The ESA claims private servers for Minecraft are ‘illegal’ in Stop Killing Games hearing

A new hearing for California’s Protect Our Games Act took place this week, and once again, the ESA pushed back hard against the Stop Killing Games movement. The bill aims to require publishers to provide a way for players to continue accessing games after online services are discontinued. While technically feasible in many cases, major publishers have consistently resisted the idea, preferring to shut games down entirely rather than relinquish control.

During the hearing, ESA vice president for state government affairs Jennifer Gibbons made a particularly surprising claim, arguing that private servers are “illegal” and constitute “piracy”. As reported by PCGamer, Gibbons responded to a comment from assemblymember Chris Ward, who noted that private servers already exist as a way to keep games alive.

“Minecraft is currently hosted by community servers, Call of Duty has community servers,” Ward said. Gibbons interrupted: “They’re illegal. They are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft… we consider it piracy.”

This statement contradicts the reality of Minecraft, which was designed with community‑hosted servers in mind. Microsoft openly provides server tools on the official website, free for anyone to download. Gibbons later referenced two ongoing ESA lawsuits involving private servers and pointed to the USTR’s Notorious Markets Report, which has named certain private servers in the past, but those cases involved servers enabling access to paid games like World of Warcraft without a subscription, not legitimate community servers for games that support them.

A volunteer for the Stop Killing Games campaign commented on the proceedings in a Reddit post, arguing that the ESA’s claims were “designed to scare a busy legislator who does not have time to fact‑check a well‑dressed lobbyist in real time.” They added that the movement plans to expand its lobbying efforts, bring developers and players directly into future hearings, and introduce similar bills in other states.

KitGuru Says: The ESA has tried to tell plenty of lies in its effort to shut down the Stop Killing Games movement. Fortunately in this case, the idea that private Minecraft servers are somehow ‘illegal' is easily disproven. 

Become a Patron!