Ross Scott, creator of the Stop Killing Games (SKG) initiative, has released a video directly addressing PirateSoftware’s widely viewed critique that he claims severely misrepresented his consumer rights campaign. Scott’s response details how the indie developer’s million-view video became the top search result for SKG, spreading what Scott describes as big misunderstandings that hurt support for the movement.
The Stop Killing Games initiative, launched by Scott in early 2023, is all about pushing for new rules requiring game publishers to give players a way to keep playing games after online services get shut down. This would stop situations where people lose access to games they’ve paid for just because companies decide to close the servers needed to make them work.
“The initiative isn’t asking for never-ending support from developers,” Scott says in his response. “We’re just saying that when companies are done supporting a game, they should offer some way for players to keep playing what they’ve already bought.”
PirateSoftware (real name Thor), a streamer and indie developer known for the early-access game Heartbound, made a strongly critical video about SKG that Scott says totally twisted what the campaign is about. In the video, PirateSoftware made the initiative sound vague, impossible, and even shady, telling people not to back it.
“He told me to ‘eat his whole ass’ while completely misunderstanding what we’re actually trying to do,” Scott says, adding that PirateSoftware just doubled down when faced with explanations instead of clearing things up.
The SKG campaign has been circulating petitions in the EU and UK, utilizing the European Citizens’ Initiative process, which requires one million signatures from at least seven EU countries to prompt the European Parliament to consider it.
But Scott admits that path is getting tougher, and now the campaign’s future all comes down to reaching those signature goals. That gives the movement a twofold deadline: July 3 for the EU initiative, and July 14 for the UK petition—both fast approaching, both make-or-break.
All this points to a bigger issue in gaming about who really owns your digital games. Since more and more games need constant internet or server checks to work, players are often stuck relying on what publishers decide to do. When games like Asheron’s Call or a bunch of mobile titles go offline, people just lose access to stuff they actually paid for.
Scott’s video is part explanation, part look back at what went wrong, showing how one big but off-base review can throw off a grassroots campaign. PirateSoftware’s video has been up for 11 months, pulling in over a million views, and Scott still says the way it presented SKG was just plain wrong.
