California’s proposed “Protect Our Games Act”, aka AB 1921, is quickly becoming one of the most controversial pieces of legislation facing the games industry, with the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) now publicly opposing the bill and warning it could negatively impact future game development.

Introduced by Assembly member Chris Ward, Assembly Bill 1921 would require publishers to provide players with continued access options when online-dependent games reach end-of-life status. Under the bill’s current language, developers would need to notify consumers at least 60 days before shutting down services necessary for a game’s “ordinary use.”

Once support ends, publishers would also need to offer either an alternate playable version, an offline patch or update, or a refund.

The legislation has received support from the broader Stop Killing Games movement, a consumer-driven preservation initiative founded by content creator Ross Scott following Ubisoft’s shutdown of The Crew. The campaign argues that publishers should not be able to permanently disable purchased games once server support ends, particularly for titles marketed and sold as standard products rather than temporary services.

However, the ESA, which represents many of the industry’s largest publishers and platform holders, argues the bill oversimplifies how modern live-service games function technically and commercially.

In a statement shared with multiple outlets, the organization stated:

The ESA further argued that AB 1921 could force developers to spend “limited time and resources” maintaining aging infrastructure instead of building “new games, features, and technology,” concluding that the legislation “doesn’t reflect how games actually work today.”

Critics of the bill argue that requiring offline functionality or independent server support may not always be technically or financially feasible.

Supporters of Stop Killing Games counter that the movement is not demanding perpetual support or infinite server maintenance. Instead, the initiative focuses on preserving some degree of functionality after official support ends, whether through offline modes, community-hosted servers, peer-to-peer systems, or other end-of-life solutions.

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