A bill against shutting down online games has failed in California
In the American state of California, for several months now, legislators have been considering Bill AB 1921, also known as the Protect Our Games Act, which aims to preserve online games. Recently, another stage in this process took place, and it did not end in favor of the initiative's authors.
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The bill failed to pass a vote in the California Senate's Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development: four senators supported it, three opposed, and the rest abstained. The Protect Our Games Act required a majority to be approved.
Following the unsuccessful vote, the authors of the Protect Our Games Act announced that they would continue to fight for their initiative's adoption.
“We will not stop. Not even close. We will return in the next session with a physical presence as lobbyists, necessary funding, and a long list of organizations and developers who have expressed their support,” the bill's creators wrote on Reddit.
In addition, the authors of the Protect Our Games Act intend to promote similar bills in other U.S. states and hope to eventually achieve their adoption at the national level.
For reference, the Protect Our Games Act is essentially analogous to the European Stop Killing Games movement. The bill was even created by the same team. It proposes requiring companies to notify of the shutdown of online game servers at least 60 days in advance, after which they would need to either release an offline mode or refund gamers. One of the main opponents of the bill became the Entertainment Software Association, which includes Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and many other major companies.