Rep. Ritchie Torres introduces Power to the Players Act on digital game ownership

Rep. Ritchie Torres, who represents New York’s 15th congressional district in the Bronx, has formally introduced the Power to the Players Act this week, according to The Verge. If the bill passes, the Federal Trade Commission would be directed to write regulations ensuring that consumers who pay for a game own it, instead of receiving a license.

According to The Verge, the bill would also require developers to provide an offline mode before they shut down the servers a game relies on. The Verge reports that the bill would give players ownership of a game “rather than a license to play it.”

Torres pointed to NBA 2K25 as a recent example of the problem. The Verge reports that 2K plans to delist the game from storefronts at the end of this month and shut down its servers on December 31, which will limit how it can be played.

In a statement announcing the bill, Torres said: “A game that can be taken away the moment a company pulls the plug is not a purchase. It is a rental disguised as a sale.”

The Verge notes that more and more games require a server connection to work, which often leaves them unplayable once a publisher turns those servers off. Questions about whether players can keep, resell or transfer their games have also come up recently, after Sony said it plans to phase out physical game discs in 2028.

The federal bill resembles the Protect Our Games Act, a state bill introduced in Pennsylvania by State Sen. John Kane. When a game is being sunset, that bill would require companies to provide one of three things: an offline mode, an online mode that doesn’t depend on the company’s servers, or a refund of at least 25 percent.