A New York congressman wants the games you buy to keep working after the servers go dark

Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat who represents New York's 15th District in the Bronx, said on October 15 that he will introduce the Power To The Players Act, a federal bill meant to make buying a video game mean owning it rather than renting a revocable license. According to his office's announcement, the bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission to write rules protecting players' ability to keep and play what they pay for, require games with online features to offer an offline mode before their servers shut down, and protect resale.

Torres calls today's digital purchase “a rental disguised as a sale.” For now, though, there is only an announcement. The release says the bill “will” be introduced, includes no text or bill number, and Torres did not name any cosponsors when Kotaku reached him by phone. Without text, nobody can say whether it would require advance notice or refunds. The announcement mentions neither.

Why Torres pointed to NBA 2K25

2K will pull NBA 2K25 from digital storefronts on October 30 and turn off its online services on January 1, 2027, according to the notice posted on Steam. Multiplayer, MyCAREER, MyTEAM and earning Virtual Currency all go away that day. Existing owners can reinstall the game and keep playing its offline modes. Torres notes that it sold for $69.99, or $99.99 for the All-Star Edition, and that its main modes will have lasted roughly two years.

NBA 2K25 stays in your library but loses the modes most people actually play, and that gap is what the bill would have to address. Until the bill text exists, it is impossible to tell whether the offline modes 2K is keeping would satisfy it, or whether it would demand a way to keep playing MyCAREER without 2K's servers.

Ten weeks, a minority party and a powerful lobby

The 119th Congress ends on January 3, 2027, and any bill that has not passed by then dies. A bill introduced in late October would have about ten weeks, with the midterm elections on November 3 in the middle. Torres also belongs to the minority party in a Republican-controlled House. Kotaku notes that 87% of bills never reach a floor vote and expects major publishers to lobby against this one.

State attempts show what that lobbying looks like. California's Protect Our Games Act, AB 1921, would have required 60 days' notice and information on refunds or continued play. It stalled in June in a state Senate committee with four votes in favor, three against and four abstentions, as Engadget reported, after the Entertainment Software Association sent a lobbyist to oppose it. In Pennsylvania, state Sen. John Kane has been seeking cosponsors since September 18 for a bill that would require 60 days' notice plus an offline mode, a patch that works without company servers, or a refund of at least 25% of the price.

Both state proposals exempt free games where the player spent nothing. A shutdown like Rainbow Six Mobile's on January 15, 2027 would not be covered for someone who never bought anything in it. Whether Torres's bill draws the same line is another question the missing text has to answer.

The Crew started all this

Ubisoft delisted The Crew on December 14, 2023, shut its servers on March 31, 2024, and began revoking licenses from players' libraries in early April. Because the game needed a connection even for its campaign, nothing playable was left. That shutdown launched Stop Killing Games, the campaign asking for offline modes or community servers when a paid game loses support.

Two California players sued Ubisoft on November 4, 2024, arguing they had been sold a license presented as a purchase, but they voluntarily dropped the case in June 2025 without a ruling. Ubisoft did add a hybrid offline mode to The Crew 2 on October 16, 2025, as we covered in our piece on what The Crew 2 kept when its servers shut down, but it did so voluntarily.

What protects US buyers today

The only law already on the books is narrower. California's AB 2426, signed on September 24, 2024, and in force since January 1, 2025, requires digital stores to clearly disclose when you are buying a revocable license rather than ownership. Without that disclosure, sellers cannot use words like “buy” or “purchase,” according to Greenberg Traurig's analysis. Goods the buyer can keep permanently are exempt, and public enforcers can seek up to $2,500 per violation. The law makes stores tell you a game can disappear. It does not stop it from disappearing.

Europe is no further ahead. Stop Destroying Videogames, the European citizens' initiative backed by the Stop Killing Games campaign, collected more than 1.29 million valid signatures, but the European Commission declined to propose legislation on June 16, 2026, opting instead for talks with the industry about a voluntary code of conduct by the end of the year.

Until a law changes the deal, the practical defense is checking before you pay. Our guide to what you actually own when you buy a digital game explains which parts depend on servers and how to make a library rely less on its store.