unplayable.
Ross Scott, who'd made his name on the Internet as a machinima content creator, began to organize a legal advocacy movement in order to regulate the games industry and prevent it from revoking access to games people already own.
Aside from the European Citizens' Initiative, 'Stop Killing Games' is also working with consumer protection organizations of individual European Union countries, and has also submitted a petition to the United Kingdom parliament, which crossed its 100,000 signature goal on July 2, just one day before the success of the European Citizens' Initiative.
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