Buying a video game does not always mean you can play it forever. New York Representative Ritchie Torres has introduced the Power To The Players Act to give gamers more rights over the games they buy. The proposed bill aims to make publishers offer an offline way to play before they shut down servers for games that depend on online services. It also seeks to protect players from losing access to games they have already paid for. If the bill becomes law, gamers could keep playing some titles even after publishers stop supporting them.
The proposal comes as more games depend on online servers and player accounts. For example, NBA 2K25 is set to leave digital stores on October 30, 2026, while its online servers will shut down on December 31. Once the servers close, some game features may no longer work. Torres believes players should get more value from a game they have bought. However, the bill is still at an early stage, and its final rules are not yet clear.
This bill is a part of the ‘Stop Killing Physical Games’ movement. This movement is basically an online initiative that has been running to force governments to make these types of practices illegal. This movement started after Ubisoft suddenly cut support for the 2014 racing game The Crew and delisted it from players’ libraries entirely. According to Torres, “Consumers must have the right to own, the right to play, and the right to transfer the games they buy.”
Once this bill passes, even if a publisher removes a title from sale, closes its servers, or stops supporting it, they have to provide offline support to the game for those who have purchased it.
What Happens When Publishers Shut Down Games?
This bill is aimed at giving players access to digital games for longer. Though it doesn’t ensure that companies will keep running a game for years, when they stop the service, they have to figure out a way to keep it alive for the gamers who own it. However, an offline mode takes time and money, so maybe it will bring back physical discs as a solution to this issue.
The proposal could change how gamers buy and keep their games. For now, players must wait to see whether the bill moves forward and what rules it may bring. Its main goal is clear: paying for a game should not always mean losing it when a company moves on.