U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced new legislation aimed at ending digital licenses and guaranteeing that consumers actually own the video games they buy.

The proposed federal bill, titled the “Power to the Players Act,” seeks to close the gap between purchasing a game and simply renting access to it. It comes amid growing frustration among gamers over publisher server shutdowns, digital delistings, and an industry that is moving away from physical media faster than ever.

“When you pay for a game, you should own it,” Torres said in an official statement, adding that consumers “must have the right to own, the right to play, and the right to transfer the games they buy.” He was blunt about the current model: “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.”

The timing is hard to ignore. In July, Sony announced that starting January 2028 it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games, covering both its own titles and those from third-party publishers. New releases will be sold only in digital form, through the PlayStation Store or as codes at retail.

Sony framed the decision as a response to how people already play, noting that roughly 80 percent of PS5 games are now purchased digitally. Titles already on disc, and those releasing on disc before the cutoff, are not affected. As QG wrote at the time, the death of the PlayStation disc is about more than gaming. It is about a culture where we increasingly pay for things we never actually own.

Sony isn’t moving alone. Grand Theft Auto VI, one of the most anticipated releases in gaming history, is set to ship its boxed retail edition with a download code instead of a disc. Sony also said it will shut down the digital storefronts for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita by mid-2027, ending new purchases on those platforms entirely.

Nintendo has taken a middle path on Switch 2, where some cartridges contain a license key rather than the full game. Unlike a pure digital download, those can still be handed off to someone else.

That question of transferability sits at the center of Torres’s bill. Under today’s digital distribution models, buying a game on a digital storefront typically means agreeing to terms of service that grant a revocable license to the software, not true ownership of it. If a publisher pulls server support or delists a title, buyers can lose access entirely.

The Power to the Players Act would change that by establishing that purchasing a video game confers actual ownership rather than a temporary license. It would also require publishers to provide functional offline modes for online-connected games before shutting down their servers, so those games remain playable.

The bill further protects consumers’ right to transfer, share, or resell the digital games they purchase, creating a digital equivalent to trading in a physical disc, and directs the Federal Trade Commission to enforce ownership standards and penalize deceptive digital sales practices.

Torres framed the issue as one that falls hardest on working-class households. “Families in the Bronx and across the country save up to buy these games, and they deserve better than a license that can vanish at any time,” he said. “The Power to the Players Act ensures consumers own what they buy and can keep playing long after a company moves on.”

Players already know what that loss feels like. Server shutdowns for older editions of NBA 2K and the delisting of digital-only games have left thousands of buyers unable to launch software they paid full price for. Once the disc disappears, the resale market, the lending, and the shelf of games you can still play in 20 years go with it, unless the law says otherwise.