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SKG Publisher Warning — warns you on Steam/GOG when a game is from a publisher that kills games (codeberg.org)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.world
3 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I got tired of accidentally browsing games from publishers with a track record of shutting down always-online titles and making them unplayable. So I built a simple tool:

SKG Publisher Warning

It’s a userscript that checks the publisher on every Steam/GOG game page against the Stop Killing Games Dead Game List. If there’s a match, you get a small amber banner with the reason and a link to evidence.

What it flags (16 publishers): Ubisoft, EA, Microsoft (Activision/Blizzard), Warner Bros, Bandai Namco, Sony, Square Enix, 2K, NCSoft, SEGA, Capcom, Rovio, Gameloft, NetEase, Nexon, Atari

Why it exists:

  • Anthem (EA) — killed Jan 2026, always-online, unplayable
  • Warzone Mobile (Activision) — killed Apr 2026 after 50M pre-registrations
  • Concord (Sony) — killed after 2 weeks
  • The Crew (Ubisoft) — the game that started the SKG movement

The banner:

  • Amber/orange, matches Steam’s native DRM warning style
  • Dismissible, does not block purchases
  • Links to per-publisher explainer docs with sources
  • No telemetry, no tracking, open source

Install:

  1. Install ViolentMonkey (or Tampermonkey)
  2. Paste https://codeberg.org/kimmitk/skg-publisher-warning/raw/branch/main/skg-warning.user.js into your browser
  3. Click Install

Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/kimmitk/skg-publisher-warning

Also available as a native WebExtension in the repo. PRs welcome if I’m missing a publisher or got something wrong.

Greasy Fork (one-click install): https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/585626-skg-publisher-warning

all 3 comments

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[–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This looks neat, but without a way to inject into the steam client (or gog client) on the desktop it seems like you're hitting a particularly small audience. Most people aren't using a browser to access these services.

Making this into a decky add-on (there are already addons that add a banner to store pages based on similar info) would be an awesome next step that would help increase visibility for this kind of thing.

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    [–] 2 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    Do any games on GoG exist that can be killed by a publisher?

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (7 children)

    Yeah? The majority of the IPs of games sold on GOG are still owned by someone that isn't CDPR and they could cancel whatever agreement they had to sell their stuff on GOG. Seems highly unlikely tho, since almost none of them cost anyone anything to keep selling as they don't do anything online or, if they do, is P2P stuff or dedicated servers the players themselves run. The games that get killed generally have some kind of always online component and the publishers simply don't want to pay for the servers anymore, nor do they want to spend time retrofitting them to not need those servers to be played.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    I have bought a game on gog, how can the publisher revoke that game from me now that I have it?

    Not aware of any games on gog that are always online

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    They couldn't take it away from you but they could tell GOG to stop selling and distributing it, which would mean you'd need to have it backed up already or you won't be able to obtain the offline installer again from GOG.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    So the same thing with physical, the shop could be told to stop selling and distributing it.

    Also don't gog usually only stop sales rather than distribution from existing purchases?

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    Agreed on stopping sales but doubt the second. Once you have it in library, you should be able to download it at anytime. Even Steam does it so GOG should also do it given their stance right?

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Technically, Steam could also have this happen if the rights holders demand they stop distributing their game entirely, unless they have a clause in their specific contracts to let Valve keep giving it out to people who bought it forever.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    I have seen games taken off the steam store completely but never heard of the installers being denied for those who already own it outside of things like malware and such. Do you have any examples?

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