The “Stop Killing Games” movement continues to gain traction, making its presence known even at a recent publisher’s shareholder meeting. The EU petition, titled “Stop Destroying Videogames,” has garnered over 1.4 million signatures, increasing its chances of prompting regulatory action in the EU. However, a key advocate for the campaign is alleging an attempt to undermine the effort with accusations against the petition. YouTuber Ross “Accursed Farms” Scott claims in a new video that “Someone was gunning for us,” viewing it as a warning shot.
He explains that an anonymous complaint was filed with the EU Commission, alleging that the “Stop Destroying Videogames” petition is in violation of transparency regulations. The claim is that, despite the petition stating a lack of financial backing, Scott’s continuous promotion equates to undeclared professional contributions from an external source.
According to the complaint, Scott’s “undisclosed professional time contribution” surpasses the €500 disclosure threshold by an estimated 125 to 295 times, potentially representing the campaign’s most significant source of support. The complaint further asserts that “the concealment prevents informed citizen participation by misrepresenting the initiative as having no financial backing while substantially depending on foreign professional contributions.”
The argument hinges on estimating the value of Scott’s time between $55 and $85 per hour, and the time dedicated to the campaign as high as 2,000 hours. This results in a non-monetary contribution valued between $73,000 and $170,000, as alleged in the complaint. These estimations are based on his YouTube channel activity and an interview with PC Gamer where he likened his role to “running a rickshaw carrying people to the destination.” Notably, the complaint does not offer an estimated hourly rate for his rickshaw services.
In his recent video addressing this development in the Stop Killing Games situation, Scott emphasizes his support for the EU petition while clarifying that he isn’t an organizer and that the movement isn’t centrally controlled. “The official organizers literally asked EU representatives if it was okay for me to assist them in the capacity I have been back in spring of 2024, just to make sure everything was above board in case there was a problem or we needed to report anything,” Scott stated. “They said, ‘What I’ve been doing is fine.’ We’ve been doing this by the book, guys.”
The identity of the complainant remains unknown. Possibilities include a representative acting on behalf of European video game companies, whose lobbying arm previously voiced concerns that the petition’s demands were excessively burdensome and impractical. Alternatively, it could be an individual with a personal vendetta against Scott, especially given the ongoing debate surrounding the Stop Killing Games movement.
The removal of Ubisoft’s The Crew sparked the initial outcry, and the company’s CEO recently faced questions about the movement during the annual shareholder meeting. Yves Guillemot responded by stating, “The lifespan of a piece of software, whenever there’s a service component, eventually services may be discontinued, because eventually the software may become obsolete over time. A lot of tools become obsolete 10 or 15 years down the line. They’re no longer available. And that is why we release a new version. And so we have version two and then version three. But clearly this is a far-reaching issue, and we are working on it,” as reported at the time.
The EU petition stands a solid chance of initiating concrete action on this issue. The initiative’s goal, according to its organizers, is to “prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher.” Should the petition reach one million verified signatures, the EU Commission is obligated to directly address the group’s concerns within six months, even if the ultimate decision is against creating new regulations.
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