Gamers are calling for developers to leave some of their favourite games in a playable condition, with huge titles taking down live service entirely while fans still enjoy playing.
Video game preservation isn’t anything new in the industry, however a recent movement to tackle ‘live service’ issues is garnering interest from gamers across the world.
A live service game is simply one that requires constant updates and modifications throughout its lifetime so that gamers do not get tired or bored of the initial release.
Some huge titles have been made completely unplayable in the last few years after developers took them offline including popular games such as The Crew and Destiny 2.
While The Crew was removed from all platforms, Destiny 2 developers decided to remove the original story from gameplay altogether in a process dubbed ‘sunsetting’.
There has already been success with a petition calling for publishers to leave live service games like these unaltered well after the final updates, so that gamers can keep playing what they love years down the line.
The petition reads: “This initiative calls to require publishers that sell or license videogames to consumers in the European Union (or related features and assets sold for videogames they operate) to leave said videogames in a functional (playable) state.”
Gamers want a guarantee
Long gone are the days where gamers would buy a physical disc for their most beloved games and the petition understands that those are the ways of the past.
However, there is a constant fear amongst the gaming community that the best games will all of a sudden will no longer be playable as developers are the ones who control when the game has reached its expiry date.
So with this petition, gamers are attempting to convince licenses to come with a ‘guarantee’ that new games will remain playable even well after the final update has been released.
Unfortunately for gamers the live service troubles may continue well into the future, as a petition such as this has to reach one million signatures across seven countries in order to be a successful one.
There is also another problem as developers can simply refuse the request even if the petition does go through, with so many T&Cs in their own games allowing for live service to be halted at any point.
