In July of last year, the Stop Killing Games movement – a consumer advocacy initiative focused on preserving games that would otherwise be shut down and made forever unplayable – hit a pretty big milestone. One million signatures, the amount needed for it to be addressed by EU leadership, was reached and promptly surpassed.
The final count was well above 1.4 million, a number that inspired no shortage of celebrations. But despite all the positivity, there was still a shadow hanging over everything. Surpassing a million signatures is one thing, but that support needed to be verified. No double-votes, no spoofed locations, everything had to be checked. And if the final count fell below the threshold, the movement would be dead in the water.
It is, in fact, not dead. The final, verified signature count for Stop Killing Games is 1,294,188. No small amount of thanks is due to those who supported the movement well beyond the one-million mark – ensuring a buffer of safety in case a few too many people got overzealous and faked extra votes.
But of course, we have more than just a number to show off. We have twenty-seven more! A volunteer for Stop Killing Games, Moritz Katzner, shared a breakdown of how much support came from each of the 27 EU countries.
Here’s a direct link to the stats, with each number pasted below in case you’d rather scroll down than open a weblink.
- Austria – 20,714
- Belgium – 31,846
- Bulgaria – 14,238
- Croatia – 14,403
- Cyprus – 1,997
- Czech Republic – 25,935
- Denmark – 36,010
- Estonia – 9,296
- Finland – 54,538
- France – 145,289
- Germany – 233,180
- Greece – 19,618
- Hungary – 25,595
- Ireland – 36,073
- Italy – 77,030
- Latvia – 7,526
- Lithuania – 14,461
- Luxembourg – 2,465
- Malta – 2,007
- Netherlands – 90,413
- Poland – 143,826
- Portugal – 31,585
- Romania – 38,221
- Slovakia – 18,628
- Slovenia – 6,520
- Spain – 121,616
- Sweden – 71,158
Stop Killing Games Is Just Getting Started
In a Reddit Post announcing the news, Katzner shared more information on the reveal. “We’ve decided to share the final count with you ahead of schedule,” Katzner explained. “Our plan was to wait until shortly before our next meeting with the EU Commission.”
In the statement, Katzner explored how the movement would be stepping up its media channels, including overhauls to their Discord server and main website. There’s also “several other updates that—ironically—I still can’t talk about just yet.” There’s still more to come in the Stop Killing Games story, but now we can say that with certainty. The votes are there, and the movement takes a very confident step forward.
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