DEAD GAME NEWS: EARLY PLANS TO STOP COMPANIES KILLING GAMES

The name of the website is Gorilla Gong

Not sure if we're a lot cause over here but the UK I think Trading Standards is worth adding to the list as a relevant body for individuals. It is actually a scattering of small barely funded local agencies afaik mostly targeting local issues. The Competition and Markets Authority is the big boy but I'm not sure how much it would do because this government are shills whom I can't see allowing actions against centralised corporate control. 

 

The OFT/CMA has guidance explaining the 2008 consumer rights law - the current law is from 2015 (and I believe a little stronger on digital content) not long after the Crew came out, so I'm not clear which one would apply. Will have to look into that another time.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consumer-protection-from-unfair-trading-regulations-traders

 

Possibly parts 5 and 23 of chapter 6, where a trader can be "guilty" instantly. If not then under chapter 7 it requires the behaviours of the company to have been an influence on the "average consumer" so ... rip. 

Hey Ross,
While watching the video you mentioned only monied interests seem to affect the US congress. It got me thinking of what groups would want to be sure digital products are a permanent and are currently lobbying congress for action. The one group that came to mind are the crypto crew who are lobbying on the NFT and crypto markets.
It may be they would want to piggyback on this movement to prove US law will protect permanent ownership of digital products and boost their credibility.
The only issue is their long term model of digital ownership would lock games into similar scarcity/loss if taken to its full conclusion. Still they may be worth attempting to contact one of these lobbying groups to see if any will give any info on collaboration/experience in digital product lobbying.

Some lobbies:
Cedar Innovation Foundation

Sternhell Group
Invariant LLC
Others https://www.theblock.co/post/241239/meet-9-under-the-radar-lobby-firms-fighting-for-crypto-on-the-hill-in-2023

Some other people:

Paul Grewal - Cheif legal at coinbase (the highest crypto lobby spender)

I hope the idea helps the cause, save games!

 

Hey Ross,

I'd recommend contacting Louis Rossmann, who advocates for software ownership rights, and made a video on Ubisoft which mentioned your previous video on The crew (see linked). He could really help spread the voice, too.

 

>Under US Laws we are animals

That's a nice quote. Nice knowing that gamers aren't really humans and have no rights over their games in the US. 

Is there any consensus on if anyone should get involved with a copy purchased from a key reseller? You'd have proof of purchase for the key, and on just one website I found at least 3 keys for sale, which are purportedly valid in any country including France.



Ordinarily I would argue these websites are immoral to use (mostly because they have a history of selling stolen keys and keys purchased with stolen credit cards) but under the circumstances it might be worth it? I'd purchase a copy myself this way just in case it could contribute, but being in the US it could be detrimental to purchase one of the last remaining keys when someone from another country could contribute more.

If anyone does decide to look into this and bite the bullet though, be careful. These sites can be super sketchy, which checks out considering the shit they do.

Hey!
I'm French, living near Paris, fluent in English (and following you since a few years).
Sadly I don't own the game, but I'll help if you think I can be of use.

So I'm curious what exactly all of this is expected to accomplish, even in the best case scenario. Suppose we spend tens of thousands of dollars on a class-action suit and prove in a court of law that Ubisoft fraudulently marketed this game as a good we were purchasing, rather than a service we were subscribing to for a short term. I guess they'd be forced to either patch the game or offer full refunds to every single person who had ever bought it, and hopefully they'd decide the first option was the cheaper one. But that's just one game. Do we then spend hundreds of thousands of dollars going after every other company that's ever shut down a game, using this case as a precedent? Because I rather doubt that they're all going to look at the case, go "Oh shit, we could be next," and preemptively patch all their old dead games just to avoid a potential lawsuit that, at worst, will just result in them having to do that anyway.

 

Because if the goal is to stop companies from putting out games in the future that will be tied to online servers and prone to being shut down... that's not going to happen. They'll just stop fraudulently marketing them as goods being sold, and instead find other ways to make money off them. Subscription services and "free-to-play" are just going to become the only way to play games online. They've been transitioning to this business model for years now; all this will do is put the final nail in the coffin for any other type of game coming out of the big-budget industry. I took Ubisoft's own announcement earlier this year as a statement of intent to do just that.

Hello!  

  

If you're here from Ross's videos on The Crew and want to help but aren't sure what to do, here is some information to help you out! This will also serve as a summary to the above video for people to keep in mind before commenting: 

 

Ross is looking for people, especially Australians and people from non-English speaking EU countries, to contact their local consumer protection agencies (or potentially have law firms file complaints with these agencies) after The Crew shuts down on March 31.  

  

The reason he WANTS ACTION to be taken in April is that The Crew will be rendered UNPLAYABLE starting in April. In other words, A PRODUCT/GOOD that people have paid money for will be made UNUSABLE after the point of sale.  

  

Starting April, THIS WILL GIVE CONSUMER AGENCIES the chance to investigate this practice regardless of game publisher, whereas acting now would be confusing in many current legal systems. We want to be addressing and presenting a CLEAR & PRESENT VIOLATION of consumer law vs one that has not happened yet. In Australia and EU countries, there are strong consumer protection laws and agencies that deal with this sort of thing. The US is not as consumer empowering in this regard, BUT “We don't need a win in the US to win this war! We just need to make it more expensive to destroy games in OTHER countries than not.”. 

  

Ross will create a website by the time The Crew shuts down that has the step-by-step procedure of contacting a consumer protection agency regardless of what country an owner of The Crew is in, with instructions in the consumer's local language. I will be updating this post with the website name and URL once it drops. 

  

Attached are some IMAGES of consumer protection agencies Ross is aware of as of February 24 (note: Ross now knows Citizen's Advice is not the proper organization to contact in the UK on this): 

 

If you have any information that could possibly help Ross, YOU SHOULD EMAIL HIM AT: [email protected] 

Examples of information Ross would find useful (including but not limited to):  

-Knowing what agencies to contact for those who own The Crew (as well as dead ends with certain agencies) per country  

-Ways of offering Ross PUBLICITY or media attention on this starting in April (not now)  

-YouTube channels to contact (including foreign gaming YouTubers). Email their contact info to Ross rather than making it public. 

- Suggestions/efforts on how best to organize things and optimize organizing and collaborating. Ross is open to people who want to spearhead how to sort, verify, and arrange information/everything. 

- Other additional information, such as the "Stuff I most need help with" slide from his video (above) 

 

  

DON'T BE AFRAID OF BEING REDUNDANT!!!   

IF YOU THINK SOMEONE MIGHT HAVE EMAILED HIM SOME INFORMATION, SEND IT ANYWAY!!!  

  

Ross "would rather 5 people GIVE ME REDUNDANT INFORMATION than not have enough info... don't assume I have everything taken care of." That's a direct quote from his video.

 

Help Ross fight Games as A Service! Remember: [email protected]!