By Topher Chambers
As the Stop Killing Games initiative passes over 1.4 million signatures, well beyond the threshold for consideration by the EU Commission, powerful industry lobbyists are now trying to invalidate it by attacking the messenger rather than the message.
Ross Scott, the independent YouTuber who sparked the public awareness campaign, has never claimed to lead the official EU Citizens’ Initiative. In fact, he’s explicitly stated he is not a member of the initiative, nor eligible to be. His role has always been what democracy needs most: a citizen advocate, raising awareness and encouraging people to participate in lawful civic action.
Despite this, groups like Video Games Europe are now claiming the initiative is illegitimate, suggesting Ross’s support constitutes “misrepresentation.” This is a willful distortion of the facts. Ross made clear in multiple videos and statements that he was not an official initiator. Moreover, he verified this approach in advance with the EU’s own Citizens’ Initiative regulators.
This isn’t just a baseless smear, it’s a desperate attempt to silence consumer voices.
So Here’s Our Counter: Stop Buying Games
If the gaming industry won’t respect our right to preserve the things we buy, then we have every right to say:
We will stop buying your games.
We’re done with:
- Games that disappear when servers go offline.
- Purchases that mean nothing without DRM.
- Publishers that believe owning a game is a relic of the past.
If our call for basic digital rights is dismissed as “misrepresentation,” then we no longer owe the industry our loyalty, or our wallets.
This Isn’t Just a Protest—It’s a Warning
We want to be heard. That’s why over a million people across Europe signed this initiative. But if game publishers, and the lobbyists they fund, choose to silence us through legal technicalities, we will walk.
A Stop Buying Games movement sends a clear message: until our rights are taken seriously, your bottom line will suffer. It may not be all at once. But it will be loud. It will be organized. And it will be felt.
This industry has spent the past decade monetizing every aspect of digital gaming: microtransactions, subscriptions, timed exclusivity, and now the slow murder of once-beloved titles. We’ve accepted a lot. But if even a basic demand, “Don’t kill what we paid for”, is too much?
Then you don’t deserve our money.
This isn’t a war on developers. We know most devs want their games to last. This is a stand against an exploitative system that treats consumers like renters and players like data points.
We aren’t asking for eternal servers. We’re asking for offline modes, modding rights, and the right to keep playing what we bought. If the industry can’t agree to even that, then maybe it’s time for players to press pause… permanently.
