The UK government has again responded to a petition demanding it change the law to prevent developers and publishers from taking games that have already been sold offline, reiterating its position of no, it won't do that.
Less than a year ago, the UK governmentresponded to a petition by theStop Killing Games campaign, demanding it change the rules on digital obsolescence to stop developers disabling games that had already been sold.
At the time, the government said there was no requirement in UK law for game developers to support old software. But the petition was closed early due to the general election.
Now, with a new parliament sitting,another petition has been created, similarly demanding that «the government should update consumer law to prohibit publishers from disabling videogames they have already sold without recourse for customers to retain or repair them».
Going further, it argues that «most videogames sold can work indefinitely, but some have design elements that render the product non-functional at a time which the publisher controls,» which the petition claims is a form of «planned obsolescence».