Congressman Torres introduces bill on video game ownership — Ars Technica
In the United States, New York Congressman Ritchie Torres has introduced the Power to Players Act, which is intended to guarantee video game buyers ownership rights over purchased games rather than merely a revocable license to use them. As Ars Technica reports, the initiative also aims to ensure that players can access games years after their release.
The NBA 2K25 example
The announcement of the bill cites NBA 2K25 as an example. The game was released on September 6, 2025, but is set to become unplayable on December 31 because its servers will be shut down. The initiative directs the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to take measures to prevent similar cases in the future.
Torres said that consumers should have the right to own, play, and transfer purchased games. In his view, a product to which access can disappear after a company decides to shut down a service is a rental disguised as a sale. In an interview with Kotaku, he called the proposed change a return to the historical norm, referring to the way most players used games in the 1990s.
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Technical and legislative obstacles
The initiative comes amid discussions about video game preservation and the market’s shift to digital sales. According to Sony’s latest financial report, digital downloads accounted for 82% of full-game sales for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 during the relevant fiscal year. At the same time, a physical disc does not always guarantee long-term access: some games require online servers to operate, while licensing agreements often define a purchase as a license that can be revoked.
According to the description in the press release, the bill does not require developers to maintain online game servers indefinitely, but provides for offline modes for games that normally work only through a network. For some projects, this may require a substantial change to the technical architecture. The full text of the document has not yet been published, so its practical effectiveness and enforceability cannot currently be assessed. The bill must also go through the legislative process, and most proposed initiatives do not reach a vote.
