Submitted by Lewis Evans on Sunday 17th November 2024
Published on Tuesday 14th January 2025
Current status: Open
Open until: Monday 14th July 2025
Current Signatures: 9,667
(count is updated approximately hourly)
Relevant Departments
Tagged with
concerns ~ date ~ design ~ Game ~ Government ~ government intervention ~ Law ~ Retain ~ Sale ~ The Game ~ Time ~ video games ~ work
Prohibit publishers irrevocably disabling video games they have already sold
The government should update consumer law to prohibit publishers from disabling video games (and related game assets / features) they have already sold without recourse for customers to retain or repair them. We seek this as a statutory consumer right.
Most video games sold can work indefinitely, but some have design elements that render the product non-functional at a time which the publisher controls, with no date provided at sale. We see this as a form of planned obsolescence, as customers can be deprived of their purchase and cannot retain or repair the game. We think this practice is hostile to consumers, entirely preventable, and have concerns existing laws do not address the problem. Thus, we believe government intervention is needed.
If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.
52.15.118.202 Sat, 18 Jan 2025 06:48:03 +0000
