A bill that was intended to prevent (or at least discourage) publishers from taking games offline and making them unplayable has run into a hurdle in the California State Senate. The Protect Our Games Act failed to pass the Business, Business and Economic Development Committee, with four state senators voting in favor, three against and four abstaining.
The committee voted unanimously in favor of allowing reconsideration of the bill, meaning it can return before this group of state senators. Assemblyman Chris Ward introduced the bill in February, and it passed 43–16 in the California State Assembly in late May.
As noted, the abstentions have stalled the progress of the bill for the time being. A volunteer with the Stop Killing Games campaign (which supported the bill) wrote on Reddit, “Not enough yes means the bill will stop there for this session.” “That’s the loss.”
The volunteer also claimed that it was the movement’s first attempt to push such legislation in the US, and that the bill advanced so far without paid staff or a personal lobbying campaign. He said that the Entertainment Software Association – a trade organization of major game industry publishers – brought in a lobbyist to stop the bill’s progress (including making claims on private servers). minecraft would be “illegal”) and Stop Killing Games will be more prepared to combat it in the future.
“Next session, we’ll be back with a personal lobbying presence, the funding to do it properly, and a long list of organizations and developers signed in support,” the volunteer, u/Mr_President, wrote. “We are not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this in other state legislatures, and we are seriously considering it at the federal level.”
If the proposed California law were to go into place, the law would require publishers and “digital game operators” to give consumers 60 days’ notice before delisting a game, along with information on how they can either get a refund or continue playing it. For example, the publisher/operator would be allowed to allow customers to play games on private or community-run servers in lieu of offering a full refund. The rules will not apply to subscription-based or free-to-play games.
As VGC Notes, players who logged in multiversus A few months before it was discontinued in 2025, it received an update that allowed them to continue playing the game offline. Such an approach could provide an option for publishers and “digital game operators” to avoid issuing massive refunds upon shutting down a game’s servers, should legislation along these lines be enacted.
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