A new UK petition demands laws to prevent publishers from disabling sold games.
In the past few years, video game publishers have repeatedly shut down access to games that players paid for. From Ubisoft pulling the plug on The Crew or XDefiant in June 2025, this pattern of games disappearing has raised questions about consumer rights.
Now, a new petition in the UK is looking to address this issue head-on, aiming to make it illegal for publishers to disable games they’ve already sold.
UK Petition Filed to Protect Gamers’ Rights
On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, a petition was officially created through the UK Government and Parliament website. Its goal is simple: to ensure that video game publishers cannot irrevocably disable a game or its features once it has been sold to consumers.
This campaign is the latest attempt to curb what many see as planned obsolescence in the gaming industry, where games are intentionally made unplayable after a certain point. At the time of writing, the petition has crossed over 400 signatures in a single day.
The petition argues that publishers maintain too much control over when a product becomes non-functional, with little to no recourse for players. The creators highlight that while some games are designed to last indefinitely, others are structured to lose functionality, sometimes without warning.
The petition reads:
“The government should update consumer law to prohibit publishers from disabling video games (and related game assets / features) they have already sold without recourse for customers to retain or repair them. We seek this as a statutory consumer right.
“Most video games sold can work indefinitely, but some have design elements that render the product non-functional at a time which the publisher controls, with no date provided at sale. We see this as a form of planned obsolescence, as customers can be deprived of their purchase and cannot retain or repair the game. We think this practice is hostile to consumers, entirely preventable, and have concerns existing laws do not address the problem. Thus, we believe government intervention is needed.”
For any action to be taken, the petition must first reach 10,000 signatures, which will trigger a government response. If it manages to collect 100,000 signatures before the deadline of July 14, 2025, it will be considered for a debate in Parliament.
This isn’t the first time players have taken this issue to the UK Parliament. In 2024, a petition addressing similar concerns gained over 22,000 signatures. Though the government acknowledged the problem, it ultimately stated that UK law does not require companies to keep games functional indefinitely.
What do you think about this latest push for change? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
