The manufacturer should never be able to either deactivate or otherwise disable the functionality of a device they
sold in a form that requires a service to function. If the customer is paying a subscription fee and no longer has to pay the fee when the service goes away, that is maaaybe fine (albeit opening a loophole that would most likely be abused (from a customer's perspective).
If the service was priced into the selling price of the device, game or other software though: nope, never. You did the math, you sold the device for that price, now keep on delivering.
That would not necessarily mean that they would have to run servers indefinitely, it could as well be in the form of releasing or open sourcing the related server software or the specifications (and required certificates for signing updates if applicable? That might be thorny though.) in a form that someone else could successfully take their place when they end-of-life a device.
Ideally in a form that would also work when the company closes shop, that is when no longer any form of workforce or capital for anything might be available.
It might be time to actually require that from (also software) manufacturers since there seems almost no change in that regard.
If the service was priced into the selling price of the device, game or other software though: nope, never. You did the math, you sold the device for that price, now keep on delivering.
That would not necessarily mean that they would have to run servers indefinitely, it could as well be in the form of releasing or open sourcing the related server software or the specifications (and required certificates for signing updates if applicable? That might be thorny though.) in a form that someone else could successfully take their place when they end-of-life a device.
Ideally in a form that would also work when the company closes shop, that is when no longer any form of workforce or capital for anything might be available.
It might be time to actually require that from (also software) manufacturers since there seems almost no change in that regard.