New Bill in Congress Aims to Define Video Game Ownership Rights

Rep. Ritchie Torres from New York’s 15th congressional district in the Bronx has introduced the Power To The Players Act this week. If this legislation is approved, it would mandate the Federal Trade Commission to create rules ensuring that when consumers buy a game, they actually own it, rather than just receiving a licensing agreement.

More and more games are requiring a connection to online servers, which means that when a company decides to shut those servers down, the games can become unplayable. Rep. Torres highlighted NBA 2K25 as a recent case in point, noting that 2K will remove the game from digital storefronts at the end of the month and will shut down its servers on December 31st, severely limiting its usability.

The issue of ownership, along with the ability to play, resell, or transfer games, has gained traction recently, especially after Sony announced plans to phase out physical game discs by 2028. In his statement about the bill, Rep. Torres remarked, “A game that can be taken away the moment a company pulls the plug is not a purchase. It is a rental disguised as a sale.”

The proposed bill aims to ensure that players have true ownership of their games, “rather than a license to play it,” and would also require developers to implement an offline mode before shutting down any supporting servers. This approach is similar to the Protect Our Games Act introduced by State Sen. John Kane in Pennsylvania, which would obligate companies to offer an offline gaming mode, an online mode that operates independently of the company’s servers, or a minimum 25 percent refund when games are being sunset.