Initiative Aims To Require EU Game Publishers To Make Retired Games Playable

[Linux-SWAT]

Unsurprisingly, Germans are the top voters.

Initiative Aims To Require EU Game Publishers To Make Retired Games Playable - Slashdot

A proposed European Union law seeks to ensure that video games sold or licensed in the EU remain playable even if servers are shut down or studios close. The law would require publishers of sold and free-to-play games with microtransactions to provide resources to keep games functional, such as...

games.slashdot.org

 

[Askarus]

That would be so cool. However I fear that companies would heavily lobby aagains this.
Same as China wanted to ban all lootboxes and gambling mechanics from gaming and did give in to companies.

 

[netcat]

Why rely on the government (sux) when you can hack it yourself NOW.
In many cases the protocols can be re-implemented (i assume the code is not stolen)
As was done on the wii for 500+ games.
I play Mario Kart Wii online all the time via:

Wiimmfi​

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC) service was an online gaming servicethat provided free online play in various Nintendo DS and Wii games.Nintendo discontinued the service on May 20th, 2014,primarily because the host of the service,GameSpy,was shutting down its servers.Nintendo WFC was required for online play,but the Wiimmfi Project has replicated much of its functionalityand allows for continued online play in Mario Kart Wii and other games.
Wiimmfi is available for the public sinceMay 10th, 2014 (10 days before WFC shutdown).It started with Mario Kart Wii and supports now more than500 games.Read »Development of Wiimmfi« for details.
To use Wiimmfi, the games must be patched to use the new domains andalso to change some other settings.See »Wiimmfi Patcher«for more details.

https://wiimmfi.de/

It's Germans, unsurprisingly.

 

[Askarus]

Why rely on the government (sux) when you can hack it yourself NOW.
In many cases the protocols can be re-implemented (i assume the code is not stolen)
As was done on the wii for 500+ games.
I play Mario Kart Wii online all the time via:

Wiimmfi​

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (WFC) service was an online gaming servicethat provided free online play in various Nintendo DS and Wii games.Nintendo discontinued the service on May 20th, 2014,primarily because the host of the service,GameSpy,was shutting down its servers.Nintendo WFC was required for online play,but the Wiimmfi Project has replicated much of its functionalityand allows for continued online play in Mario Kart Wii and other games.
Wiimmfi is available for the public sinceMay 10th, 2014 (10 days before WFC shutdown).It started with Mario Kart Wii and supports now more than500 games.Read »Development of Wiimmfi« for details.
To use Wiimmfi, the games must be patched to use the new domains andalso to change some other settings.See »Wiimmfi Patcher«for more details.

https://wiimmfi.de/

It's Germans, unsurprisingly.

This is all mostly a legal grey area. It would be great if there was a legal foundation for it.
Also some games that have an in game shop for skins or weapons or whatever are usually not covered.
Talking of al the MOBA games here. I do not invest in those because it all could be gone in a second if the server shuts down.

 

[ElPoco]

In the EU the courts have so far considered that such hacks are acceptable as long as they have a purpose other than circumventing DRM/TPM.

But this actually goes further than games. Today many devices like smart home appliances, cars or even implanted medical devices can cease to work because the company that made them has gone bankrupt. We do need regulation to ensure that this doesn't happen.

 

[Askarus]

Today many devices like smart home appliances, cars or even implanted medical devices can cease to work because the company that made them has gone bankrupt. We do need regulation to ensure that this doesn't happen.

Exactly that. There are som many stories about smart home devices simply not working any more because the company behind it decides to "upgrade" their standard and kick your deperfectly fine old device out of service.

I never understood how people bought hardware products that rely on an external cloud to function.
I do understand it for competitive games that only work with a centralized server, like MOBAS for example. However one must be aware that those services can end any time.
Building a Smart Home or Solar Panel controls around those is a no go.

 

[pyrat]

What we need is laws requiring all software to be free and banning tivoization and SaaSS. If companies find that a disincentive to publish software, then so much the better, there's too much bloatware out there.
Noone can promise that software will have support forever. But at least it should be a possibility. The resources already devoted to its creation should be available, not hidden and forbidden.
Just like food must disclose ingredients, software must disclose source with the freedoms necessary to use it.
Having companies telling people to "just install this app, trust me" is like having people around the corner giving pills away without any pharmacology control.

But this actually goes further than games. Today many devices like smart home appliances, cars or even implanted medical devices can cease to work because the company that made them has gone bankrupt. We do need regulation to ensure that this doesn't happen.

Yes, in fact games is the less important software. Tax, accounting, banking, commerce, and of course health records and medical device software, industrial software... Do I hear someone say "printers" ?
It's not normal that it just vanishes in the air because a company changes policies, closes doors, or is bought by cartels.
But that would imply humans controlling machines, and humans seem happy to be controlled by machines nowadays (meaning by those other humans who control their machines, of course).
Apparently people just don't like freedom, they like slavery as long as the master is not someone they can compare to (it might a machine - the avatar of a vendor- or a god - the avatar of a priest - or destiny or nature or whatever gives them an excuse for not being themselves in control because, you know, they just can't).

 

[TeDaDeS]

What we need is laws requiring all software to be free and banning tivoization and SaaSS. If companies find that a disincentive to publish software, then so much the better, there's too much bloatware out there.
Noone can promise that software will have support forever. But at least it should be a possibility. The resources already devoted to its creation should be available, not hidden and forbidden.
Just like food must disclose ingredients, software must disclose source with the freedoms necessary to use it.
Having companies telling people to "just install this app, trust me" is like having people around the corner giving pills away without any pharmacology control.

Yes, in fact games is the less important software. Tax, accounting, banking, commerce, and of course health records and medical device software, industrial software... Do I hear someone say "printers" ?
It's not normal that it just vanishes in the air because a company changes policies, closes doors, or is bought by cartels.
But that would imply humans controlling machines, and humans seem happy to be controlled by machines nowadays (meaning by those other humans who control their machines, of course).
Apparently people just don't like freedom, they like slavery as long as the master is not someone they can compare to (it might a machine - the avatar of a vendor- or a god - the avatar of a priest - or destiny or nature or whatever gives them an excuse for not being themselves in control because, you know, they just can't).

Well, computers are a relative new concept for mankind. So I think certain practices, like writing code for a specific platform, might happen less and less. Hopefully making the problems around old software a bit less impactful.
If Open-Source would support games and have a stable 'office' application they could sell it as a product in (web)shops, like Ubuntu did. To make a product you need people and time and money helps to achieve that part. If you require people to do work in their spare time it's much harder to demand high quality. For example: the Steamdeck works great, but it only exists because Steam generates income. I don't think the Steamdeck would exist on it's own even though it's somewhat a popular product. It runs Linux so that's nice, but many people don't buy it because it runs Linux; they sometimes even prefer to run Windows on a Steamdeck instead. Linux should have a similar appeal as commercial products, so maybe Unbuntu isn't even commercial enough for the regular consumer.