California Assemblyman Chris Ward proposed the Protect Our Games Act to stop developers and publishers from making games that players purchased unplayable in the future. The bill was created to prevent a recurrence of what happened with The Crew.
The Protect Our Games Act was recently put to a vote at the California State Assembly. It won by a landslide 43-16. The success of the act means it will now proceed to the State Senate for consideration. If it scales the Senate vote, the House and Senate members will chisel the final version of the bill that will be submitted for final approval. The President will have 10 days to sign or veto the bill after it is published.
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Some paid video games require an online connection to function. Therefore, if the developer or publisher decides to shut down the servers at any time in the future, the games will become unplayable. The Protect Our Games Act is designed to protect players from such eventualities.
If the bill is signed into law in its current state without any alterations, it would be legally binding for video game publishers to give the public at least 60 days’ notice before shutting down a game’s servers.
Obligations of the publisher in The Protect Our Games Act
Babylon’s Fall was shut down within a year of launch without a refund
The Protect Our Games Act also has provisions that mandate the publisher to tell players the exact date the game servers will shut down, the services that will no longer be provided, the game features that will stop working, and known security risks that may arise after the shutdown. Players should also get the choice to continue playing after the server shuts down or get a refund.
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The Protect Our Games Act was not designed to operate retroactively. In other words, it will only be applied to games released after January 1, 2027, that is, if it becomes law in the current state. Also, the law will not apply to subscription-based games or free-to-play titles.
MultiVersus by Warner Bros, which shut down in May 2025, is an example of how The Protect Our Games Act wants games to work. Players who logged into MultiVersus before its shuttering on May 30 met updated save files that allowed offline play with all purchased or earned content available.
If The Protect Our Games Act becomes a law, publishers may focus on releasing free-to-play live service titles to avoid paying refunds or putting in work to create an offline version if they decide to shut down the servers.
Are you excited by the legal obligations of publishers if they decide to shut down game servers as contained in The Protect Our Games Act? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
