THE CRUNCH
New York representative Ritchie Torres has introduced the Power To The Players Act, legislation that would direct the FTC to draw up rules treating a game purchase as ownership of the game rather than a revocable licence to play it. Under the bill, games with online functionality would also have to offer an offline mode before the servers supporting them are switched off.
The proposal responds to a string of high-profile shutdowns. In 2024, Ubisoft turned off the servers for The Crew, an online-only racing game, leaving even recent buyers with an unplayable copy because its single-player campaign also required a connection. More recently, Torres cited NBA 2K25, which is being pulled from digital storefronts with its online servers shutting down just two years after release.
The bill follows similar efforts elsewhere: Pennsylvania state senator John Kane has proposed the Protect Our Games Act, which would require publishers to offer an offline mode, community servers, or a minimum 25% refund. Torres's announcement also echoes the Stop Killing Games movement, formed after The Crew's shutdown, which campaigns for games to remain playable after publisher support ends.
Concrete details of the bill have yet to be released, including how strictly it would define what ownership means and which rights owners would have over their copies. It remains to be seen how the legislation would fare, but it represents a notable step in the growing pushback against licences that can be revoked at any time.