Stop Killing Games

So there has been a new movement that is for the consumer, that is taking the UK/EU by storm. Though it’s been going on for a while. So we’re going to talk about it cause it affects gaming.

Now for those of you who don’t know the Stop Killing Games it’s about publishers legally being stopped from killing games. Whether it’s older games or at least live service games because they don’t do well. Now being a free to play mmo gamers in the late 2000’s, I can name one game that would benefit greatly from this and it was Shin Megami Tensei: IMAGINE a mmo rpg by Atlus in conjuction with AeriaGames that was the bridge between SMT I and SMT II. It was a fun mmo that I loved that had a battle system much like Mabinogi. Anyway a few years ago the English server got nixed, and only the Japanese version exists (unless that’s also down. There is a private server but I haven’t really kept up with it.).

Now this can pose a bit of a problem for publishers, now I’m not someone that’s going to defend the publishers at all. I’m someone that keeps screaming from the mountain tops that we need the older PS2 games on new consoles and that they shouldn’t be costing an arm and a leg. Hell even PS1 games like Koudelka. You know? The one that costs $400.

Anyway, the problem is a multi-pronged issue. Again, I’m not saying this to support the publishers and the devs. I’m saying this as an engineer’s kid who kind of knows the ins and outs of coding programs to a limited degree and also knowledge of the snafus of Konami’s attempt at remastering Silent Hill, and Square Enix’s attempt at remastering Final Fantasy X.

We’re going to start with the obvious and I will say that not every dev is going to be a packrat like my dad. I’m not kidding when my dad has had servos, usb drives, floppy discs, cd roms over the years of code and CAD stuff logged over the years of his employment as an engineer. Each one having all of the code from every single project that he’s had. Not to mention some of it might have degraded over the years and he had to probably re-work it.

That being said devs and publishers likely don’t do that so once a game is done, it’s done. I don’t think many were expecting that in the year of 2025, that we would have digital games. And even if they did there’s a chance that game would be corrupted. Even if you had backups, and backups of the backups, there’s still a chance of it all being corrupted. Which happened to Konami when it came to the Silent Hill remaster a few years ago, there was flood that corrupted Konami’s code of Silent Hill 2. Final Fantasy X’s code was lost and the team that made FFX had to find a copy of Final Fantasy X: International Version and work off of that (and likely Kingdom Hearts).

The other problem is who gets or holds onto the code after someone leaves a company or in the case of say Nautilus going under, and Midway, what happens when those companies go down. Now for those who don’t know Nautilus was the developer of the Shadow Hearts series, previously known as Sacnoth that worked on Kouldelka. Infogames which was the publisher of Kouldelka went under. Nautilus went under after going to XSEED which then also went under. Aruze which was helping Nautilus with it, decided to say fuck it and went to become a pachinko company again.

The sad thing about the Stop Killing Games movement is that it has taken at least two or three decades for there to be a legal measure to ensure that publishers can hold onto the code after a dev team leaves, and I would add on that it should be the home console should have a copy of said code as well. In case they hand it off to another team or company to try and remake and remaster the game. For game developers and publishers this can be a bad thing for their bottom line. Butttttttttttt….

Honestly, and I will be blunt. The whole move to have digital games and not have backwards compatibility for the PS3, was a big giant fucking mistake. It was a mistake. It was a huge mistake. The same that goes for the Xbox games, and Switch and Switch 2. I know companies and developers will try to say “but it costs more to have the capability.” And I will argue that it already costs a fuck ton to be a gamer. Whether you’re a retro gamer or a modern gamer. Like games are getting more expensive in both fronts.

And honestly, if they had backwards compatibility, they would actually be making funking BANK. Yeah, that’s right. They would be making more money in with the number of copies being sold per game. Games like Shadow Hearts 2 (another good game from the PS2 game, go play it if you can!) would be sold and played than more that are out. There would be more interest in these older games and would bring forth a new group of people that love these games and want them to have more games.

Stop Killing Games is a good movement. It’s something that needs to happen even in the US. I do not care. Just because a game is considered a luxury doesn’t mean you should pay that price. And games shouldn’t be destroyed or killed for whatever reason. This is a good thing for consumers everywhere.

If you’re in the UK or the EU, consider signing the petition.

Then maybe companies should stop killing games.

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