New York Representative Introduces the ‘Power To The Players Act’ to Guarantee Digital Game Ownership and Combat Server Closures

A fresh legislative battle over consumer rights in the modern video game industry is taking shape in Washington, D.C. Representative Ritchie Torres of New York’s 15th congressional district in the Bronx has officially introduced the Power To The Players Act this week, a move aimed at fundamentally altering how digital media and software licenses are treated under federal law. If passed by Congress, the proposed legislation would direct the Federal Trade Commission to establish comprehensive regulations that guarantee consumers true ownership of a video game when they pay for it, rather than binding them to restrictive software licensing agreements that can be revoked at any time.

The introduction of the bill comes at a time of mounting frustration among gamers, digital rights advocates, and consumer protection groups regarding the ephemeral nature of modern entertainment media. For decades, purchasing a video game meant acquiring a physical copy—such as a cartridge or a disc—that belonged to the buyer outright, allowing them to keep, play, resell, or lend it indefinitely. However, the rapid industry shift toward digital distribution, cloud reliance, and always-online requirements has upended this traditional model. It is now increasingly common for games sold to consumers to require a mandatory, constant connection to a proprietary server. Consequently, when a publisher or developer decides to shut down those back-end servers, the games often become completely unplayable, rendering digital libraries useless overnight.

In announcing the legislation, Representative Torres specifically singled out high-profile examples of this phenomenon impacting mainstream consumers. Among them is NBA 2K25, a recent title that highlights the precarious nature of modern digital ownership. Publisher 2K announced plans to delist the game from digital storefronts at the end of the month and completely shut down its supporting online servers on December 31st, severely limiting its ongoing playability and utility for the people who paid full price for the software. This practice of "sunsetting" games has left millions of players across various platforms unable to access content they legally purchased, sparking broader conversations about consumer exploitation in the digital age.

The growing anxieties surrounding digital ownership, alongside the fundamental ability of consumers to play, resell, or transfer their legally acquired games, have drawn intense public attention recently. These concerns were amplified even further following Sony’s major industry announcement that it plans to phase out physical game disc production by the year 2028. As the industry moves aggressively toward an all-digital future, the legal protections afforded to consumers have failed to keep pace with technological changes.

In a powerful statement accompanying the introduction of the new bill, Representative Torres cut straight to the core of the consumer rights debate, stating that a game that can be taken away the moment a corporation pulls the plug is not a genuine purchase. Instead, he characterized the current industry standard as nothing more than a rental disguised as a permanent sale, leaving everyday consumers with all of the financial risk and none of the long-term asset security.

To combat this trend, the Power To The Players Act would enact sweeping changes to the regulatory landscape overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. The bill would not only legally mandate that players receive actual ownership of a game, granting them perpetual rights rather than a temporary or revokable license to play it, but it would also impose strict operational requirements on software developers and publishers before they are allowed to sunset a title.

Specifically, the legislation would require developers to institute a functional offline mode into the software before shutting down the supporting servers that keep the game alive. This requirement ensures that even when a company decides to abandon active server maintenance, the core product remains in the hands of the consumer in a playable state, preserving the cultural and entertainment value of the software.

This federal initiative does not exist in a vacuum and mirrors growing legislative frustration at the state level as well. The federal Power To The Players Act shares a similar philosophical framework with the proposed Protect Our Games Act, which was introduced by State Senator John Kane in Pennsylvania. That state-level legislation takes a multi-pronged approach to targeting publishers that kill digital games, mandating that companies must provide either a standalone offline gaming mode, an online gaming mode operating independently of the company’s primary servers, or a mandatory minimum 25 percent refund to consumers when titles are being officially sunsetted.

Together, these legislative efforts mark a significant escalation in the pushback against anti-consumer practices in the multi-billion-dollar video game industry. As lawmakers at both the state and federal levels begin to scrutinize the fine print of digital distribution agreements, the outcomes of bills like the Power To The Players Act could permanently reshape the relationship between digital publishers and the gaming community, setting a vital precedent for digital ownership across all forms of software and entertainment.