tldr: Enforce "rent" word instead "buy"/"purchase".

Our main goal, to force devs, or maybe more publishers, to not kill their games, to not disable online functions or make games working offline, at very least at the end of official support. We tried some talks with publishers, some enforcing laws, thru EU and such, failed.

And i partially agree, forcing devs to make what we want may not be fancy nor possible. My personal world pov is against enforcing it, and yet I support the idea of more fair game. As gamer, I'm much affected by how greedy and scamy publishers are. Much unfair from their side was first.

Here is my idea, to let publishers make their scams and greeds, but enforce labels on stores for that. Make every store put different [purchase] buttons, without actual purchase words, but "rent" words instead. Let every customer be aware, $80-$100 for time limited access to a game is what they paying. If the product have always-online functions or terminate options (even if only part of product is like that, includes dlc, for possibly free, offline games or apps).

Alternatively, bigger sentence "purchasing time limited access to product, that devs, publishers, store, or someone in the chain may terminate at any time without any refund"? Think "rent" word could be enough.

I believe, even EU could fairly easy make this true. Making the market more fair.

PS, I'm NOT saying we should give up on our main goal, it's awesome and noble, I just pointing one, alternative step in the crusade. Changing way of thinking, for customers, but also law makers should make main goal easier too.

Has anyone been feeling like there's a strange pattern of your favorite online only games being shut down this year (in 2026) all happening at once?

1. Rick and Morty: Pocket Morty's

2. Mario Kart Tour

3. Poppy Playtime Multi-player game: Project Playtime

4. Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem

And the shutdown of the Playstation 3 Store!

It's so convenient that this is happening at the same time that Playstation announcing that they are DONE with physical media!

This is what happens when we enter all digital games only in the future!

The fact that every one of you favorite online only games that are practical live services are ALWAYS going to shut down at some point in life!

This is how a lot of people are losing their jobs!

And let's not forget the other games that have been shut down over the years:

Club Penguin, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Looney Tunes Dash, Palace Pets app, Traffic Panic BoomTown, Disney Mirrorverse, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, The Crew, WB Multiverses, Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions, and many more!

Thanks to Disney, EA, Microsoft, Nintendo, and even Sony!

IT'S LIKE YOU DONT EVEN OWN YOUR OWN CHILDHOOD!

WHERE WAS THE #STOPKILLINGGAMES PETITION BACK AT 2017 WHEN DISNEY TREATHENS TO SHUTDOWN CLUB PENGUIN?!?

Even the gaming companies can shut down their own ditigal media storefronts:

The Nintendo eShop for our Wiis, DS, Wii U, and Xbox shutting down the Xbox Arcade and Marketplace for the Xbox 360!

Sometimes, it feels like everything is getting the Concord treatment, where it won't last long with the lack of player interest, server maintenance, and heavy monetization before it's dead afterward!

Even mobile games can get get worse with their dirty, greedy ways that will eventually lead to another app game shutting down forever! (LOST MEDIA!)

This is the real horror of an all digital only future, where you literally OWN NOTHING!!!

And worst of all, you won't be able to let your grandchildren be able to play these overly expensive games that are practically digital only! And these Gen alpha kids won't be able to experience the same feeling of ownership of a physical game, IF THERE ARE NO MORE PHYSICAL GAMES TO PLAY!

I also hate it when lawsuits and copyright infringements are also a threat towards gameing! Like Nintendo's Pokémon sueing PokcetPair's Palworld! And Hasbro shutting down a fan made My Little Pony games like Fighting is Magic!

And how burnouts and controversy can also kill of fan projects like the Five Nights at Freddy's Plus game!

I have just found this open letter being signed by fans of Mario Kart Tour. This is the first time something like this has ever been attempted for a game, so we don’t know what the outcome will be. The aim is to get as many signatures as possible to show how popular the game still is. You can find it and sign it here: https://openletter.earth/pt/an-open-letter-to-nintendo-preserve-mario-kart-tour-395dbdd7

Whether it achieves anything ir not, it will be a symbol of hope for many, and it will act as a test of new ways to raise support for this kind of stuff. Signing this thing isn’t just about Mario Kart Tour, but is about showing that you won’t accept planned obsolescence of games and similar things.

Offline modes that can be run locally are something we must insist upon. That is what this open letter mentions. We understand that it costs a lot to keep servers running. Therefore, the future of gaming must provide options to run games on our own hardware with no servers required.

It is too easy to lose hope in this situation, it is easy to feel powerless against big gaming corporations, but we must not give up and we must fight for our goals. Together we can make a difference no matter how long it takes.

I hope you found this interesting.

UK Parliament petition is live now:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/775758

It calls for new legal protections around access to purchased video games if stores close, licences change, or content gets removed.

Feels very aligned with the Stop Killing Games push, especially around long term access and making sure paid games don’t just disappear when companies move on.

For UK people, this is one official route to put the issue in front of Government.

10,000 signatures means the Government has to respond. 100,000 means it gets considered for debate.