A purchased world should survive the silence of its publisher.
When shutting down a server can take that world away, the player’s access remains subject to decisions made elsewhere. A receipt records the payment. The architecture determines what survives.
On October 15, 2026, Representative Ritchie Torres of New York announced plans to introduce the Power To The Players Act. His premise was direct: “When you pay for a game, you should own it” (Office of Congressman Ritchie Torres, 2026, para. 3).
His announcement cited NBA 2K25, whose online services are scheduled to end on December 31, 2026. Its offline modes will remain playable; the modes dependent on those servers will not (NBA 2K Support, 2026).
We welcome the proposal. It brings consumer protection to a boundary Aevium Interactive established at the foundation: the publisher’s continued presence must not be a condition of continued play.
I. Three Rights and One Duty
As announced, the proposal would direct the Federal Trade Commission to establish rules protecting players’ ability to own and play purchased games. Torres identifies three rights: ownership, play, and transfer. Publishers would also face an obligation: games with online functionality would require an offline mode before their supporting servers were shut down (Office of Congressman Ritchie Torres, 2026).
Players have already carried this demand into public institutions. Stop Killing Games seeks to keep games playable after publisher support ends; the related Stop Destroying Videogames initiative received a European Parliament hearing in April 2026 (European Commission, n.d.; Stop Killing Games, n.d.).
The legislation’s scope and enforcement would depend on its eventual text and implementing rules. The announcement establishes a direction.
Our position is settled: ending support should not extinguish what was purchased.
II. The Principles, Applied
The Everdark Accord is being built on these principles.
One purchase. No subscription. No season pass. No recurring payment for permission to return.
The content included in that purchase stays included. It does not rotate out of reach or return behind another charge. Continuing your campaign does not become a second transaction.
The simulation belongs on your hardware. The engine is designed to operate without a publisher-run gameplay backend.
The same holds for multiplayer. Participating devices communicate through a local mesh and verify what they receive. Connecting with other players does not place the world under the authority of an Aevium server.
Offline operation is foundational. It is present from the beginning, without waiting for a final patch at the end of commercial support.
Our operating budget must never become a dependency of your next turn.
The Everdark Accord is being built for Apple devices. Distribution through the App Store remains subject to its terms; Apple’s standard application license is nontransferable, although developers may supply custom licenses (Apple, 2026).
Our architecture can remove dependence on our infrastructure. It cannot, by itself, make a storefront purchase freely transferable.
We support the right to pass on a purchased game. The limits of distribution must be stated as plainly as the freedoms the engine provides.
The campaign record stays on your device. The design guards its integrity through local verification and hardware-protected keys. Apple’s Secure Enclave supplies the protection for those keys (Apple, n.d.).
The requirement is to preserve the consequences of play and resist unauthorized changes to the record. When defeat in the Long Dark closes a campaign, the ending comes from within the world.
A publisher’s shutdown notice has no standing there.
III. Ownership Is an Architecture
A legal right requires a system capable of honoring it.
If the simulation, its history, or permission to continue resides behind a publisher’s server, the player inherits a dependency beyond their control. A commercial decision can become an event inside the game.
The Everdark Accord assigns that responsibility to local execution, deterministic rules, and verification by participating devices. Authority must be established within the system’s rules. A connection grants no exemption. Cryptography serves the integrity of the world; the machinery required to continue playing belongs with the player.
That is the purpose of the zero-trust, offline-first foundation. The boundary was drawn before this proposal existed. It remains a condition of the design.
We welcome legislation that asks what a player retains when a publisher withdraws. Our answer must already be present in the machine.
Our absence must not become an event inside your game.
--
Our terms, in full, are on the Studio page.
--The Architect--
References
Apple. (n.d.). Protecting keys with the Secure Enclave. Apple Developer Documentation.
Apple. (2026, September 14). Apple Media Services terms and conditions.
European Commission. (n.d.). Stop destroying videogames.
NBA 2K Support. (2026, October 2). NBA 2K25: Server sunset.
Office of Congressman Ritchie Torres. (2026, October 15). Rep. Torres announces Power To The Players Act, legislation to ensure gamers own their games.
Stop Killing Games. (n.d.). Stop Killing Games—They kill games. We fight back.