Overview
- Rep. Ritchie Torres introduced the Power To The Players Act this week, proposing federal action to change how bought digital games are treated.
- The bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to write regulations that treat paid games as owned goods and require developers to provide an offline mode before shutting servers.
- Torres highlighted NBA 2K25’s planned delisting and December 31 server shutdown as an example of the problem of paid access becoming unplayable when companies close services.
- The proposal currently has no public cosponsors and is expected to face strong industry lobbying, legal challenges, and a lengthy FTC rulemaking process that could slow any near‑term change.
- Similar state efforts, such as Pennsylvania’s Protect Our Games Act, have tried related fixes and show how technical limits like DRM, licensed content, and centralized servers complicate any ownership mandate and could shape what final rules require.