Ritchie Torres wants to protect digital game ownership with the Power To The Players Act

According to Kotaku, the bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create rules around ownership rights for video games. The report also says games with online features should keep an offline mode after servers are shut down.

Kotaku cites NBA 2K25 as an example, saying the game will be removed from digital stores on 30 October 2026 and lose its online servers on 1 January 2027.

What happened

Kotaku says Ritchie Torres, a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives for New York’s 15th district, wants to introduce legislation aimed at protecting digital game ownership. The proposed name, according to the article, is the Power To The Players Act. Torres has represented the district since 2021, and Kotaku frames the plan as part of the broader debate over digital purchases, licensing, and access to games after publishers change or shut down services.

Torres is quoted in the piece as saying: “if you pay for it, you own it.” Kotaku presents that as the core of his position: people who buy a game should receive more protection than a revocable license. The article ties that statement to the question of how digital storefronts and publishers handle products that still depend on online infrastructure after purchase.

The report says the proposal would have the FTC make rules for video games. Kotaku also says publishers of games with online features should provide an offline mode that continues to work after servers are shut down. Based on the available information, it is not confirmed that there is already a formal bill text or a bill number, and it is also unclear how broad the FTC rules would be.

As a concrete example, Kotaku points to NBA 2K25. According to the article, the game will be removed from digital storefronts on 30 October 2026 and its online servers will go offline on 1 January 2027. Kotaku uses those dates to show why Torres sees the issue of digital ownership and server dependence as urgent. The provided information also says NBA 2K25 was the fifth best-selling game of 2024 in the United States, which gives the example extra weight in the debate over long-term access to purchased games.

Background

According to Kotaku, the debate is about what consumers actually own when they buy a digital game. The article links that to delistings, server shutdowns, and the difference between ownership and a license. Those three elements come together in the way digital games are sold: a buyer pays for access, but that access can later be limited if a publisher removes the game from a store or ends online support.

Torres has represented New York’s 15th congressional district since 2021. Kotaku presents his plan as an attempt to address that debate through federal regulation. The available information says the FTC would be tasked with writing rules, but not how far those rules would go, whether they would apply only to future sales, or whether they would affect all digital games or only certain categories. It also remains unclear how an offline-mode requirement would work for games that are entirely dependent on online features.

The provided facts also mention 2K Games and Rockstar Games as part of the broader industry context, but the core of the report is Torres’ political move and how Kotaku connects it to digital ownership. Open questions in the available information include the formal introduction of the bill, any possible bill number, the exact wording of the proposal, and whether the NBA 2K25 dates cited by Kotaku have been confirmed elsewhere.