A Californian bill backed by the Stop Killing Games campaign, which would see publishers shutting down servers for online games forced to provide full refunds or a version of the game players can keep on playing independently of said servers as part of the process, has hopped another hurdle. It’s passed a full vote in California’s State Assembly, paving the way for it to head to the state’s senate as it inches closer to becoming a fully enacted law despite opposition from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
Last time I wrote about this bill, known as AB 1921, it’d just passed a vote by a state committee focused on the fiscal cost of proposed legislation.
Now, as highlighted by the Stop Killing Games Campaign on Reddit, AB 1921’s passed a State Assembly vote this week. It garnered 43 votes in favour to 16 against, with Stop Killing games claiming Democrats made up most of the former and Republicans most of the latter, while a further 21 members were absent during the vote. A full breakdown of who voted which way can be found as part of the bill’s listing on California’s legislative info site, if you fancy checking that out.
It’s another positive step for the bill, but not the end of the road. Consideration by the California State Senate is next up, with Stop Killing Games’ organisers suggesting that whether “the bill either keeps moving or stalls” at this step could determine its fate. As such, they’re trying to drum up as many supporters to contact the senators who’ll be deliberating it as possible.
Assuming AB 1921 makes it through that step, it’ll eventually be sent to the Californian governor, Gavin Newsom, who would have 12 days to sign, approve without signing, or veto it. If vetoed, the governor’s office have to publicly explain why that call’s been made, with a two-thirds vote in each house of the state legislature subsequently needed to override such a veto.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, a similarly SKG-backed EU petition pushing for more consumer protections around game server shutdowns has been promised a response from the European Commission soon. That’s a lot of politicians being forced to find out what The Crew is.
