The California State Assembly has passed a bill for the "Protect Our Games Act" into a bill, and it presents a major milestone for gamers who purchased games and want to keep on playing them despite the titles being delisted.
This applies to online games that get delisted by game studios when they no longer want to continue hosting their servers and development further. The bill is now heading to the state senate.
Protect Our Games Act Officially Passes CA State Assembly
California State Assembly Member Chris Ward revealed on the Stop Killing Games YouTube channel that the Protect Our Games Act bill, AB-1921, has officially passed the state assembly. With this, the bill will move on to the state senate, where Ward says it will be debated in committee in June.
The bill proposes that game companies provide 60 days' notice before shutting down any server-dependent game. It would require them to offer a method to either keep the game playable offline or through fan-hosted servers. If those options are not possible, a refund to the buyers would be required instead.
The bill only covers online games that gamers paid for, and this excludes free-to-play games, titles provided through subscription services, and games that are playable offline.
California to Help Preserve Online Games You Bought
There has been massive frustration driving this bill for years, with GameRant noting that one of the turning points of Stop Killing Games to push this in America is when Ubisoft decided to end support for "The Crew." The game was taken off its servers, leading to it becoming offline, unplayable, and inaccessible, even for those who bought it.
In order for the California bill to become law, it needs to get through the California State Senate. If the state senate passes it, it will then be handed to the Governor of California, who has the option to either sign or reject.
Even in the event of a governor's veto, a two-thirds vote in each house could potentially override that decision.
Stop Killing Games Movement Helps California
The Stop Killing Games movement has been the engine behind this bill from the very beginning. The movement has been trying to preserve game access in a variety of locations, and the California assembly vote is one of its biggest victories to date.
Outside the United States, the Stop Killing Games movement has been making headway in Europe as well. In May 2026, a representative of the European Commission noted that an official response to the European petition would arrive before the summer, with some members of the parliament supporting the movement.
That said, there are those against the movement, and that includes the European publishing group, Video Games Europe, who recently expressed their concerns, saying that live-service games could potentially be expensive to develop if this passes as a law.
