SacramentoCalifornia’s Protect Our Games Act passed committee.
The bill requires a playable offline mode or escrowed server keys on shutdown, shifting end-of-life software from publisher discretion to consumer law.
The bill still needs majority votes in the full California Assembly and Senate before reaching Governor Gavin Newsom.
Sources: Hacker News
THE OWNERSHIP ILLUSION
When you buy a digital game, you don't own it — you license it. The EULA grants a revocable right to access publisher-controlled software. This is why a publisher can disable a game you paid full price for, and why the legal default has always favored the seller.
THE SERVER DEPENDENCY
Modern games increasingly require server-side code even for single-player modes — authentication, anti-cheat, save state, DRM checks. When the publisher turns off the servers, the client binary on your drive becomes inert. The game isn't deleted; it's bricked.
THE PRECEDENT THAT TRIGGERED THIS
Ubisoft shut down The Crew in April 2024, revoking access from everyone who had bought it — including disc owners. The Stop Killing Games campaign that followed gathered over a million EU citizens' signatures, forcing a Commission response. California's bill is the first US legislative answer.
WHY ESCROW IS THE KEY MECHANISM
The bill's escrowed-server-keys provision borrows from software escrow agreements long used in B2B contracts — source code held by a third party, released to the customer if the vendor goes bankrupt. Applied to games, the publisher deposits server binaries; on shutdown, they're released so private servers can host the game.
THE PRESERVATION GAP
The Video Game History Foundation estimates 87% of classic video games released before 2010 are commercially unavailable — a higher loss rate than silent films. Unlike books, films, or music, games have no statutory deposit requirement at any major national library, and the Library of Congress can only preserve games it can physically run.
THE CALIFORNIA EFFECT
California regulates one in eight Americans and hosts most major US publishers (Activision-Blizzard, EA, Riot, Blizzard). A compliance regime designed for California is cheaper to apply nationwide than to geo-fence — the same dynamic that made California's emissions and privacy rules de facto national standards.