A member of the US Congress wants players to actually own the digital games they buy. Representative Ritchie Torres of New York announced on Thursday (October 15th) that he will introduce the Power To The Players Act, a bill that would direct the Federal Trade Commission to set up regulations protecting people's ability to own and play the video games they purchase. Under the proposal, buying a game would give the consumer ownership of it instead of a license to play it, and games with online features would need to offer an offline mode before their servers are shut down.
Torres shared part of his statement on X. Check it out below:
What The Power To The Players Act Would Do
The announcement from Torres' office lays out three main goals. The first is ownership, meaning a digital purchase would be owned outright instead of sold as a revocable license. The second is continued play, since any game with online functionality would be required to ship an offline mode before its servers go down. The third is transfer, as the bill aims to preserve players' ability to resell their games and keep playing them with friends and family for years to come.
Torres explained his reasoning in the statement. "When you pay for a game, you should own it," he said. "Consumers must have the right to own, the right to play, and the right to transfer the games they buy. 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."
His office also noted that video game companies have moved toward digital-only games and consoles over the past few years, removing the option to buy or use physical copies, and that many of those digital games are sold as revocable licenses that leave players depending on a company's continued support.
Why NBA 2K25 Is The Example
The statement uses NBA 2K25 as its main example. The game sold for $69.99 for the standard edition and $99.99 for the All-Star Edition, and Torres' office pointed out that it will be pulled from digital storefronts and have its online servers shut down only two years after it first released.
2K's own support page lays out the timeline. NBA 2K25 will no longer be available to buy at the end of the month (October 30th), and it will be discontinued at the end of the year (December 31st). Starting January 1st, multiplayer and every online mode will be gone, MyCAREER and MyTEAM will no longer be available, and players will not be able to earn Virtual Currency anymore. Owners can still redownload the game and play offline modes like Play Now, MyNBA, The W, and MyWNBA, but anything that needs a connection to 2K's servers, including Online Leagues and community sharing, will stop working.
The Bigger Push Toward Digital
The bill arrives at a time when physical games are getting harder to find. Sony announced on the PlayStation Blog back in July that physical disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will end in January 2028, with new games after that date only sold in digital formats through PlayStation Store and retailers. Games that release on disc before then are not affected.
Rockstar Games has also confirmed that the physical version of Grand Theft Auto 6 will contain a download code inside the box. That version hits shelves a week early so players can preload before the game launches next month (November 19th) on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.
Other Attempts To Protect Players
Torres is not the first lawmaker to take a swing at this. In California, the Protect Our Games Act, AB 1921, failed to clear a state Senate committee vote in June. California already has a law on the books, AB 2426, which took effect in 2025 and requires digital storefronts to tell buyers clearly when they are only purchasing a license.
In Europe, the Stop Destroying Videogames citizens' initiative, which grew out of the Stop Killing Games movement, gathered 1,294,188 verified signatures and was submitted to the European Commission in January. In its reply in June, the Commission said that at this stage it cannot propose a legal obligation to keep video games playable after they stop being sold. It plans to start talks with the games industry and consumer groups by the end of the year on an industry code of conduct for managing a game's end of life.
What Happens Next
For now, the Power To The Players Act has only been announced. Torres has said he will introduce it, but no bill text, bill number, or cosponsors have been published yet, and any bill still has to make it through committee, both chambers of Congress, and a presidential signature before it becomes law. If it does pass, the FTC would then be responsible for writing the actual rules. There has been no public response from publishers or industry groups so far.
Would you trust a law like this to protect your digital library, or are you sticking with physical copies for as long as you can still buy them?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.