However, physical disks alone do not solve the problem. Many games sold on discs still require online servers to run, and typically end-user license agreements make it clear that the user is purchasing a revocable license and not actual ownership of the media, even if the files are burned onto something physical.
There are also many examples of games in which the version provided on disc was significantly distinct from the version that players ultimately experience through patches. So it makes sense that consumers and their representatives would look to legislation like this to spark change in industry practices.
There have been activist and lobbying movements, such as Stop Killing Games, that have advocated for change on this front, but different bills proposed around the world have suggested different types of solutions.
Potential technical issues ahead
Some previous bills on this issue required developers to run servers indefinitely, sparking criticism that the authors of those bills did not understand the cost. This bill appears to take those criticisms into account, but at least as the press release posted on Ritchie Torres’ House of Representatives website says, it may still face resistance.
Although the announcement did not specify that the bill requires online servers to remain online, it does require that normally online-only games offer offline play modes so that players can continue playing long after the servers are shut down. The way some online games are designed may not be feasible, which could force developers to take very different approaches to the architecture of some online games.
The proposal of this bill does not guarantee that it will become law; it still has a long way to go, and most bills never even come up for a vote. And since the full text of the bill is not yet publicly available, it is not yet possible to assess its effectiveness or enforceability.
There’s another elephant in the room: large language models and specialized coding harnesses have recently enabled a wave of decompilations and reconfigurations of classic and contemporary video games and software. These plans are almost certainly illegal at present, but the scale of the movement is such that enforcement could prove difficult. It is possible that these new tools will change the shape of the software preservation debate in the months and years to come.
Gn tech
