The 'It's a rental' scam is finally getting called out
Ever dropped full price on a game only to have it turn into a digital paperweight because the developers killed the servers? Yeah, it’s giving major 'scam' vibes. Rep. Ritchie Torres from New York is finally trying to fix this mess with the newly introduced Power To The Players Act.
The TL;DR on the bill
Right now, when you 'buy' a game, you’re usually just buying a license that the company can revoke whenever they feel like it. The Power To The Players Act aims to change the legal definition of a purchase. If this passes, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would be tasked with creating rules to ensure that paying for a game actually means you own it—not just a temporary pass to play it until the company decides to stop supporting the servers.
Torres specifically called out NBA 2K25, which is getting delisted from stores soon, with its servers shutting down on December 31st. Once that happens, the game effectively dies. Torres didn't hold back, stating, “A game that can be taken away the moment a company pulls the plug is not a purchase. It is a rental disguised as a sale.”
Why it matters
This is a massive W for anyone tired of the industry’s shift toward live-service-only models, especially with rumors of physical media being phased out in the future. The bill doesn't just stop at ownership; it would force developers to implement an offline mode before they kill off their servers. This follows a similar move by Pennsylvania State Sen. John Kane’s 'Protect Our Games Act,' which suggests that if a game goes dark, you should at least be entitled to a 25 percent refund. It’s highkey time we stop letting big companies treat our collections like subscriptions we never asked for.
