Overview
- Jennifer Gibbons, the Entertainment Software Association's vice president for state government affairs, told a California Senate committee that community-run servers for games like Minecraft and Call of Duty are "illegal" and that the ESA "consider[s] it piracy," and she cited pending lawsuits and U.S. Trade Representative reports.
- The Protect Our Games Act (AB 1921) — which would have required advance notice, offline-play support, or refunds when server-dependent games are shut down — failed to advance out of the State Senate committee and was left for reconsideration.
- Multiple outlets noted a direct conflict between the ESA's testimony and public publisher materials because Minecraft's EULA and official downloads explicitly let players install and run Java Edition servers.
- The ESA remarks went viral and prompted swift backlash from the Stop Killing Games movement, which said it will return with amended bills and pursue similar measures in other states and at the federal level.
- The dispute matters to consumers because modern live-service games can become unplayable when servers close, and the fight now sets up further legal and policy fights over whether publishers must preserve playability or compensate buyers.