California bill would force 60-day shutdown notice and repair-or-refund for digital games

California's proposed Protect Our Games Act finally gives the shutdown debate hard deadlines and real remedies. The text of AB1921 says any digital game sold on or after January 1, 2027 would need a clear warning at least 60 days before the operator stops providing services required for ordinary use.

The notice cannot be vague. The bill says the operator would need to spell out the end-of-support date, the services being discontinued, the features players will lose, any known security risks, and instructions for either continued use or a refund. Once the shutdown date arrives, the operator must provide at least one remedy: a version that works without operator-controlled services, a patch or update that restores ordinary use, or a full refund equal to the purchase price.

Applies to digital games sold on or after January 1, 2027

Requires at least 60 days of warning before support ends

Requires an offline version, a patch, or a full refund once service ends

Exempts subscription-only catalogs, free games, and titles already sold as permanent offline downloads

Allows civil enforcement by the California Attorney General or district attorneys

What pushed the Reddit post higher was campaign backing. In a public update on r/StopKillingGames, organizer Moritz Katzner said the group had been working with Assemblymember Chris Ward on the bill and "explicitly supports" the proposal. That matters because the campaign has spent the past year arguing that players should not lose access to paid games the moment a publisher flips a server switch.

AB1921 is still state legislation, not a nationwide rule, and it only covers games sold under the conditions written into the bill. Even so, it gives the live-service shutdown fight something unusually concrete: a 60-day clock, a repair-or-refund obligation, and language that treats ordinary use of a purchased game as something publishers cannot quietly erase after the sale.