UPDATE: Many game companies' EULAs include a termination clause

Many game companies have a strange inclusion in their End User License Agreement, or EULA. Yesterday, another site noticed this in Ubisoft’s EULA, and the story received thousands of upvotes on r/gaming: the Termination clause. This story emerged at a pertinent time, as the Stop Killing Games movement has recently surpassed one million signatures in Europe, and Ubisoft has been a central target of that movement. However, while it is a peculiar clause, it has been part of Ubisoft’s EULA for years and is also found in the agreements of many other game companies, including Rockstar Games and even Steam itself.

Many game companies’ EULAs say you have to destroy your game if it’s shut down

The legal language here is often something similar to this: “Upon any termination, you must destroy or return the physical copy of Software to the Licensor, as well as permanently destroy all copies of the Software…” via Rockstar’s EULA. This sounds scary, and if enforced, it definitely could be. The last thing any individual gamer wants is to be chased down by a giant company with legal threats. However, so far, this has primarily served as a liability protection for the company, rather than something that’s actually enforced.

While this is not a new phenomenon in modern gaming, it highlights a key issue that continues to resurface. You don’t own your games anymore. These days, most storefronts and publishers are selling you a license to play the game, which can be revoked at any time. These days, even physical copies are not always safe. For an alternative digital storefront, at least, GOG.com is a great place to buy games, not just the licenses to play them.

As I mentioned earlier, the Stop Killing Games initiative has recently surpassed one million signatures in the EU. This movement, via its website, “is a consumer movement started to challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers.” A prime example of this is the ongoing lawsuit against Ubisoft for its handling of 2014’s The Crew. Servers for the racing game shut down last year, leaving anyone who bought the game and wanted to keep playing it out of luck, as there was no offline mode. This is likely why Ubisoft was under such scrutiny at this moment, even if it was unwarranted in this exact situation.

It is safe to say that many gamers would prefer never to find themselves in the same situation as fans of The Crew did. Being unable to play a game you’ve paid for feels wrong. There’s a huge difference between modern gaming and retro. If I still had my Nintendo 64 and a few cartridges, nothing would stop me from plugging it in and playing Super Mario 64, except maybe the passage of time and the damage it does to the hardware. However, even if I had a disc for The Crew and tried to insert it into my Xbox One, and everything was in good condition, it still wouldn’t work.

Yesterday, this story ran as if it were new information and as if it were something new to Ubisoft’s End User License Agreement, or EULA. Thanks to several users on Reddit, who turned out to be better journalists than I am, this has been pointed out as false. This is not a new addition to Ubisoft’s EULA, and has been part of the agreement since at least 2023. This is also a common addition to many EULAs at other companies, including Rockstar Games, Larian Studios, and Steam in general, as the new version of the story now points out.

I sincerely apologize for spreading misinformation and not doing my due diligence with this story. This is not representative of the other hard-working writers on staff at Gamepressure. When I saw this story appear on another site and gain traction on Reddit, I was swept up in what I thought was a poorly timed decision on Ubisoft’s part, but now I realize it was an attempt to drum up controversy, and it worked, at least on me.

Thanks for expecting better from the people who share the news. I will try my best to live up to that expectation in the future.

Assassin's Creed: Shadows

March 20, 2025

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• Ubisoft
• licenses
• lawsuits and litigation
• Assassin's Creed (franchise)