California has advanced its Protect Our Games Act after gaining another legislative hurdle with support from the Stop Killing Games movement, pushing publishers to keep online games playable after official support ends, offer offline patches, standalone versio
California is trying to slow down a practice that has increasingly defined modern online gaming: publishers permanently shutting down games people have already paid for.. The state’s proposed “Protect Our Games Act” has now cleared another key legislative hurdle. backed by the Stop Killing Games movement.
If the bill makes it through in its current form. publishers would be required to preserve paid online games after official support ends.. That obligation would fall into one of several options: keep the game playable. provide an offline patch. release a standalone playable version. or issue refunds to players.
The measure would reportedly apply to paid games released after January 1, 2027. Free-to-play and subscription-only titles would remain exempt, leaving the proposal focused on purchases rather than access models that are structured differently.
The political momentum behind the bill gained a visible boost from a concrete example that preservation advocates have pointed to repeatedly.. In 2024, Ubisoft shut down The Crew, making the game inaccessible even for players who had already purchased it.. For Stop Killing Games supporters. that moment captured a wider fear: online games are being treated like temporary rentals instead of products consumers actually own.
But the push is not landing cleanly with the industry. The ESA says the bill rests on what it calls a false premise. In its view, consumers don’t “own” digital games with permanent access because software is licensed, not sold as unrestricted property.
The ESA also argues that indefinite support requirements could become technically and financially unrealistic for developers.. The friction is sharper because preservation advocates have previously accused the ESA of lobbying against expanded DMCA exemptions for preserving older video games back in 2024.
A single thread runs through the dispute: the Stop Killing Games movement points to shutdowns like Ubisoft’s 2024 closure of The Crew as proof that paid online games can become inaccessible. while the ESA counters that the underlying legal and technical reality is licensing rather than ownership. making permanent support obligations harder to carry.
California is also not entering this debate from scratch.. Last year. the state pushed for greater transparency from digital storefronts. requiring them to clarify that users are often buying licenses instead of permanent ownership.. Steam, meanwhile, added warnings explaining this directly before purchases.
For players. the Protect Our Games Act now lands in a wider argument about what “buying” a game means in the digital era.. With Stop Killing Games support already rallying around the idea that communities can watch purchases vanish when servers go dark. the legislation turns into more than a preservation fight over old multiplayer titles—it becomes a showdown over whether publishers can decide when products stop existing.
California Protect Our Games Act Stop Killing Games online game shutdowns digital game ownership offline patch refunds Ubisoft The Crew ESA