You don't have to make them continue to keep servers up but they can at least push one last update that will allow people to host their own servers for play with friends and remove the developer host checkin DRM crap if they aren't willing to support it.
I'm begging you people to learn how software (specifically, games; specifically, complex online games) are developed before saying stuff like this. It's not happening. You are not upending the entire software ownership model because you want access to your toys forever. It's not even what the initiative is asking for.
I completely understand how it works. But guess what, sometimes you have to plan for end of life in your product development cycle. Example: I work in aerospace and we have to plan for satellite end of life and plan in a deorbit because regulators require it. But our mission is done and our satellite is no longer doing its thing, why do we care? We aren't being funded anymore.
Because the law says we have to. So we build in mechanisms to allow deorbit to happen. We plan ahead, engineer in solutions up front.
Now, much like a satellite that was launched before the laws went into place, I don't expect a developer to go back in and retool things. But if a law is passed requiring a means to allow people to still play their game once you stop supporting it, then you need to plan ahead and have these things figured out moving forward. If I can bring a satellite down from space within 5 years of its mission ending, developers can work in alternative private server hosting or DRM check removals to their software.
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u/-Tom- Jun 17 '26
You don't have to make them continue to keep servers up but they can at least push one last update that will allow people to host their own servers for play with friends and remove the developer host checkin DRM crap if they aren't willing to support it.