We appreciate the passion of our community; however, the decision to discontinue online services is multi-faceted, never taken lightly and must be an option for companies when an online experience is no longer commercially viable. We understand that it can be disappointing for players but, when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws. Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create. We welcome the opportunity to discuss our position with policy makers and those who have led the European Citizens Initiative in the coming months.
We just want to know what the end of life plan is up front. If we know it will be gone completely at some future point, we can use that information in deciding whether to purchase it in the first place.
If you are looking at it that way, you should not buy any game with an online component. Every single one of those will be gone at some point.
I know you are asking the “when” but that can be difficult to assess for a company that is built on pure profit.
Which is why the initiative is more about being able to make your own servers for these games, not about forcing companies to keep their servers alive indefinitely.
If you are looking at it that way, you should not buy any game with an online component.
Way ahead of you. I generally avoid games that make me rely on other people for my fun anyway.
That said, hypothetically, I still might ‘buy’ (i.e. lease) a game even if I know that it’ll be shut down eventually. It depends on the game. I even bought into the early access for Assetto Corsa Evo, although I am slightly uncomfortable that I don’t know what the EOL plan is for that. At least it has an offline mode built in.
We just want to know what the end of life plan is up front. If we know it will be gone completely at some future point, we can use that information in deciding whether to purchase it in the first place.
Why is this so hard to understand?
If you are looking at it that way, you should not buy any game with an online component. Every single one of those will be gone at some point.
I know you are asking the “when” but that can be difficult to assess for a company that is built on pure profit.
Which is why the initiative is more about being able to make your own servers for these games, not about forcing companies to keep their servers alive indefinitely.
Way ahead of you. I generally avoid games that make me rely on other people for my fun anyway.
That said, hypothetically, I still might ‘buy’ (i.e. lease) a game even if I know that it’ll be shut down eventually. It depends on the game. I even bought into the early access for Assetto Corsa Evo, although I am slightly uncomfortable that I don’t know what the EOL plan is for that. At least it has an offline mode built in.