Loading Screen: Don't Just Throw Devs At Problems, Stop Killing Games Update: UK Edition

The success of indies this year has led to (responsible) publishers asking players to just let their devs cook - more devs won't get you updates faster. Meanwhile, the Stop Killing Games movement has gotten an official response in the UK - but it's not great news.

More Devs Won't Make Games Faster

2024 has seen a rash of indie successes from small studios and teams - many of those games launching to way more success than was initially hoped for.
The most recent of these is Manor Lords.
While it's not a completely solo dev affair, thanks to a small militia of contractors fulfilling specialised roles, it's still a game where anything that's been put in the game has been touched by Greg Styczeń's hands.
Which is part of the charm of course.

Of course, the problem with that is it also means updates might take a while.
And when you've got more than a million people who've played the game, that means a sizeable percentage of them will be telling the developers they want more game faster.

Since Hooded Horse and Slavic Magic just made a lot of money, that should be easy to fix right?
Just hire a bunch of devs to make the rest of the game now.

Which speaking to PCGamer, Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender rebuked clearly based on seeing players say exactly that having gone four days since launch without a new feature being added:

"What they're probably not thinking about is that that's just fundamentally not the way things work," said Bender. "The best growth is very slow. It's keeping the core vision intact.
It's the importance of Greg [Styczeń] and his work process. And so, as a result, people are going to be clamoring [for updates], and I think that's just virtually guaranteed.
There's no pace of updates that would not result in people clamoring for more, and would not result in a bunch of people saying the ideal solution is to just hire 50 people."

The idea from the audience perspective is that getting a surge of money, hiring a bunch of devs, training them in your pipeline and production and then making the game is a process solved only by money.
But in reality the cost is time and effort - because getting those people integrated is it's own job.
And then, as we've been seeing with the industry more and more over the last two years - what happens to all those hires when the revenue slows down?
Do they just get fired?
Sustainable, slow and steady growth is worth it.
Even if it means features take a little while to ship.

Stop Killing Games Update: The UK Responds

As the Stop Killing Games campaign rolls on, the UK petition has reached 10,000 signatures - meaning the government has to respond.

Petition: Require videogame publishers to keep games they have sold in a working state

Require publishers to leave videogames (and related game assets / features) they have sold to customers in a reasonably working state when support ends, so that no further intervention whatsoever is necessary for the game to function, as a statutory consumer right.

Petitions - UK Government and Parliament

It's about as good a response as can be expected from a civil servant responding to an online petition.

Those selling games must comply with UK consumer law. They must provide clear information and allow continued access to games if sold on the understanding that they will remain playable indefinitely

They confirm there's currently no UK law that compels support for older versions of software - and that while decisions may be made to end support based on server costs, these decisions will still fall under UK consumer protections.
In some cases, if users were led to believe the game would be playable indefinitely, then the company could be challenged on that - and regulators could "require that the game remains technically feasible (For Example, available offline) to play".
But the idea that there has to be a consumer belief of being able to play indefinitely is where the problems start and end - because when the principle is that abstract, it becomes easy for a legal team to argue against.

So this is not a lot.
They don't actually engage with the detail of the petition, which is to ask for new legislation in order to mandate the support that currently doesn't exist.
This makes sense because while the petition is to the UK Government - and particularly the Department of Culture, Media & Sport - that doesn't actually mean it's reached lawmakers.

When (if) the petition reaches 100,000 signatures from UK citizens, then it will be presented for debate in Parliament.
Which is when any interested MPs will then be able to advocate for or against the issue - applying pressure to the government of the day to introduce legislation to be voted upon.

Unfortunately, the UK is also near guaranteed an election this year, and the current government is already slashing it's legislative agenda in favour of soundbites and electioneering strategies.
Which means any amount of interest in digital technology rights will be severely hampered.

For the time being, knowing there is a potential path to challenging decisions via regulators is a step up.
Definitely not a large step based on the flexibility of the wording.
But that might be the only step that the UK market can take for a while.

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