The Strategy to Stop Killing Games in the EU - Ross Scott | grokludo 25

Ross Scott is the face of the Stop Killing Games movement, which seeks to ensure games don't completely die when a developer or publisher ends support, but rather, enters an end-of-life plan that makes it reasonably playable – after which, a compliant gamemaker has no more liability.

Following a massive petition campaign in the EU, Ross recently spoke at an EU Parliament hearing, in which many in the room were positive about the movement. It's possible that policy around not killing games will be included in the EU's upcoming Digital Fairness Act, expected to be formally proposed later this year.

After that point, the EU Parliament and Council can make amendments, and there's sure to be some industry lobbying.

Ross Scott joins us this week to talk about the strategies of navigating EU politics, the discourse around the movement, and some of the more technical concerns, such as games that rely on middleware and third-party services, each with their own distribution licences.

Our last episode discussing Stop Killing Games featured Paul Kilduff-Taylor, who voiced concerns about large-scale regulation that might inadvertently, and disproportionately, hurt indies. He was also skeptical of anyone's ability to craft a legalese that could encompass the myriad architectures of modern games without ultimately harming good-faith developers who just want their games to be played.

Such legislative language must be both broad and precise – at once a sledgehammer and a scalpel that targets negligent or bad-faith gamemakers that promise the world in the marketing phase, and hit the escape button once it's clear they won't be the next big hero shooter.

There are more and more of these games. The Concords, the Anthems, the Highguards. The Lawbreakers, The Crews, the Supervives, and the Skull and Bones'. Some of them offer refunds to early buyers, some don't.

I put these concerns to Ross, and he was kind enough to stay for a while so we could go quite in-depth. Many existing games are already compliant, and others will take some figuring out – but crucially, the movement isn't hoping to apply the legislation retroactively. In terms of a cutoff date, we're potentially looking at 2030 or beyond, which gives us plenty of time to implement new best practices.

Ross also outlined the multiple paths to victory that the Stop Killing Games movement currently has, and the picture he paints is positive. Perhaps one day I'll fulfill my dream of hosting a local Battlerite server. A guy can dream.

I hope you all enjoy this episode, and thank you for subscribing to grokludo!