Games should be required to have reproducible source for all components (client and server) sent to whatever the European equivalent of the Library of Congress is, to be made available in the Public Domain whenever the publisher stops publishing them.
this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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Not only games. Goes for all electronics as well.
Sick of supporting your 'old phones'? You're required by law to disclose all binary blobs as source code to let somebody else pick it up the slack.
Feeling like bricking old Kindles? Fine, but users must be able to install alternative OS on your old device.
Not providing software updates for your TV anymore after you removed features? That's your right, but so is the right of the effing device owner to install something else on it.
And it's not just consumer electronics. ( John Deere ).
Not to be pro-corporate/anti-repair...but I feel I have to play devils-advocate here...
That sounds like a legal and security nightmare.
If you just give binary blobs and no sources, there's no way to maintain the code/device long term. As exploits continue to be found in upstream dependencies, the hardware continues to become increasingly insecure.
But if the source needs to be released...I imagine that there are heaps of proprietary code that is still in use on "active" devices even after another model goes EoL...so if that code is released, there's instantly thousands of nefarious eyes on it.
On top of the regular zero-days that are found out when a popular product reaches EoL.
I think that's potentially a lot to ask of users. Will your technically-challenged great-Aunt switch to post-support build when her phone hits EoL, or will hackers be able to remote control her banking app and take away your inheritance before the community can even patch it (assuming there's enough community support out there for an 8-year-old Galaxy A-series...)
Then there could also be licensed code that would need to be released as well...hence the legal nightmare.
Not saying it's impossible...in fact, I greatly agree with your stance and stated position. Just saying that there are some blockers on this epic.
I like it. If the publisher no longer sells/supports the full game as purchased, then they no longer to get to complain about people pirating it.
I don't like instantly throwing it public domain, that's the wrong license to use. I think Creative Common CC BY-NC-SA would be more appropriate. (Credit the original, no commercial use, and any modified/redistributed version must follow same license).
This will prevent xbox from taking all the old PlayStation games, stealing an emulator, and selling them under game pass to people that don't know those games are freely available.
I'd also add the game must be available as an individual 1-time purchase. If it's only available as a bundle or subscription service (like game pass), that doesn't count.
The Public Domain isn't a "license." It's simply the default state of a work when copyright is no longer being enforced for it. I'm saying that copyright should immediately expire for any published work that is no longer being made available by some entity with the right to do so (phrased carefully so as not to break copyleft licenses, BTW) and that anyone should be able to get it directly from a government archive of all Public Domain works.
As for selling Public Domain works, that's always been allowed and I don't see any particular reason to change it, provided that regulatory capture doesn't result in the public archive being the digital equivalent of hidden away in a disused lavatory in a locked basement with a sign saying "beware of the leopard." If the free option is prominent and well-known but you want to pay money for some reason anyway (in theory, because the person selling it added value in some way), that's your business.
If a studio is using the same base architecture for online services as a game that is currently active, you want developers to share their current live architecture and code?
Yes.
If they don't like it, they can keep supporting their older stuff. Or better yet, rethink their decision to impose a "live service" business model now that they'd actually be held accountable for it, and consider going back to giving users the means to run their own servers.
(Also, by the way, "security by obscurity" is bullshit. If disclosing their server-side code leads to exploits, that just means they're fucking incompetent. I have no sympathy at all.)
Wup, there's management. Let me guess what they're talking about.
"You, sir, are mad! Dinosaurs are reptiles! They must be cold-blooded!"
"Now, you listen and you listen good: Birds are one of the closest living relatives to dinosaurs we have. And I don't need to tell you they're all warm-blooded."
"Do you know how difficult it is to maintain thermostasis for an animal so large? They're cold-blooded, I tell you!"
"Let me tell you something. There's evidence to suggest that Velociraptors had feathers. Feathers! What does that tell you?"
It's amazing that Ross Scott has gone from delivering the funnies to absolute morale boosting for the gaming media.
Hopefully we wont see bad actors just pivot to f2p and have a few microtransactions to actually unlock the games.
As long as it’s still a one time purchase, with no clear mention of an end of life timeline, that is just buying a game with extra steps. They mention microtransactions and things like paid DLC in their plans too.
Some mobile games already work that way where they claim to be f2p but it‘s just a demo of the actual game with ingame purchases for the other levels. However annoying, it‘s not flat out scamming customers like shutting down servers months after release is. Perhaps devs should still be required to label it as a demo just in case though.
I played and enjoyed a game based on this principle (Dreadnought). I ran out of bullshit I wanted to buy to keep the game going. Also the whole community was probably a few hundred people at the end. It eventually shut down. Not that there would be much to do solo but fan-run servers would've been cool.
Dreadnought was awesome, unfortunate that it wasn't populare ...
I absolutely loved that game. I was really bummed when they shut it down but like you said there was maybe a handful of people that played it. Reminded me of EVE Online without all the bullshit.
I don't think that would work. They could lock their games behind a monthly subscription. At that point you're paying for temporary access with clearly defined end date and thus the game getting shut down later is no longer fraudulend. At that point you just have to not be a dumbass and rent a game instead of buying one.
To elaborate a bit on the "unlocking" of the game: It could be that you get "1000% more exp gain permanently" or "gain a crucial resource from every mission permanently, which is usually locked behind a daily mission", a one off microtransaction that makes the game playable in a sense – but it's not "purchasing" the game, its just an account feature. I hope these arguments won't hold, but I always feel that bad actors find ways to bypass rules ...
Netflix has already experimented with putting original games behind a monthly subscription and then killing the games.
I can see other companies trying this too.