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Remarks from Twitch streamer and YouTuber Thor "Pirate Software" regarding the Stop Killing Games initiative are gaining traction online a year after they were originally made, thanks to a recent YouTube video by the initiative's founder, Accursed Farms.
Stop Killing Games is a consumer movement that began in April 2024 following an announcement by Ubisoft that it was shutting down its game, The Crew, which had sold over 12 million copies since its release ten years ago. With the game being an "online-only" experience, players were left unable to open it after April 2024. The game's single-player mode also subsequently became unplayable.
Pirate Software's original comments were made in a YouTube video uploaded on August 6, 2024. In it, he criticized Stop Killing Games as an initiative, claiming that it had not been specific enough and aimed to target games that had been advertised as single-player experiences but were made into live service titles, which would become unplayable once the servers shut down.
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Now, in a YouTube video uploaded on June 23, 2025, Accursed Farms responded to Pirate Software's critique. The former deemed certain parts of the ex-Blizzard employee's critique as usage of a red herring argument, that is, discussing a misleading or irrelevant topic to divert attention from the main issue.
What did Pirate Software say about Stop Killing Games, and what was Accursed Games' response?
In his YouTube video covering the Stop Killing Games initiative, Pirate Software had been critical of the petition and its supposed aim, stating that the language used to propagate the movement was vague and subsequently caused damage to all live service games.
Describing his own understanding of what the movement stood for, Pirate Software had stated the following during a livestream covering the topic:
"So, for those who don't understand, the Stop Killing Games initiative is basically, " We don't want singleplayer games to have DRM that the developers can turn off, and thus render the singleplayers games inactive anymore." That's the- this is what they want to change. They need to be specific that they're talking about singleplayer games that do not need a server to support them... It would impact every live service game that exists. Instead of just targeting singleplayer always online games."
Accursed Farms has since clarified that Pirate Software's understanding and subsequent explanation of the movement is inaccurate and not what the movement intends to do:
"No, that's not what it is. Stop Killing Games includes singleplayer games, but nothing about it is so specific to them. He completely made that up, and I have no idea where he got that impression... So, let's clear this up. It's the first line on the website, 'Stop Killing Games' is a consumer movement started to challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers.'"
Further offering explanations for how the initiative approaches single-player and multiplayer live service games, Accursed Farms continued:
"Well, the short version is the initiative is about requiring publishers to have end-of-life plans for games they've sold to customers in the future. So, when they shut them down, customers can continue running them without their support. The long version depends on what kind of transaction is being made... We don't make a distinction between singleplayer and multiplayers games. That's because the law doesn't either. So, why make this even harder? Both the movement and the law are making distinctions on how games are sold."
Accursed Farms also stated that this would affect future games and would not be retroactive:
"And the part he said about it affecting all live service games? Yes and no. It would affect most live service games in the future, but the initiative is not retroactive."
Furthermore, Pirate Software had claimed that proceeding with the movement would mean transitioning entire multiplayer server-side games, such as World of Warcraft, into a single-player experience upon shutdown:
"Transitioning an entire multiplayer server-side game into a singleplayer video game, which means rebalancing the entire experience around singleplayer, rebuilding everything in the entire game."
Calling Pirate Software's comment "baffling," Accursed Farms responded:
"This one is particularly baffling to me, because I've heard most counterarguments before, but until Thor, I've never heard this one... That we want the industry to convert all multiplayer games into singleplayer ones."
On the other side, in his YouTube videos, Pirate Software had taken a different stance:
"If we're trying to kill off the practice of developers putting together a live service game, pitching it as a singleplayer experience, and then taking away support in the future... It needs to be specific about the business practice it's trying to defeat which is specifically companies that are doing this under the guise of it being a singleplayer game, but adding online only functionality that is not necessary and doesn't add any gameplay elements. That's the problem."
Accursed Farms called out this version of Thor's understanding of the Stop Killing Games movement as well, explaining:
"No! That's not it at all!... Nothing in the initiative is asking to convert games to singleplayer... This is a total red herring!"
MoistCritical calls out Pirate Software in his YouTube video, supporting the Stop Killing Games initiative
On the other side, popular YouTuber Charlie "MoistCritical," also known as penguinz0, has come out in support of the Stop Killing Games movement. As the movement enters its final leg, with the deadlines for signing the petitions associated with it ending in July, discussions are rife online about its intention and viability.
Amid the ongoing drama surrounding the movement, MoistCritical made a YouTube video on June 24, 2025, calling out Pirate Software a day after Accursed Farms' response to the ex-Blizzard employee's video from 2024:
"I have to just show you this because it is so fascinating 'cause he himself literally calls out that Stop Killing Games at no point exclusively mentions singleplayer always online games or anything like that, and for some reason instead of following the breadcrumbs that naturally lead him to the conclusion of, 'Oh, maybe I misunderstood. Maybe, because it's absent here, that's not what this is actually about.' Instead, he uses it as a criticism against the Stop Killing Games initiative entirely, saying it's just too vague..."
In his video, Accursed Farms called Pirate Software the "biggest critic" of Stop Killing Games, having made multiple social media posts and YouTube videos expressing his disapproval of the movement.
