Gamers Are Done Renting: New US Bill Could Finally Force Companies to Let You Truly Own Your Video Games

You hand over seventy dollars, wait hours for a giant file to download to your console or PC, and start playing. You clicked a bright button that said “Buy Now.” You got a receipt that said you purchased the game. But legally, you do not actually own it. If the publisher decides to turn off their servers next year, you are left staring at an expensive digital paperweight.

United States Representative Ritchie Torres wants to end this practice for good.

The New York lawmaker has introduced a landmark piece of federal legislation called the Power to the Players Act. The bill takes aim directly at the video game industry’s standard legal loophole, seeking to make sure that when you buy a video game, you get real legal ownership instead of an invisible, revocable license.

This move could trigger the biggest shake-up in digital entertainment since physical discs first started vanishing from store shelves.

Why Buying a Digital Game Does Not Mean What You Think

For years, publishers have leaned on end-user license agreements (EULAs)—the dense, tiny text nobody reads before clicking “Accept.” Buried deep in those legal pages is a hard truth: you are not buying the game itself. You are buying a temporary, revocable license that lets you play the game under the publisher’s terms.

If the studio decides to pull the plug, drop support, or shut down its central servers, your game effectively disappears. You cannot play it, you cannot transfer it, and you certainly cannot get your cash back.

Representative Torres made his stance clear when introducing the proposal:

“When you pay for a game, you should own it. Consumers must have the right to own, the right to play, and the right to transfer the games they buy. 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 bill aims to push consumer rights back toward what they were decades ago, restoring what Torres calls a “historical norm.” If you pay for an item, it should belong to you forever.

What the Power to the Players Act Actually Demands

The Power to the Players Act is not just a polite request for game publishers to behave better. It proposes concrete legal mandates and brings in federal regulators to enforce them.

Directing the FTC to Enforce Real Ownership

The legislation directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to establish rules treating digital game purchases as durable, protected property rights. Under this framework, companies would be legally barred from treating full-price digital games as temporary access passes that can be revoked on a whim.

Mandatory Offline Modes

One of the most practical requirements in the proposal tackles “always-online” games. Under the bill, any game sold with online components must include a functional offline mode once the central servers shut down. If a publisher decides that running multiplayer servers is no longer profitable, they cannot simply brick the entire title. Players must still be able to launch the campaign, play local modes, and enjoy the software they paid for.

The Right to Resell and Transfer

Physical copies gave gamers the freedom to lend a cartridge to a friend, trade a disc in at a store, or hand it down to younger family members. The Power to the Players Act seeks to establish transferability for digital game assets, allowing players to pass on or sell their digital purchases just like physical goods.

The Boiling Point: From The Crew to NBA 2K25

Gamers have been complaining about disappearing software for years, but recent high-profile shutdowns pushed consumer anger into mainstream politics.

A prime example is Ubisoft’s racing game The Crew. After servers went dark, the company did not just turn off multiplayer—it actively revoked access licenses from players’ digital libraries, making the game completely unlaunchable even for single-player exploration. That incident sparked grassroots campaigns, including the massive “Stop Killing Games” movement, which gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures across Europe and North America demanding legal protections against software destruction.

Representative Torres pointed to an even more common routine in the sports gaming market: annualized titles like Take-Two Interactive’s NBA 2K franchise.

NBA 2K25 was released to millions of players paying $70 upfront, with many spending hundreds more on virtual currency inside digital modes. Yet, sports franchises routinely shut down server infrastructure roughly two years after launch. Once those servers go dark, core modes like MyCAREER become unplayable, turning a full-price game into a gutted shell.

Under the proposed law, studios would no longer be permitted to leave players stranded with an empty box when the next annual edition arrives.

The Vanishing Disc: How Physical Media Died

This legislative push comes right as physical media faces its biggest crisis.

For decades, owning a physical disc or cartridge served as an insurance policy. If a digital store went out of business or lost licensing rights, you could still pop your disc into your console and play. Even as music fans rediscovered vintage charm—driving trends where compact discs are making a massive comeback—the gaming industry has moved aggressively in the opposite direction.

According to Sony’s official financial reports, digital downloads now account for well over 80 percent of full-game unit sales across PlayStation platforms. Reports that platform holders are planning to minimize or phase out physical disc drives altogether in upcoming hardware cycles have left players feeling trapped in closed digital ecosystems.

When platforms control the storefront, the download servers, and the licensing keys, players hold zero leverage. If an account gets banned, a payment platform glitched, or a store closes its doors, thousands of dollars worth of games can vanish overnight.

California Started with Labels, but This Bill Goes Much Deeper

State governments have already started noticing the digital ownership trap.

In late 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2426 into law. That bill cracked down on deceptive digital storefront language. It made it illegal for digital stores selling games, movies, and ebooks to use straightforward words like “Buy” or “Purchase” unless they clearly warned shoppers that they were only acquiring a revocable license.

Digital stores like Steam, PlayStation Network, and the Nintendo eShop responded by slapping disclaimers onto their checkout screens, explicitly informing customers that clicking “Buy” only grants a license.

While California’s law forced companies to tell the truth, it did not actually solve the core problem. It told players, “You don’t own this,” but it let publishers keep taking away games.

The Power to the Players Act takes the next logical step: instead of just forcing publishers to admit that players are renting, it demands that publishers actually sell full ownership rights.

The Pushback: How the Gaming Industry Might Fight Back

Passing this legislation will not be an easy ride through Congress. The multi-billion-dollar gaming industry is expected to push back fiercely through lobby groups like the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

Publishers will likely argue several counterpoints:

• Technical Costs: Keeping server architecture running costs money. Publishers argue that building separate offline patches for aging games requires developer hours and budget that studios would rather spend on new projects.
• Complex Third-Party Licensing: Many modern games contain licensed music, real-world cars, athlete likenesses, or third-party physics engines. Publishers claim that when those licenses expire, legally maintaining games becomes an intellectual property nightmare.
• The Rise of Live-Service Architecture: Games built from the ground up as cloud-dependent live-service experiences do not have a natural “offline” state. Publishers will argue that forcing persistent online titles to run locally is technically unfeasible for certain genres.

Despite those arguments, consumer frustration has reached a tipping point. Players are growing weary of microtransactions, battle passes, and full-priced software that can be deleted from existence without compensation.

How This Could Reshape the Future of Gaming

If the Power to the Players Act manages to pass into law, it will fundamentally change how games are designed, sold, and preserved.

1. The Return of Local Preservation

Studios will have to plan for a game’s end-of-life cycle during early development. Instead of treating software as disposable, developers will need to build clean offline modes, peer-to-peer multiplayer fallback options, or private server tools before launch.

2. A Digital Secondary Market

True ownership opens the door to legal digital resale. If you legally own your digital copy, platforms may be forced to build safe, authorized digital trading marketplaces where players can sell digital games they have finished playing.

3. Clearer Separation Between Services and Products

Companies will have to choose what they are actually offering. If a publisher wants to offer a game as an ongoing, temporary service, they will need to position it explicitly as a subscription. If they want to charge an upfront retail price, they must hand over durable ownership.

What This Means for Content Creators and Streamers

The debate over game preservation does not just impact casual players relaxing on their living room sofa. It hits online creators whose entire livelihoods rely on digital titles.

Streamers and esports competitors invest thousands of hours and substantial revenue into building audiences around specific titles. When games get delisted or stripped of functionality, creative archives and competitive scenes disappear overnight. Much like how online creators learn what Twitch streaming is and how gamers make money online, understanding the legal rights behind the software you broadcast is becoming a vital business skill.

When companies hold unilateral power to switch off games, creators lose the very tools they use to run their businesses. Establishing hard legal rights over software gives stability to the entire digital gaming economy.

What You Should Do Right Now to Protect Your Library

While politicians and gaming executives battle over federal legislation, there are practical steps you can take today to protect your gaming catalog:

• Back Up Offline Installers: If you game on PC, prioritize storefronts like GOG that provide DRM-free offline installers. Download those installation files and store them on an external hard drive.
• Keep Physical Hardware Alive: Hold onto physical consoles and media when possible. A working legacy console with physical cartridges will continue to play decades after digital servers are forgotten.
• Support Community Preservation: Follow groups and developers working on community server emulators and open-source preservation tools that keep classic titles playable after official support ends.
• Make Your Voice Heard: Contact your representatives and support consumer protection bills that demand digital ownership rights.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can video game companies legally delete games I already paid for?

Under current law in most places, yes. Most digital purchases are governed by license agreements that give the platform or publisher the legal right to revoke access, discontinue online services, or remove downloads from your library at their discretion.

What is the Power to the Players Act?

It is a federal bill proposed by US Representative Ritchie Torres designed to ensure that purchasing a digital video game grants durable ownership rights rather than a revocable license. It also seeks to require offline playability after server shutdowns and the ability to transfer games.

Does California’s AB 2426 give gamers ownership?

No. California AB 2426 only requires storefronts to clearly disclose that digital buyers are purchasing a revocable license rather than outright ownership. It prevents misleading advertising, but it does not stop publishers from revoking games.

Why do publishers turn off game servers?

Maintaining dedicated servers costs money every month. When player counts drop below a certain threshold, publishers often determine that the running costs outweigh incoming revenue and shut down the online infrastructure.

Will this law make video games more expensive?

Publishers might argue that compliance increases development costs, but consumer advocates point out that gamers already pay full price ($70 or more) for these titles upfront. The bill simply requires companies to deliver a permanent product for that price.

The line between owning a product and endlessly renting it has been blurred for far too long. For two decades, gamers have accepted licensing agreements because the convenience of instant digital downloads outweighed the risks. But as beloved games disappear and servers go dark, players are realizing that convenience came at the cost of basic consumer rights.

The Power to the Players Act is the first serious federal challenge to the industry’s disposable software model. Whether it passes easily or faces a fierce fight from gaming giants, the conversation has officially moved to Capitol Hill. Gamers are no longer asking for basic fairness—they are demanding the law back them up.