Recently, a youtuber named Ross Scott (Accursed Farms) has set up a campaign to take action on game publishers killing games after they deem that they no longer wish to support them (read: no longer profitable).
As part of his effort, he is encouraging us in Australia to help the campaign, as our customer protection bodies like the ACCC have shown that they are able to make changes to how corporations operate as a whole under our laws, like when they forced Steam to implement a refund policy that complies with our Consumer Law.
Ross wants to do the same thing — his angle is that video games are a good that when purchased should remain functional because it is owned by you, and failure to keep games functional while the company keeps the money you paid for it is goes against consumer protections. For this, he is specifically citing Ubisoft's The Crew, which Ubisoft have recently rendered unplayable this month (https://www.engadget.com/ubisoft-is-deleting-the-crew-from-p…).
There are several actions that we can do to help the effort, all of which is detailed in his campaign website https://www.stopkillinggames.com/:
- First, and most important: If you own The Crew by Ubisoft, you can directly report the game's shutdown to the ACCC. You will need to contact Ubisoft first (who will inevitably ignore/not solve it) before reporting it.
- Second: You can sign the government petition to bring the issue before parliament, here: https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN6080. A government petition means that it must be discussed in parliament. If you have contacts with your local government Senator, I'd also encourage you to talk to them about the effort and explain to them why it's important. You do not have to own The Crew to sign the petition!
- Third: Similar to the first point, you can also contact the French (Ubisoft is based in France) consumer protections body about The Crew, and explain to them that Ubisoft is taking the game offline without any chance of reimbursement. It doesn't matter if you are not a French resident, anyone around the world can contact them.
- Fourth: Spread the word about Ross' efforts. To fellow gamers, especially those who bought The Crew.
Detailed step-by-step instructions on how to do all the above can be found at this link: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/countries/australia. Ross' full video explaining the history of the movement and why it's important can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE and should be watched if you have any questions as to how effective his efforts will be.
Good luck everyone, and let's hope for a future where publishers will no longer kill our games!
You'll own nothing and you'll be happy