There are plenty of great reasons to despise GameStop. Their selection of used games rarely carries any titles I care about, let alone for a good deal relative to what can be found online or at conventions. Their stores have slowly morphed into toy and merchandise stores rather than game stores. Their pivot around COVID to other money-making endeavors led them to sell NFTs based on 9/11 photos. And their reputation as places for fellow game enthusiasts to meet each other and hang out hasn’t been accurate since I left high school over a decade ago. But none of those facts and controversies got me to finally cancel my Pro Membership, which I held onto for many years beforehand.

Up until they were shuttered by GameStop last year, A GameStop Pro membership would get you every issue of Game Informer as they came out. I keep my ear to the games media streets enough to know that many of those who worked, and work, at Game Informer disliked, or outright hated, how GameStop managed their company. But as someone who is not only a fan of print media, but also spent years of my life listening to the Game Informer Show and watching Super Replays, I kept giving GameStop my money, because that was the only way to read Game Informer. So, I tried to spend the $5 credit I got every month, or pick something up during the Pro exclusive sales.

Then, they shut down Game Informer. But not only did they lay everyone off, they took down their website immediately by replacing it with an AI-generated farewell message. Plus, once actual staff took to social media to give a proper farewell, they took down the posts and deactivated the account. It was hard to see those moves as anything but evil. To take one of the longest running institutions in games media and throw it away with such carelessness showed to many, and myself, just how transparent their disdain for what “gamers” want really is. So, I swore off of them. I canceled my Pro subscription, which no longer got me Game Informer anyway, and never bought anything from them again.

But Game Informer was revived a few months ago, with all of the staff who worked there when is shut down returning to the site. Lord only knows if it’ll be exactly the same, as they are still figuring out how to bring back the print magazine, but those workers have their jobs back and I get to read, listen to, and watch their content again. So, since the (apparently) biggest sin GameStop committed has now been undone, I thought I might start shopping at GameStop again. Well, I haven’t.

I looked into signing back up for a Pro membership, but the benefits just don’t move the needle anymore. The free shipping benefit doesn’t kick in until you spend at least $50, which I barely do even once a year. The Pro sales don’t mean much as: I can find better used deals on eBay, Amazon and other retailers price match with GameStop’s prices, and I have WAY too many games in my backlog to justify a subscription that only exists to save me money only when I’m spending it on yet another game. There’s no reason for me to pay for access to a sale when I already paid for access to thousands of games over the years, and even now still pay for access to the libraries of PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass.

Well, one of those is not quite the case anymore, as I let my Game Pass subscription lapse just a few days ago for a completely different reason. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, one led by Palestinians against the state of Israel, has asked for everyone to cancel their Game Pass subscriptions, uninstall and avoid playing key Microsoft games like Minecraft and Call of Duty, and to boycott the entire Xbox platform, including PC software and console hardware, to put pressure on Microsoft for contributing to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.

I pray to God that I am not the first time you are hearing about this, but Israel has been harassing and abusing Palestinians for generations, but has more recently been slaughtering them by the thousands since 2023. With funds from the US military primarily, but also other western nations, Israel has bombed and leveled a majority of the Gaza Strip, the last plot of Palestinian land that isn’t fully occupied by Israel, and have sent troops in as well to not only personally torture, rape, and kill, but to make mockery of their victims though inappropriate and ghoulish social media posts. Anyone with an open heart and a mind not clouded by the aggressive propaganda delivered to us through Western media can see clearly what is going on. And I was glad to see that, closer to October 7th, 2023, the date of the retaliatory Hamas attack that led to the over response of brutality from Israel, much of the video game industry was happy to openly agree that what was happening was wrong.

However, it is a bit surreal to see many of those voices who spoke up then be silent now. Not everyone is shutting up, of course. I’ve seen some streamers commit to not playing the new Oblivion remaster, South of Midnight, or the upcoming Doom: The Dark Ages. I’ve seen some outlets focus less on covering Xbox releases in their coverage. I’ve even seen at least one developer literally delist their game from Xbox digital shelves in support of the Boycott, but this all still doesn’t feel like enough.

What I’m noticing is most outlets have no problem reporting on, or even discussing, the request of the BDS Movement, but I don’t see much conversation about taking that request seriously. I’ll be honest and say that it is a bit unfair because, much like my boycott of GameStop, it’s easy for me to boycott Xbox. I have an ROG Ally X I recently picked up, but despite playing loads of Game Pass games on there, I found it easy to delete them all in favor of my Epic, Steam, GOG, and emulated library. I looked forward to playing South of Midnight and the new Doom, but I can gladly instead put time into Expedition 33 using the PS5 copy I bought at launch, and I still have plenty of Doom Eternal DLC to run through as well. Plus, I already own an Xbox Series X and a custom controller, I am in no need for any new hardware from them. Video games are, in someways, my life, but they are not my livelihood. Hell, I don’t even need to play games all the time, as I can contribute that time to catching up on books, movies, shows, or actual chores and exercise, let alone hobbies outside of media consumption.

I think much of the muted response to the boycott stems from wanting not to make others feel uncomfortable for choosing to continue their dollars towards Xbox products. I understand that urge, as the feeling of shame has an uniquely adverse effect on me as well. No matter how small the infraction may be, it cuts me to my core to discover when I have done the wrong thing. I always wanna do the right thing, and even if the right thing isn’t perfectly defined, I still try to flee as far away from the wrong as possible. I don’t like this simplistic moral code, and I’m working on trying to build a more nuanced sense of morality, but I can’t lie and say that this isn’t how I operate today. But this Xbox boycott is not a matter of personal expression. It’s not akin to loudly and proudly evangelizing women-led art as a straight, cis man to signal your decency towards women. This isn’t akin to a white person loudly and proudly loving Sinners, or To Pimp a Butterfly, or Beloved to signal that they should be accepted by the black community. This is not an opportunity to express identity, but an opportunity to contribute to real, actual collective action.

Back in 2021, the official VGU.TV Twitter account sent out this tweet. In it, we said that we’d no longer discuss games published or developed by Activision, Blizzard, or Ubisoft until justice was found for the many controversies that were, then, just being uncovered. Well, it’s been four years, and many of the bad actors involved in these stories are still kicking around after facing few or no consequences. Bobby Kotic is still giving interviews and having a public life despite his reportedly abhorrent behavior. Yevs Gullmont, despite protecting and turning a blind eye to abusers in the company, still leads Ubisoft even after ridding the company of a few of its bad apples. And while Blizzard has rid itself of most of its worst culprits of abuse, their willingness to bend the knee to China’s propaganda for the sake of access to their market is cowardly.

I say all of that to say that I, much like many of those reading this, am also a hypocrite. I played and loved Call of Duty Black Ops 6. I anticipated the addition of Steam Achievements to Immortals Feynx Rising for so long on Bluesky that some only know Ubisoft is adding achievements to their older titles because I didn’t shut up about it. And when it comes to Blizzard… actually I still have yet to touch Overwatch 2 or Diablo IV, but I still have some, ambient interest in playing both someday. Hell, you can even look at my defense of a game like Drawn to Death in the face of David Jaffe’s (one of the game’s key creators), increasingly unpleasant political leanings and the fact that I adore Grime despite it being developed by an Israeli studio as further examples of my lack of ability to stand on my principles at all times. There is, of course, no ethical consumption under capitalism, especially at this late, nightmarish stage of it.

We here at VGU will not be talking about any games developed by Activision, Blizzard, or Ubisoft until disciplinary action is taken toward the individuals who have put a stain on the industry.

— VideoGameUtopia (VGU.TV) (@VGU_TV) July 24, 2021

But a call for a Boycott is not a call to rid the world of all troubles, or a chance to absolve one of all guilt. The BDS Movement picked this target and picked this specific branch of Microsoft to focus on specifically because they believe they can have a measurable impact here. They are under no illusion that successfully getting everyone to cancel their Game Pass subscription is going to bring down Microsoft; they have a massively successful PC software and cloud computing arm as well. But if Xbox specifically shows signs of decline, especially on the one metric they’ve placed all their bets on in the wake of underselling (and now, overpriced) hardware, perhaps the rest of the company starts showing concern of their ability to capitalize on their recent $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. They are making a specific request, so what lies in front of us is a simple opportunity to do one, tangibly good thing. There’s no knowing if this economic pressure can be enough to get Microsoft to back out of it’s Israeli military contracts, but it is one of the clearest and most direct things we can do to try and get it to happen. In a political climate that feels so hopeless when the only way to interact with it is voting, participating in a boycott like this is one of the most frictionless examples of why that is false. You don’t need to join a protest (though you probably should), you don’t need to attend a town hall (though you probably should), and you don’t need to be the next Luigi (though you probably should), all you gotta do is just be a little more discerning when choosing what video game to spend your money on or use your platform to promote the boycott.

Now, keep in mind that even with this boycott going on, it doesn’t mean you literally can’t even touch a Xbox. I picked up a copy of Ninja Gaiden II on 360 a while back, and I still plan to play that, because that money is not only spent already, but some random guy on eBay got that money and not Microsoft. If you already picked up a few games in a sale, or otherwise have some Xbox games already in your library you’ve wanted to play, it’s less of a problem to just play them anyway. In a situation like this, we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. While the strongest message you could possibly send is to abandon all Microsoft products, we all know that’s not feasible for most of us in this online age. I’m typing this article through a Microsoft owned browser and operating system, and I’m actually trying to participate in the boycott. If all you can manage is to delete your Game Pass subscription, but still need to play on Xbox for whatever reason, that is way more preferable than doing nothing. But when the goal is for a company’s financials in a specific section to take such a noticeable hit that their policies change, then doing something is absolutely necessary.

I think the thing about a boycott is that, if you don’t go through it, you are actually supposed to feel bad. Guilt is a powerful social force, and while none of us like feeling it, it often does propel us towards positive social outcomes. No one wants to feel guilty, but I’ve got bad news: if you live in America like me, you likely already are. We’re the ones funding at least one genocide overseas with our tax dollars. We’re the country responsible for the world’s slow descent into fascism. Hell, Americans (with decent competition from the British), have the most blood on our hands historically for the evils of colonialism. We can’t run away from our own responsibility for the world’s ills because most of us have carried responsibility since we first started to believe the words of the Pledge of Allegiance after reciting it daily in school.

But hey, if the “worst” has already happened and your guilt is justified, is there not some kind of power in that fact? If the evils of the past have wiped away the beauty that once sat on that canvas, is that not an opportunity to paint a new, even more beautiful picture? It is hard to deny that we Americans are at the end of an age, or even at the end of something more permanent if you really want to be pessimistic about it. But if we are at an end, we have to imagine what a new start will look like. We are the only ones that can build a new world, because whatever we build now will be the world we leave behind for the next generation. If we don’t want leaders who lead with fear and ignorance, we must not only not vote for them, but ensure the voters near us don’t have a reason to be attracted to such an ideology. If we want a world healthy enough for children of the future to breathe it’s air and drink its water without concern of encountering its manmade toxins, we have to vote out those who wish to pollute the planet further, but also have to give less money to the corporations who are most responsible for doing so. And if we want to stop a genocide, especially one that our country is most responsible for continuing, we must vote out those who wish to give our money to them, but also must disincentivize corporations that independently support it regardless. And right now, the BDS Movement is requesting we do exactly that.

So, instead of playing the Oblivion Remaster, check out Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, an RPG with heavy Elder Scrolls energy due to drop on all non-Switch platforms on May 25th. Instead of playing Doom: The Dark Ages, try one of the hundreds of similarly playing shooters in the Boomer Shooter genre of indie titles, like Turbo Overkill and Forgive Me Father. For those looking forward to playing Gear of War on an PlayStation finally, there are dozens of cover based, 3rd person shooters just like it that you could have just as much fun with. You could play every Uncharted on PS5 right now, and cult classics like Vanquish and Outriders. Also, instead of plugging yourself into the hype cycle of the latest Xbox release, why not just focus on your backlog and adjacent YouTubers and content creators that also focus on older titles? After all, a game is still brand new and exciting if it is at least new to you, no matter if the zeitgeist says otherwise.

And for those on the side of Press, while I can’t fault anyone for reporting Xbox news, as outright ignoring those stories feels like it crosses some kind of journalistic line, it may be worth rethinking how much airtime you give to Xbox titles when discussing them critically. Much of games media primarily sells the public on games, but perhaps we can make the choice to sell the public on games that are not just fun, but closer to ethical as well. And if you just can’t stop yourself from gushing about Doom: The Dark Ages on a podcast, then that conversation should absolutely start with a disclosure of the boycott that is currently going on. Reference of the boycott should be the first thing you see or hear every time a Microsoft game is mentioned on any article or show. If the press is immune to the collective pressure of guilt, then we must give the opportunity for the consumer to be effected instead.

I understand that, despite my failures to try and consume ethically, it is now easier than ever for me to drop something like Game Pass. With so many games available to me now, cutting off access to a few hundred of them makes it easier to pick something to play from that slightly smaller pool. And since I make content about games sporadically and in my free time, the need to keep up with every new Xbox release is greatly diminished. But still, I think, for all of us, now is the easiest time it’s ever been to divest form Microsoft. The price of the best Xbox Series X you can find is now higher than the price of a PS5 Pro. Conversations around digital rights and ownership has led many to return focus to physical game collecting or even utilizing their services like Gamefly or their local library. And the overabundance of quality games among AAA, AA, and indie developers means there is literally always something to play that will give you a similar experience, or even a superior experience, to whatever Microsoft is selling.

But understand, it is so easy to do because it is one small act in a larger movement. Cancelling your Game Pass subscription doesn’t mean you’ve saved the world. But it does mean that you care more about the world and the people in it, than you do video games, even if slightly so. Solidarity is not something we’re supposed to be able to do passively, not if we really mean it at least. If other more vocal calls for peace lead to people loosing jobs, fame, or even their lives, the stakes are way more relaxed if all you have to loose access to certain gaming experiences. It is easy for us to claim solidarity, but to truly be in solidarity, it takes, at bare minimum, some action to actually back it up. In a world that is so obsessed with convenience, purposely adding friction like this is close enough to decisive action for most, and perhaps the games industry can stomach this inconvenience for the sake of a movement it has widely supported up to now.