New Law Will Force Stores To Admit You Don't Own Digital Games

AB 2426, a newly passed piece of legislation in California signed into law earlier this week by governor Gavin Newsom, will force companies selling digital goods—like games—in the state to warn consumers that they don’t actually own that content, but instead are licensing it and could lose access to it in the future.

Buying a video game digitally doesn’t mean you own it forever. Usually, you can download it years later and play it again. But that’s not a guarantee as you are often not buying access to the game, but instead paying for a license to use it and agreeing that one day the company behind it can remove it from the store, kill its servers, and make it unplayable in the future. We saw this play out recently with Ubisoft’s The Crew, which was shut down last year with little warning. This led to a large campaign to fight back against the publisher and other companies who might try this. And now California is joining the fight.

California assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D), who was the bill’s sponsor, told Game File that the newly passed legislation was “motivated by consumers losing access to content.”

“The main story that brought this issue to my attention was Sony’s announcement at the end of last year that digital copies of purchased content from Discovery would be revoked,” Irwin told Game File.

In December 2023, due to an expiring license agreement between Sony and WB, a ton of Discovery TV shows were set to be removed from the PSN store. Even if you bought the shows, like Mythbusters, you’d be unable to watch them after December 31. People weren’t happy about this and eventually, Sony and WB reached a last-minute agreement to avoid this situation, but it was a very public reminder that you don’t really own your digital content. At any point, a company could remove it, choose not to re-up a contract or what have you, and just like that, all the content you “owned” is gone. And while the new bill won’t prevent that from happening, it will force companies to be more clear about the situation.

AB 2426 makes it illegal for any company selling digital goods in California to use terms like “buy” or “purchase” without including a warning that the content you are “buying” could vanish or become unusable in the future. Starting in January, companies selling digital games in California will have to “state in plain language” that they are buying a limited license and not the actual item.

“Ubisoft’s actions with The Crew further highlighted just how widespread this issue is,” said Irwin.

If a company breaks the law, it could face fines of $2,500 for each illegal listing and also could be found in violation of the state’s Unfair Competition Law.

There will be some exemptions, including games that are free to download or games that include an offline mode that would allow the game to run without a constant connection to the internet.

Irwin told Game File that she hopes the new law will help motivate companies to seek out longer licensing deals, look to create subscription plans, and think more about the future. For example, perhaps Ubisoft and other companies, wanting to avoid running afoul of this new law in California, will work to include actual offline modes in games like The Crew: Motorfest at launch instead of adding them later due to online pressure.

The plan here is to help consumers avoid having to pay a “premium for false ownership,” says Irwin. And while California might just be one state, it’s the most populated state in the United States. Millions of gamers live in California and businesses around the world won’t want to stop selling games in the state come next year. So hopefully this new law will help everyone by forcing companies to include offline modes or clear warnings about what you are actually buying when you purchase a digital game.

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