“Big update for game preservation.”
The California State Assembly has passed the Protect Our Games Act, a bill centred on protecting consumer rights as detailed by the Stop Killing Games movement.
The ‘AB 1921’ bill – which the organisation calls a “big update for game preservation” – passed the State Assembly floor vote by 43 to 16.
The games preservation movement was motivated by Ubisoft’s decision to shut down open-world racer The Crew’s servers last March, preventing access to both its multiplayer and single-player content due to its always-online nature. More controversy followed shortly after, when the publisher began revoking customers’ licenses to the game, permanently removing it from their libraries and preventing hopes of resurrecting it through private servers.
The consumer-driven initiative is now demanding game publishers leave their titles playable once support is terminated. The proposed consumer protection law would ensure either offline versions of games or refunds at end-of-service would be available. It’s caused some consternation across the industry, with EU trade body Video Games Europe – which represents the likes of Ubisoft, Take-Two, Warner Bros., Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, and Nintendo – insisting the initiative’s proposals would make games “prohibitively expensive to create”.
The bill has now moved onto the California State Senate, where it’ll need wider public support to progress. If it moves into law, it will “require video game companies to give players advance notice before shutting down server-dependent games and provide a way to keep purchased games playable afterward, such as offline access, community servers, or another workable option”.
Pushing back against the bill, the ESA – the organisation that used to host the E3 annual conference – previously said: “Many games depend on evolving technology, licensed content, and online systems that change over time.
“Assembly Bill 1921 could force developers to spend limited time and resources keeping old systems running instead of creating new games, features, and technology. In the end, this policy doesn’t reflect how games actually work today. This bill sets strict rules that could ultimately mean fewer new and innovative experiences for players.”
The Stop Killing Games movement said of the bill: “This is the same fight as in Europe: a grassroots consumer movement asking for basic end-of-life protections, versus the industry lobby trying to preserve the right to sell games that can later be rendered useless while preserving control.”
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