Congressman Ritchie Torres introduced the Power To The Players Act on video game ownership this week. The Democrat representing New York's 15th District, which includes the Bronx, proposes that players should own a game after paying for it, rather than merely hold a license to play it, according to The Verge.
What the video game ownership law requires
The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to draw up rules guaranteeing that buying a game means ownership. According to tech-insider.org and techpowerup.com, the proposal is also meant to secure the right to transfer or resell a game. Developers would furthermore have to introduce an offline mode before shutting down the servers the game runs on.
NBA 2K25 as an example of the problem
Torres cites the basketball game NBA 2K25. According to The Verge, it is set to disappear from digital stores at the end of October, and its servers are to be shut down on December 31. TechPowerUp specifies the removal date as October 30. The same site states that the game sold for $69.99 and the All-Star edition for $99.99.
According to Torres, families in the Bronx and across the country save up for games, and they therefore deserve more than a license that can vanish at any time. A game that a company can take away the moment it pulls the plug is not a purchase, in his view, but a rental passed off as a sale.
Pennsylvania is already tackling a similar bill
The proposal resembles the Protect Our Games Act, which State Senator John Kane introduced in Pennsylvania. According to The Verge and newsbytesapp.com, it would require an offline mode, an online mode independent of the company's servers, or a refund of at least 25 percent of the money when a game is withdrawn.
The debate over game ownership intensified after Sony announced that it intends to end physical discs by 2028.
The proposal has not yet been formally submitted
According to tech-insider.org and techpowerup.com, the proposal had not been formally submitted to Congress as of October 18, 2026. It has no number, no committee referral and no confirmed list of co-sponsors. TechPowerUp further wrote that the European Stop Killing Games campaign collected nearly 1.3 million verified signatures, but the European Commission declined a legal commitment in June and proposed negotiations on a voluntary code. The same site reported that the California version of the Protect Our Games Act stalled in the state Senate committee due to opposition from the ESA association.