Earlier this week, the UK government responded to the British equivalent of the “Stop Killing Games” petition.
The short petition, submitted to petition.gov.uk entitled ‘Prohibit publishers irrevocably disabling video games they have already sold’ has until July 6 to reach the 100,000 signatures required for the petition to be debated in parliament and received an official response from the government on February 3 after reaching 10,000 signatures.
In a response available on the petition.gov.uk page, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) stated “We are aware of issues relating to the life-span of digital content, including video games, and we appreciate the concerns of players of some games that have been discontinued.” It added that while the DCMS currently has no plans to amend consumer laws in relation to obsolescence they would “monitor this issue and consider the relevant work of the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) on consumer rights and consumer detriment.”
“…there is no requirement in UK law for software companies to support older versions of their products. Decision-making is for those companies, taking account of commercial and regulatory factors and complying with existing consumer law.”
The statement goes on to elaborate that “video games sellers must comply with existing consumer law,” including the Consumer Rights Act of 2015 (CRA) and advises that, while “there is no requirement in UK law for software companies to support older versions of their products,” the CRA does offer some protection to purchasers of both physical and digital copies of video games.
As described by the DCMS in its statement, the CRA gives UK consumers rights when making a contract with a seller of digital goods “requiring it to be of satisfactory quality, fit for a particular purpose and as described by the seller.”
If purchased goods do not meet these quality rights then it constitutes a breach of contract under the CRA and “the consumer is entitled to a repair or replacement or, if not possible, some money back up to 100% of the cost of the digital content. These rights apply to intangible digital content like a PC game, as well as tangible content like a physical copy of a game” with a limit of “up to six years after a breach of contract during which a consumer can take legal action.”
Though the statement is a strong reminder for UK consumers of the rights they have, the focus of the statement is on the rights of UK consumers to claim refunds for faulty games or for games sold for hardware or software that no longer supports it and does little to address the petition’s intention to prevent publishers and developers from intentionally restricting access to games that have been purchased or to render them non-functional, and could be seen as an indication that the DMCS does not fully understand the rights consumers have requested in the brief petition.
