The GDPR Is Affecting Lots of Games
Just a year after its launch, Mirage: Arcane Warfare is set to be delisted next week due to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), a set of European laws that govern data protection and privacy for both businesses and people in the European Union and European Economic Area.
Developer Torn Banner explained the move in a recent post on the game’s official forums.
“Mirage: Arcane Warfare will be removed from sale on Steam (and third party marketplaces) within the next week.
We have made this change in part due to the new European Union privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that comes into effect May 25, 2018. We unfortunately have run out of options for keeping Mirage alive.
Official servers will remain running until May 31. Players will continue to be able to host their own public or private servers after this point.
Thank you for your support and for enjoying Mirage’s journey up to now. We look forward to seeing you in our future titles. Our other games, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior, will not be affected.”
The GDRP is affecting other games too, and some people believe that it’s moving too fast, including privacy lawyer Shaq Katikala.
“My biggest concern with GDPR is that it’s moving very fast and the terms still need to be defined,” he said. “Without answers, even honest companies can only go so far without further guidance.”
“I think everyone now is starting to be aware of GDPR and what it means, but there are still companies that have open questions they need to understand,” said Jari-Pekka Kaleva, senior policy analyst at Finnish trade association Neogames. “So it’s a step-by-step process.”
The Mirage: Arcane Warfare servers will continue running until May 31, after which it will only be playable through user hosted servers. Torn Banners other titles (Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior) will remain online, likely due to their legacy status.