Why it matters: Two years after Ubisoft’s The Crew went under, taking 12 million copies with it, the question of whether you own the games you buy has finally reached Congress. A proposed law from Rep. Ritchie Torres is light on details and heavy on obstacles, but it’s the first federal attempt to answer a question the industry would rather leave alone.
The Power to the Players Act would direct the FTC to write rules ensuring that the purchase of a video game results in ownership rather than a revocable license. Games that rely on online servers would also have to offer an offline mode before those servers are shut down. Representative Ritchie Torres assumes three rights: to own, play and broadcast the games that people buy.
His announcement is based on a very recent example. NBA 2K25, which sold for $70 (or $100 for the All-Star Edition), will be pulled from digital stores on October 30th and will lose its online servers on December 31st, approximately two years after release. It was one of the best-selling games in the US in 2024, and once the servers go, so will the modes most players bought it for.
“A game that can be taken away as soon as a company pulls the plug is not a purchase. It’s a rental disguised as a sale,” Torres said. In a phone interview with Kotaku, the congressman, who grew up with Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil and SOCOM, described the bill as “restoring the historical norm” of the cassette and disc era.
The bill only affects games, not movies or music, although it hopes it sets a precedent for other digital purchases.
The proposal lands after a tough year for the Stop Killing Games movement. The campaign was launched in 2024 by YouTuber Ross Scott after Ubisoft closed The Crew, leaving approximately 12 million copies unplayable. The initiative collected over 1.2 million signatures, but in June the European Commission rejected a proposed law and instead offered to negotiate a “voluntary code of conduct” with publishers. This came two weeks after the commission met behind closed doors with Ubisoft and gaming industry lobbyists.
Weeks later, California’s Protect Our Games Act (AB 1921) stalled in a state Senate committee, missing three votes. This bill would have required a 60-day notice before a shutdown and a remedy: an offline mode, support for community-run servers, or a full refund. The Entertainment Software Association lobbied against it, calling the requirements technically “unfeasible” and at one point telling lawmakers that private Minecraft and Call of Duty servers amounted to piracy, even though Minecraft’s own EULA allows it.
While details are lacking at the moment, Torres’ bill could be more ambitious than anything presented before him. The failed California law accepted the gaming licensing model and focused on what happens at end of life. The Power to the Players Act pursues the licensing model itself, and a broadcast right implies a resale market for digital games, which no big box store allows today. However, U.S. courts have generally held that software sold under a license is not subject to the first sale doctrine, the rule that allows the resale of a used disc.
Then there is Congress itself. The bill has not yet been formally introduced and the vast majority of bills never come to a vote. On the other hand, publishers have already shown that they will spend real money fighting proposals far narrower than these.
— Stop Killing Games Official (@StopKilingGames) October 9, 2026
From a player perspective, adding a mandatory offline mode or allowing community servers targets some of the right pain points. Publishers argue that licensed content such as player likenesses, music and car brands make it impossible to keep old games alive, but that sounds more like an excuse after Microsoft was forced under pressure to allow Forza Horizon 4 to be downloaded and played after it was delisted and Ubisoft finally patched an offline mode in The Crew 2. NBA 2K is a trickier case, as much of its value lies in online modes that 2K says players never owned.
Whatever happens with the bill, the debate now appears to be reaching the federal level.
