In a victory for the 'Stop Killing Games' movement, the California State Assembly today passed Assembly Bill 1921, which is called the Protect Our Games Act.
The Protect Our Games Act is one of a number of initiatives that have come from the 'Stop Killing Games' movement and is the furthest along as far as legislation goes. It passed with a vote of 43 to 16, largely along party lines with 41 democrats in favor (1 opposed), and 15 republicans opposed (2 in favor). A total of 21 assembly members were also absent from the vote.
The Protect Our Games Act requires that games released starting January 1st, 2027, provide at least 60 days notice before shutting down necessary support such as mandatory servers. They are also required to provide a version of the game that can be used without support from the developer or to provide full refunds to everyone who purchased the game. It also prohibits the sale of such unsupported games.
The Protect Our Games Act doesn't apply in all cases. It notably doesn't apply to Free-to-play games, subscription-based games, or to games that were released or re-released before January 1st 2027, as well as titles...
