ESA VP calls Minecraft community servers ‘illegal’

At a June 29 hearing of the California State Senate’s Professions and Economic Development Committee in Sacramento, Jennifer Gibbons, vice president of state government affairs at the Entertainment Software Association, told lawmakers that Minecraft community servers are ‘illegal’ and not affiliated with Microsoft. Her remarks came during debate over Assembly Bill 1921, the Protect Our Games Act.

AB 1921 would require developers to provide full advance notice before shutting down server-dependent games. It would also require companies to supply technical support so games remain playable without official servers, or to issue refunds if that is not possible. The bill passed the State Assembly on June 1 and faced a Senate vote on June 29.

Gibbons was in Sacramento to urge the committee to oppose the bill on behalf of the ESA, the trade association representing game publishers and developers in the United States. She argued that AB 1921 treats video games differently from other digital products and that refund requirements do not account for years of prior use.

During questioning, Assembly Member Chris Ward suggested community-hosted servers could keep some games running after official services end and cited Minecraft and Call of Duty as examples. Gibbons told the committee the servers were unauthorized, stating, ‘They’re illegal, and they are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards as Microsoft servers.’ When a committee member asked whether community servers were ‘the black market of videogames,’ she replied, ‘Yes, we consider it piracy.’

Attendees and members of the gaming community pointed out that Mojang and Microsoft publish official guidance on hosting and provide server software on the Minecraft website that instructs players how to create and run their own servers.

AB 1921 did not pass the State Senate on June 29. The Stop Killing Games initiative, which backed the bill, said it did not expect to advance this far and plans to return with amended legislation. Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, the creator of Minecraft, has previously voiced support for the initiative and encouraged players to host their own servers, writing, ‘if buying a game is not a purchase, then pirating them is not theft.’