Shacknews Person of the Year 2025 - Ross Scott

The founder of the Stop Killing Games movement brought attention to a key issue in gaming today.

Over the past few years, a disturbing trend has become more prominent in gaming. Publishers have increasingly pulled the plug on their games and left them in a completely unplayable state. Beyond a historical preservation nightmare, all of these games did have fans, including the live service games that were no longer being supported. How many fans those games had is irrelevant, but there were audiences who were left without a way to experience a piece of their favorite hobby. In 2025, a new consumer movement fought back. The Stop Killing Games movement began, founded by Accursed Farms creator Ross Scott.

Stop Killing Games' website sums up the movement's mission thusly:

"Stop Killing Games" is a consumer movement started to challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers. An increasing number of video games are sold effectively as goods - with no stated expiration date - but designed to be completely unplayable as soon as support from the publisher ends. This practice is a form of planned obsolescence and is not only detrimental to customers, but makes preservation effectively impossible. Furthermore, the legality of this practice is largely untested in many countries.

Scott's mission began with Ubisoft's The Crew, which had its servers unceremoniously shut down to make way for the game's sequel. His grievance was partly about the shutdown, but it was more with the reasoning that consumers did not "own" the games that were being shut down. The Stop Killing Games movement was born partly in response to this, which has led to many joining the movement and working to exercise their legal options across multiple jurisdictions. The mission had become about saving all games and preserving their worlds for future players to experience. The Stop Killing Games petition in Europe would eventually reach over one million signatures, enough to provoke a discussion among the European Union Parliament.

In August, Scott formally closed the Stop Killing Games movement, citing his own burnout. However, the fight for games preservation continues. While this particular battle may be over, Scott helped bring the issue of video game preservation to the attention of many who might not have thought about it otherwise. For that, he has earned the honor of being the Shacknews Person of the Year for 2025.