A European initiative is now underway for videogame preservation and consumer protections against publishers “killing games.”
- 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍 ( @maniel@sopuli.xyz ) English42•2 months ago
well, while i understand sunsetting old online multiplayer games because hosting game servers is a non zero cost, i can’t understand the need for singleplayer games to be always connected and rendering them unplayable
The company wouldn’t be required to keep their servers online, just to allow other people to host their own. So it has 0 ongoing cost and maybe few hours of coding during game development.
- GBU_28 ( @GBU_28@lemm.ee ) English6•2 months ago
Wat
Building a whole cloud backend is not a few hours work.
Plus I bet most of these companies share cloud tooling so they’ll need to make distinct standalone self host code
Most of what they use built-in in game engines, not their standalone code. It’s a matter of switching the servers used with some minor tweaks.
- scaramobo ( @scaramobo@lemmynsfw.com ) English10•2 months ago
Ask any professional senior software developer if they ever maintained an existing or new codebase and made the mistake of thinking "oh easy! it’s just a matter of doing this or that and changing a couple of small things. Won’t take longer than <small>. " Then ask them how long it really took.
Post results here for our amusement :)</small>
My few hours comment was never exact for a reason, but it reasonably conveys that the work requires is trivial in the full game development cycle and not an insurmountable task that will bankrupt game developers like you try to do.
- GBU_28 ( @GBU_28@lemm.ee ) English3•2 months ago
Hah.
- JokeDeity ( @JokeDeity@lemm.ee ) English7•2 months ago
There’s actually nothing wrong with no longer supporting a game you developed. The problem is these scummy bastards make sure no one can support the game or run it privately after they abandon it.
- Hawk ( @Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English14•2 months ago
While this would be great for those “online needed to play” games, wouldn’t this also lead to companies preferring subscription models?
I’d assume it’s easier to not include multiplayer in the “base” game and just charge a monthly subscription for the online part. Now the proposed law wouldn’t apply, since the customer only paid for the base game.
It’s pretty obvious what the intention of the writers of the proposal is, but I feel like it could have an opposite effect and push even more to the “games as a service” model those greedy publishers so desperately want.
- TheGalacticVoid ( @TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee ) English8•2 months ago
The problem is that a lot of companies are already launching dead-on-arrival live service games, so unless they’re willing to make something unique, all they will do is saturate the market further and keep burning money. I don’t think this law would change those incentives much if at all.
- nasi_goreng ( @nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip ) English5•2 months ago
The reality is GaaS is exteremely hard to success. Every one success GaaS, there are probably 20 or 50 failed one that we even never heard.
- TheSealStartedIt ( @TheSealStartedIt@feddit.org ) English10•2 months ago
Just signed it. Took 10 seconds with my ID-Card.
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English3•2 months ago
This is limited to EU members, yes? Not anyone in Europe?
- unexposedhazard ( @unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ) English7•2 months ago
I assume so. I signed it earlier. You can either fill out a form or use your ID to verify your identity online.
If your country shows up in the list, then it should work. https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home
Its currently at 121.000 out of 1.000.000 and it has only been live for 3 days.
This is the link to the general overview of the petition. https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2024/000007_en#
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English2•2 months ago
Yeah sadly my country isn’t listed - but I’ll cheer you all on from afar!
Anyone can sign, even from outside of EU, but the votes needed for petition to go through will only count from EU members.
- ArcaneSlime ( @ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English1•2 months ago
Cool!
Tbh I just want a ППШ блять.