California Assembly Passes Protect Our Games Act, a big win for consumer advocates and gamers
A little background for those new to this:
The video games industry used to operate on a buy-it-own-it principle - you walk into a video game store and buy a video game and you can play it for as long as you like. Since then, the industry has shifted a lot, as have a lot of other industries. Music and tv purchases are now primarily through subscription streaming services - you no longer own the music or tv show, you own access to it - and that access can disappear at any time, leaving you in the dust. Needless to say, subscription services are a lot more profitable for businesses, keep the user locked into their storefront, and generally gives the industry all the power, leaving the customer with no say or recourse. You will own nothing and like it.
The video games industry caught wind of that windfall and very much wanted a cut of the subscription craze, thus games-as-a-service was born. Today, most games require an online connection to the company servers, regardless of whether or not it was envisioned as a multiplayer game or single-player. Some games definitely should require an online connection, like MMOs, games that get updated over a number of years with DLC, and games that were released in an underwhelming state but improved significantly through free updates like No Man's Sky. But lots of games aren't like that, especially older games, and it's a bit like forcing a square peg into a round hole. So the technology itself isn't the problem so much as how it is implemented. Right now, companies reap significant amounts of money through the initial sale, DLC, loot boxes, subscription fees, etc. They get in, line their pockets, and then whenever they feel like it, they snap their fingers and kill the game and whatever community that grew around it. It's a virtual Fyre Festival and it happens regularly. It hurts consumers, sows the seeds of uncertainty and resentment, and ultimately harms the entire industry by destroying trust.
Thus, Stop Killing Games, which attempts to legally mandate that video game companies keep games playable and in a reasonably functioning state even after they're discontinued. Something that imho shouldn't require a legal ruling - it should just happen because people aren't assholes. But as the saying goes, with great assholes comes great legislation.
California AB-1921 - Protect Our Games Act
This just passed the California House.
the bill would:
* require publishers to inform consumers 60 days in advance about a game ending support and to provide clear information about the game's functionality after its end-of-life
* prohibit companies from selling a game 60 days before its discontinuation (yes, this is a thing and it's scummy AF and highlights that there are good reasons why gamers are upset with these companies)
* require publishers to provide either a patch for the game to function independently of the publisher's servers, a separate version of the game that operates autonomously in the same vein or a full product return (to ease a game into its final stage of playability or at least allow customers to recoup some of the money they've lost in its closure)
There are some serious limitations here: this bill doesn't apply to free-to-play games, fully offline games, and games sold before 2027, which right now, is all of them. But in the future, video game publishers would have to tell customers in advance before pulling the plug, stop selling the game right as they're about to pull the plug, and provide some sort of final playable state for the game. Sounds reasonable to me. And that's significantly more lenient than I would like, especially since it doesn't apply to past games.
It troubles me that games that were released decades ago are still in a playable state while some games released just a few years ago are toast. It also troubles me to read about people paying for TV shows that get pulled from streaming forever or subscription services like heated seats in their car or printer ink. We're poised for very similar treatment with video games unless this problem gets nipped in the bud.