On September 4, 2025, I trekked my way out to my local GameStop to pick up the new indie game, Hollow Knight: Silk Song, for my sister. I waited outside for the doors to unlock, excited to pick up a brand new cartridge for our Nintendo Switch. As I entered the building, I asked the attendant if Silk Song had been shipped out yet. I was surprised when the cashier had no idea what I was talking about. I checked my phone and realized something I didn’t even think to be possible: Silk Song was only available for digital purchase.
Digital purchases have become a staple in video games in the past few years, with platforms like Steam introducing an entirely digital way to play. Recently, PlayStation announced that all production of discs will be terminated in January of 2028. Why you may ask? Because it removes all ownership of games from the player. Under PlayStation’s End User License Agreement in section 1.4, you find the label “License to you”. The section reads, “The Software is licensed to you, not sold. You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and personal license to play or use the Software for your private, non-commercial use on the system or device it was intended for.”
It goes on to explain that you cannot hack, sell, emulate or tamper with the software in any way. So what does it really mean to purchase a digital game? It means it could be revoked from you at any time. According to the NBA2K website, 2K has shut down the online game NBA2K25. Even the single-player story modes will be shut down as well due to its online currency. There is still playable content in the game, but the main reasons to play this game are going to be removed at the end of this year.
Here’s the kicker: this game is only 2 years old. As a gamer, (I hate using that term, but here we are) this scares me. I primarily play online games via Steam who have a similar agreement, stating “The Content and Services are licensed, not sold.”
So, how do we fix this? Representative Richie Torres is looking for a solution too, with the Power to the Players Act. Rep. Torres is the representative of New York district 15, and was New York’s youngest elected official at just 25 years old. Rep. Torres’ website states that the legislature will give ownership to players rather than just a license, as well as requiring online games to have an offline mode available after shut down.
Now, this bill promises a lot. This brings me a lot of doubt when it comes to politics in general. If politicians and giant companies have one thing in common, it’s that they love making money. And if I know anything about representatives who oppose big companies, other politicians don’t like them.
Even for those who don’t game, losing the ability to own anything you purchase should scare you. So please: buy your games physically so no one can take them from you once your “license” is up.
