Bill to block publishers from killing online games advances in California

Post by denkmoon » Sat, May 16, 2026, 10:48 AM UTC

swathsofgrass wrote: post #323

smalley wrote: post #30

This appears to treat subscription style games and free to play with in game purchases differently than other games. I would assume if that law passed the simplest compliance would just be to charge subscriptions and stop selling games directly. It seems like doing that would comply with that law without requiring much to change?

Subscriptions in games would be the death of gaming imo.

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 16, 2026, 10:55 AM UTC

gbear605 wrote: post #120

mrandish wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> open source server code if you are going to cease support When I was a senior exec at a big public tech company, there was a product we decided to discontinue and we thought would be nice to just open source. Somehow I ended up in charge of managing that process and was shocked at how complex, time-consuming and expensive it was in a multi-billion dollar, publicly-traded corp vs some code my friends and I wrote. Le…

That’s exactly the benefit of a law - it’s a forcing measure to require businesses to invest in processes to understand open sourcing, and to go forward when otherwise no one would make a business case for approval.

Post by braiamp » Sat, May 16, 2026, 11:06 AM UTC

Terr_ wrote: post #84

weberer wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't need to be open source, you only need to provide server binaries to download. This was the standard until circa 2010. People were able to host dedicated servers themselves.

That would be an improvement over nothing, but closed-source means that the game is still going to die as soon as someone finds a security vulnerability (or even just a gameplay glitch) that can't be feasibly patched. Imagine an MMO where special text in the chat causes viewers' clients to crash, or a glitch exists to duplicate items or money, or where anybody can crash the server to run arbitrary commands.

Post by Akronymus » Sat, May 16, 2026, 11:23 AM UTC

petterroea wrote: post #336

One thing i think is missing from this discussion is that the problem is larger than just games, and I wish legislation was wider. It's good that games are used as an example and flag bearer due to wide appeal, but what about other software that requires online services, like the old programs that talk to activation servers?

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 16, 2026, 11:42 AM UTC

throwaway85825 wrote: post #282

foresto wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, it would also create a demand for open-source game server libraries, which would surely appear after a while and make the whole process much easier. So while I believe you about all those difficulties existing today, it's plausible that they would mostly fade away over time. I think temporary growing pains would be an acceptable price for the significant long-term public benefit.

Unreal is open access but not open source.