What just happened? Stop Killing Games, a consumer advocacy group seeking stronger protections for paid online video games, has lost its two biggest legal battles in Europe and the US over the past few weeks but remains undeterred. Accusing video game industry lobbyists of fearmongering and making false statements, the group plans to take its fight to other US courts and has launched a recruitment drive.
California's Protect Our Games Act, which would have required publishers to provide remedies when ending support for paid online games, stalled in the state Senate after falling just three votes short of a majority. The bill's leading supporter, Stop Killing Games, quickly seized on an opposing lobbyist's claim that private Minecraft and Call of Duty servers amount to illegal piracy.
Also known as AB 1921, the bill would have required publishers that sell online-only games as one-time purchases to notify customers at least 60 days before ending official server support, stop selling the affected games during that period, and provide a remedy. Those remedies could include an offline mode or a full refund, while subscription-based and free-to-play games would be exempt.
Industry lobby says Minecraft community servers are illegal
by u/Mr_Presidentle in StopKillingGames
The bill sought to prevent a repeat of 2024, when Ubisoft rendered roughly 12 million physical and digital copies of The Crew unplayable by shutting down the online-only game's servers. The incident triggered lawsuits and led to the creation of Stop Killing Games. Ubisoft also drew criticism after an executive said customers should "get used to not owning games," although the company later added an offline mode to The Crew 2.
Stop Killing Games also unsuccessfully lobbied the European Commission to introduce legislation similar to AB 1921. Despite the initiative collecting nearly 1.3 million signatures, the Commission instead proposed discussing a non-binding agreement between game publishers and consumer groups later this year. The decision followed a closed-door meeting between the Commission, Ubisoft, and other European game publishers.
On the other side of the Atlantic, AB 1921 failed to pass the California Senate's Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee after receiving four Democratic votes in favor and three Republican votes against, while the remaining Democratic members abstained. Stop Killing Games blamed lobbyists from the Entertainment Software Association, particularly Jennifer Gibbons, who argued against the bill with broad claims about private dedicated servers.
Allowing players to operate private dedicated servers is one of the primary remedies proposed to keep online games playable after publishers shut down their official servers. When the committee mentioned community-run servers for Minecraft and Call of Duty, Gibbons claimed they are illegal and unaffiliated with their parent company, Microsoft.
"Yes. In fact, we consider it piracy," she said. In a statement to PC Gamer, the ESA later confirmed that it believes private servers infringe on IP rights. However, the official Minecraft website hosts files for creating private servers, which are allowed under the game's EULA.
Congratulations ESA, you've won this round and handed us the legitimacy boost of the century by doubling down. Let's not forget that Minecraft's EULA explicitly allows for private servers, and that there is a popup warning when you try to play multiplayer saying Mojang/Microsoft is not liable
– Stop Killing Games (@stopkillinggames.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 1:39 PM
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SKG also criticized the ESA for making additional false claims to mislead lawmakers unfamiliar with the video game industry. For example, industry lobbyists have repeatedly portrayed SKG as a movement seeking to keep official servers online indefinitely, a characterization the group rejects.
Publishers and the ESA also argue that keeping games playable after licenses for copyrighted content expire is impossible, even though several titles already allow customers who purchased the games before those licenses expired to continue playing.
The advocacy group primarily attributes its defeat to a lack of funding and lobbying resources, which it hopes to address in future efforts. SKG has launched a recruitment drive and pledged to work with developers and other industry professionals who can counter lobbyists' arguments during legislative hearings in other US states and, potentially, in federal court. Interested parties can apply here.
