Nicolae Ștefănuță, Romanian poliician and vice president of the European Parliament, has spoken out in support of Stop Killing Games, saying, he “stands with the people” behind the initiative, and that “a game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company.”
Ștefănuță voiced his support – and confirmed he’d added his own signature to the EU petition – in an Instagram Story spotted and shared by Stop Killing Games. “I stand with the people who started this citizen initiative,” he said. “I signed and will continue to help them. A game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company.’
Ștefănuță’s offer of help comes after Stop Killing Games’ official EU petition surpassed 1m signatures earlier this month, meaning it can now be submitted to the EU for verification and then, potentially, either progress to a public hearing or full debate session at the European Parliament. However, organiser Ross Scott is still encouraging more signatures ahead of the EU’s deadline to ensure its signature count remains above the essential 1m threshold once mistakes or deliberate spoofing are eliminated.
But while Stop Killing Games now has at least one prominent EU politician on its side, it’s unlikely its aim – of securing legislation that’ll leave purchased games in a playable state once support is terminated – will reach fruition without significant resistance from the games industry itself. Last week, EU industry body Video Games Europe – which represents the likes of Ubisoft, Take-Two, Warner Bros., Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, and Nintendo – released a statement insisting the initiative’s proposals would make games “prohibitively expensive to create”.
Meanwhile, Stop Killing Games’ official UK petition has surpassed over 150K signatures, meaning it must now be considered for debate in parliament, despite the government’s earlier response that it had “no plans to amend UK consumer law on disabling video games”.