Members of the European Parliament discuss the European Citizens’ Initiative “Stop Destroying Videogames”, which calls for video games sold or licensed to consumers in the EU to remain in a functional, playable state when publishers decide to discontinue them.
The initiative focuses on cases where games or related features can be remotely disabled, leaving consumers unable to play something they paid for. It asks for reasonable means to keep discontinued games playable without requiring publishers to keep providing ongoing support, resources, ownership rights, intellectual property rights or monetisation rights.
The debate looks at what this could mean for consumers, game preservation, digital ownership and the responsibilities of video game publishers in the EU. The initiative was registered by the European Commission in 2024, and organisers presented its objectives to the Commission in February 2026.