Dino Patti, the former Playdead co-founder and current head of multiplayer middleware company Coherence, believes the growing backlash against server shutdowns isn’t something publishers can simply ignore — and says better technology could prevent games from disappearing altogether.
Speaking in a recent interview with GamesIndustry, Patti addressed the concerns at the center of the Stop Killing Games movement, which argues that publishers should preserve online games rather than shutting them down once server costs outweigh revenue — a movement largely sparked by the shutting down of The Crew in 2024. While Patti stressed that he’s not formally involved with the movement, he said its core frustration is one he shares.
“You cannot force a company to keep paying for a service that no longer makes sense financially,” Patti said. “But you can solve it with technology.”
Patti’s company, Coherence — which recently launched version 2.0 of its tools — focuses on making online features easier to implement and scale. One of its core ideas is flexibility: games can shift between dedicated servers, player-hosted servers, or peer-to-peer networking depending on player demand.
That flexibility, Patti argues, could allow games to remain playable even after official support ends.
“Maybe the big servers with hundreds of players aren’t available anymore,” he said. “But at least you can still play four players together. That matters.”
The issue has become increasingly relevant across online-focused genres, including sports games, where server shutdowns routinely render modes unplayable within a few years of release. From online franchises to MyCAREER-style progression systems, many sports titles rely on centralized servers that eventually go dark, even for players who purchased the game outright.
Patti said losing access to paid digital products risks eroding trust between players and publishers.
“I bought The Crew and it shut down before I ever played it,” Patti added. “I don’t want to lose the trust that when I buy something digitally, I can’t rely on it existing in the future.”
Coherence’s updated pricing model makes its development tools free for studios earning under $200,000 annually, with larger teams paying a flat monthly fee. Hosting costs scale based on monthly active users, allowing developers to reduce expenses as player counts decline rather than shutting games down entirely.
The Stop Killing Games was the talk of the gaming world this year. While it largely went unnoticed, support from prominent content creators (and pushback from others) led to it launching several European petitions, even landing enough votes in the UK to facilitate an official Parliament debate. Just months ago, Ubisoft — largely considered to be one of the worst offenders when it comes to sunsetting and delisting paid games — implemented a “Hybrid Mode” into The Crew 2, allowing the game to be enjoyed offline even after official support ends.
