California Lawmakers Working on Bill to Preserve Access to Online Gaming

A bill that could force game publishers to offer a way to access online games once they are no longer actively supported is up for a vote in the California State Assembly, the first step toward becoming law. Ars Technica reports. The bill, introduced as the Protect Our Games Act, is particularly notable because Stop Killing Games, a games preservation group that advocates for similar protections in the EU and UK, advised on its creation.

If passed in its current form, the Protect Our Games Act would require game publishers or “digital game operators” to notify players at least 60 days in advance of the date on which “services necessary for ordinary use of the digital game will cease,” and would offer either a refund of the full purchase price of the game, a software patch that would make the game playable, or a version of the game that operates “independently of the services controlled by the operator.” The law would not apply to free-to-play games or games accessible only through a subscription. This would also only apply to titles released on or after January 1, 2027.

Woozad contacted the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the industry group that represents game publishers, for comment on the bill. We will update this article if we receive a response.

The bill addresses a central problem with modern game ownership: no one really owns their games, especially not when they rely on a publisher’s server support. Live service games can be sold as a one-time purchase, but they require an Internet connection and server infrastructure to function as intended. As soon as a developer or publisher wants to stop maintaining this infrastructure, the game is effectively dead, and in the case of Ubisoft’s open-world racing game The crewdelisted from stores and removed from players’ game libraries. Responding to the deletion of The crew This is part of the reason why Stop Killing Games was created in the first place.

Assemblyman Chris Ward introduced the Protect Our Games Act to the California Assembly in February 2026. The bill has now passed the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Appropriations Committee since May 14, meaning the Assembly can consider it for a full vote. Stop Killing Games said it provided advice on the bill via a Reddit post in March, and the group appears happy with its progress. “Shortly before Christmas, when I flew to the United States to help create SKG-US, I didn’t expect us to get this far so quickly,” said Moritz Katzner, managing director of European affairs at Stop Killing Games, in a separate article.

There is still a long way to go in the California State Assembly and State Senate before the bill can be signed into law, but progress is promising. Interestingly, at least one game publisher has attempted to improve its handling of online games from the beginning. The crew debacle. Ubisoft added an offline mode to The crew 2 in October 2025, this means that the game should remain accessible even after support for its online features ends.