Bill to block publishers from killing online games advances in California

A bill focused on maintaining long-term playable access to online games has passed out of the California Assembly’s appropriations committee, setting up a floor vote by the full legislative body. The advancement is a major win for Stop Killing Games‘ grassroots game preservation movement and comes over the objections of industry lobbyists at the Entertainment Software Association.

California’s Protect Our Games Act, as currently written, would require digital game publishers who cut off support for an online game to either provide a full refund to players or offer an updated version of the game “that enables its continued use independent of services controlled by the operator.” The act would also require publishers to notify players 60 days before the cessation of “services necessary for the ordinary use of the digital game.”

As currently amended, the act would not apply to completely free games and games offered “solely for the duration of [a] subscription. Any other game offered for sale in California on or after January 1, 2027, would be subject to the law if it passes.

This week’s 11–2 committee vote to advance the Protect Our Games Act is being trumpeted by Stop Killing Games (SKG), the UK-based player advocacy group that was formed after the 2024 shutdown of Ubisoft’s The Crew. SKG wrote last month that it “advised on the drafting” of the bill before it was first introduced by Assemblyman Chris Ward earlier this year.

“Back shortly before Christmas, when I flew to the US to help set up SKG-US, I didn’t expect us to get this far this quickly,” SKG’s Monitz Katzner wrote on Reddit after the committee vote. “It has been an honor to take part in drafting this bill on behalf of the SKG community: gamers, developers, and publishers alike.”