The California Assembly has passed the Protect Our Games Act by a vote of 43-16, meaning that the bill will move to the California State Senate.
The bill, which was detailed by the Stop Killing Games movement, aims at protecting gamers from having their paid games completely unplayable by publishers after the games ‘shut down’.
The bill’s passage means it will not move to the California State Senate, where it will need to go through an additional, broader vote. If passed, it would “require video game companies to give players advance notice before shutting down server-dependent games and provide a way to keep purchased games playable afterwards, such as offline access, community servers, or another workable option”.
In short, it means that if a gamer has bought a paid game, it must still be playable in some way. In theory, it will likely mean that publishers will have to make their games fully downloaded to play, and publishers might have to offer server services for multiplayer games, though that has not yet been determined.
Unfortunately, though, if the bill is passed, it will only protect games that have been released after January 2027, meaning that any game released before that point won’t be protected. In addition, the law only applies to paid games.
You can watch Chris Ward explaining the votes passing below:
The Stop Killing Games movement in the UK also saw nearly 190,000 signatures signed, exceeding its initialy 100,000 target.
What do you think about the Stop Killing Games movement and the Protect Our Games Act? Let us know your thoughts and join our Insider Gaming Discord.
Read about Call of Duty promising no BS or silly skins in Modern Warfare 4 and an ARC Raiders PvE ‘Rebellion’ map condition being tested in China for more news.
Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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