Full Hearing Highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXdmoeaYZ9Y
Ross Scott, also known as Accursed Farms, speaks at the European Parliament during the public hearing of the IMCO, JURI and PETI committees on the European Citizens’ Initiative “Stop Destroying Videogames”, held on 16 April 2026.
This is an edited (transformative) version created to improve accessibility. Edits that add transformative value include cutting; restructuring the content by theme and topic; adding the presentation in much higher quality; and enhancing video and audio quality. This edited version does not distort the meaning or message of the original video.
In this clip, Scott @Accursed_Farms sets out the consumer case behind the Stop Killing Games movement and explains what he means when he says a video game has been “destroyed”. His core argument is that some publishers sell games as one-time purchases, while designing them to depend on publisher-controlled servers that can later be switched off permanently. According to Scott, when support ends in this way, customers can lose access to a product they paid for, with no clear end date disclosed at the time of sale and with little realistic possibility of repair or preservation afterward.
He argues that this practice does more than remove access to individual titles. In his view, it erases games from the cultural record, undermines long-standing consumer expectations around ownership and durability, and leaves buyers with limited legal protection. He compares the issue to other industries where a seller could not simply reclaim a purchased product at will while keeping the customer’s money.
Scott also addresses the legal uncertainty around the issue in the EU. Referring to previous exchanges with the European Commission and complaints submitted through the European Consumer Centres Network, he says responses have varied widely across member states and that there is still no clear, consistent framework for handling cases where games are disabled after sale. He cites the Ubisoft title The Crew as a major recent example that drew attention to the problem.
The intervention also covers the scale of the practice. Scott says the movement has studied more than 1,100 games requiring publisher connection and argues that disabling sold games after support ends is widespread, especially among larger publishers. He frames the issue as one of consumer rights, preservation, and regulatory clarity rather than an attempt to ban particular business models. His position is that publishers should be free to end support, but not in a way that permanently destroys access to the purchased game.
He also addresses cost arguments raised by the industry, saying that end-of-life planning can be manageable when considered from the start of development, and that unsupported games do not need to retain every live-service feature indefinitely. He further notes that many developers themselves do not support seeing their work rendered permanently unplayable.
This clip is from the European Parliament hearing on the “Stop Destroying Videogames” European Citizens’ Initiative, often referred to publicly as Stop Killing Games.
Chapters:
00:00 What It Means to Destroy a Game
00:26 The Publisher Kill Switch
01:09 What Customers Expect
01:51 Why This Would Be Outrageous
02:48 EU Law Is Still Unclear
03:21 The Crew and Ubisoft Complaints
04:14 This Has Been Happening for Years
04:45 Study of 1,100 Games
05:42 Impact on Players and Devs
06:04 What Stop Killing Games Wants
06:35 The Cost Argument
08:07 Right to Repair and Preservation
09:30 Why Lawsuits Are Not Enough
Stop Killing Games
https://www.stopkillinggames.com/en
https://www.youtube.com/@stopkillinggames-official
https://www.youtube.com/@Accursed_Farms
Europe Echo
https://europeecho.com
https://www.instagram.com/EuropeEcho
https://www.tiktok.com/@EuropeEcho
https://www.facebook.com/EuropeEcho
https://twitter.com/EuropeEcho
Uploaded by James Tamim, EU Digital Policy analyst.
© European Union, 2026
Edits applied by Europe Echo (transformative value add): repetition, silences, and stutters removed; content restructured by theme so questions and answers stay together and topics remain organised (some sections may be reordered to separate topics more clearly); on-screen context and detailed descriptions added (topic labels, chapters, captions) to make long briefings easier to follow; and video/audio quality enhanced (cropping, splicing the correct audio-language tracks, voice isolation, and colour correction).
Comments (0)