EU Declines Video Game Playability Mandate

When Ubisoft shut down the servers for its 2014 racing game, The Crew, in early 2024, players who had paid for the title found they could no longer access it.

This reality became the impetus for a European‑wide consumer campaign and, on 16 June 2026, the subject of a formal European Commission (Commission) response with which every business selling digital content or services to consumers should familiarise themselves carefully.

The ‘Stop Destroying Videogames’ initiative reached the Commission as a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), a participation-led mechanism that allows citizens to place an issue directly on the EU policy agenda once it gathers at least one million verified signatures. This initiative gathered close to 1.3 million signatures. Its main driver was that publishers, the entities that control a game’s commercial, technical and contractual lifecycle, should be required to leave games in a playable state once they stop supporting them commercially, without any