NY bill requires game ownership over licensing
The gist
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) announced the Power To The Players Act to make game buys ownership, not licenses.
The bill has no number or cosponsors yet, and digital downloads dominate game sales.
How it unfolded
- 2024Ubisoft shut down servers for The Crew, an online-only racing game, making it unplayable even for recent purchasers; it provided no community servers or offline mode.
- Sep 6, 2025NBA 2K25 launched.
- Oct 15, 2026Rep. Ritchie Torres announced the Power To The Players Act, which would direct the FTC to treat a game purchase as ownership rather than a revocable license and require offline modes before server shutdowns.