Brazil is positioning itself at the forefront of global consumer rights for players, with local legislators introducing a new bill aimed at preventing publishers from unilaterally shutting down video games. The proposal, introduced by federal deputies Jandira Feghali and Márcio Filho, seeks to safeguard the economic and cultural rights of gamers by forcing publishers to meet specific obligations when a game reaches its end-of-life stage.
A Direct Response to Industry Practices
The legislative push in Brazil is heavily influenced by the international Stop Killing Games movement. According to Jandira Feghali, the initiative is a response to the way major corporations treat video games as disposable, cutting off access to titles—and the communities built around them—without regard for those who purchased them. “Millions of people around the world have mobilized to fight for the right to continue playing the games they bought,” Feghali noted on social media.
Márcio Filho, who is co-sponsoring the bill, described the proposal as a “definitive milestone” in protecting gamers, specifically aiming to ensure that the unilateral decisions of tech giants do not harm Brazilian players.
Court Win Against Microsoft
Complementing this legislative effort is a significant legal victory for an individual Xbox user. After their account was hacked and subsequently terminated by Microsoft, the player was reportedly told by the company that the account could not be recovered and that they would need to repurchase their entire library of games.
The player opted to take the matter to court. Despite Microsoft presenting a 300-page document as part of its defense, the player secured a ruling in their favor. The court ordered Microsoft to reinstate the account with the full library of games intact and pay the user $400 USD. The company faces the threat of a criminal case should it fail to comply with the ruling.
The EU Commission's Stance
While Brazil moves forward with legislative protections, the situation in the European Union remains more complex. The EU Commission recently announced it would not propose new laws to force publishers to keep games playable after servers go offline. The Commission cited existing intellectual property laws, which grant rights holders exclusive control over their creations.
However, proponents of the Stop Killing Games movement, including Ross Scott, argue that the Commission’s decision is not the final word. The movement is now looking to the EU Parliament to integrate these protections into the Digital Fairness Act. While the Commission declined to propose new legislation, it did note that existing laws require publishers to clearly state the duration and terms of termination for any game contract—a requirement that few, if any, publishers currently meet in their EULAs.