A bill aimed at stopping (or at least dissuading) publishers from disabling games and making them unplayable has hit a roadblock in the California state Senate. The Protection of Our Games Act failed to pass business, professions and economic development committee, four state senators voted in favor, three against and four abstentions.
The committee voted unanimously to reconsider the bill, meaning it can return to that group of state senators. Assemblyman Chris Ward introduced the bill in February it passed the California State Assembly 43-16 in late May.
However, abstentions have prevented the bill from moving forward for now. “Not enough ‘yes’ means the account is suspended for this session,” volunteer from Stop Killing Games Company (who supported the bill) noted on reddit. “It’s a loss.”
The volunteer also claimed that this was the movement’s first attempt to advance such legislation in the U.S., and that the bill had gotten this far without paying for staff or a personal lobbying campaign. They said the Entertainment Software Association — the trade organization for the game industry’s major publishers — brought in a lobbyist to stop the bill (including asserting private servers for the likes Minecraft will be “illegal”) and that Stop Killing Games will be more prepared to counter it in the future.
“Next session we’ll be back with personal lobbying, funding for proper execution, and a long list of organizations and developers who have signed on to support,” volunteer u/Mr_Presidentle wrote. “We’re not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this to other state legislatures, and we’re seriously looking at the federal level.”
If the proposed California legislation becomes law as it isthe legislation requires publishers and “digital game operators” to give consumers a 60-day heads-up 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 the game on a private or community server instead of offering a full refund. Rules will not apply to subscription games or free games.
How VGC notes, logged in players MultiVersus a few months before it closed in 2025 received an update that allowed them to continue playing offline. This approach could offer publishers and “digital game operators” one option to avoid massive refunds if they shut down a game’s servers when the relevant legislation comes into effect.
