European holidaymakers visiting Havana love to photograph its streets. Charming scenes depict the city’s faded old-timers; the pastel vintage cars are a tourist favourite and transport the viewer back to a bygone era.
Behind the pretty picture is a tale of economic isolation that Europe would be wise to heed – not only in the physical world but in the virtual world, too, as a successful EU petition by gamers upset at companies for “killing” their favourite games could end up with the EU being pulled from the entire global market.
In 2014, Ubisoft released the popular racing game called “The Crew” – an online game that by May 2017 had 12 million players worldwide. In 2024 the game’s servers were shut down, much to the consternation of its loyal remaining fans who sought to keep it alive. Ubisoft ignored them.
Their outrage led to the “Stop Killing Games” movement – a petition signed by over one million European citizens, earning it a place on the agenda in a consultation for the upcoming EU Digital Fairness Act. The onus is now on the European Parliament and Commission to decide how to proceed.
But despite the group’s good intentions, their call for legislation to prevent companies from “killing” video games risks creating a bureaucratic monster that will damage developers and consumers alike.
Most modern games regularly check in with the developer online to combat piracy – this function should be stopped from “disabling” games, the petition argues. Then, firms should provide “reasonable means” to keep the games running.
In practice, this could mean forcing firms to eventually surrender their intellectual property – from characters to settings, including their branding – to the public domain or keep it running forever.
Much like with regular bureaucracy, firms would have to devote (limited) resources to assessing the new requirements and how to comply with them – ad infinitum for any future product sold in the EU.
Europeans would suffer from such arduous rules that are sure to turn away many of the small and medium-sized firms that make up most of the industry, worth some €200 billion worldwide.
While industry titans like Ubisoft, with a turnover of over €2 billion, can order their legal department to ensure compliance with annoying EU rules, many firms would simply block sales to Europe.
To see what this might look like, we don’t need to go as far as Cuba; Belgium issued a restrictive ruling on in-app gambling in 2018 that has already had a disruptive effect for gamers.
When Umamusume, a Japanese mobile game inspired by horse racing, rocked the Western gaming world, confused Belgian residents found they were barred from downloading or playing it.
Instead of complying with local rules to be able to sell in Belgium, firms just abandoned the market – a rational choice when assessing the cost-reward calculation.
If the EU demands a wholesale surrender of intellectual property for the benefit of gamers, firms might instead decide to abandon or restrict their sales in the EU. One industry insider called this a “very real risk”.
The truth is that Europe’s games market may not be worth the effort – just three EU countries appear in the ten biggest markets and all of Europe together still only ranks third after the US, which is the biggest, and China, which is the fastest-growing.
All too often, European bureaucrats overestimate their heft – the era of the so-called Brussels effect when EU rules could shape the world is long gone, if it ever existed at all. Rather than a gamers’ Eldorado, Europe could become the Havana of the game world.
Roundup
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SAFE bids exceed €150 billion – Loan requests from 18 countries under the European Commission’s SAFE defence programme exceed the €150 billion available. Last Wednesday, loan interest totalled €127 billion, but this figure reflects only the lower end of countries’ requests as capitals have to submit both a minimum and maximum bid.
Across Europe
Ukraine buys into Spanish poultry and pork – Major Ukrainian poultry firm MHP has sealed a deal to acquire a 92% stake in Uvesa, one of Spain’s leading poultry and pork producers, consolidating control of Europe’s chicken market. The deal expands the presence of Kyiv-based MHP inside the EU.
Irregular flights raise EU alarm – The flights from Minsk to Benghazi have raised concerns that Russia is helping to drive a new wave of irregular migration to southern Europe. Brussels fears Moscow may be weaponise migration to sow division within the EU – a tactic it has used before.
Sweden under pressure to admit wounded Palestinians – Despite an EU-wide slow reaction, 14 EU countries, including Italy, Romania, and Spain, are currently assisting with medical evacuations from Gaza, according to the EU mechanism.
