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Video Games: Consumer Law

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell.

There have been a number of instances in this place where I have had to come out: first as LGBT, then as Parliament’s biggest Swiftie, and today as a gamer. I have been playing computer games since I was a little kid. I remember waking up every morning before going to school to plug in the internet to download the latest bits for “The Sims”. It has been a staple of my life. As the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) highlighted, there are myriad reasons why people game—whether to switch off, unwind or make friends. It is a never-ending world of wonder for people who get into gaming, and I count myself as one of them.

The issue is what happens when a developer goes bust, shuts down or is gobbled up in a merger? In those instances, it is not clear who bears the responsibility of hosting or running servers for online gaming. Most of the games I play are not online, but I understand from those who play them that we already see servers going offline or timing out.

We only have to look at the recent gaming industry landscape: Electronic Arts has been bought up by a conglomerate, which includes Saudi Arabia and others, in a £55 billion deal. The acquisition will take it off the stock market and into private equity. We have also seen measures taken to replace developers with artificial intelligence. That puts a question mark on how long term and sustainable gaming on such platforms will be for consumers.

What I would like to see—and I am sure many Members across the House will also invite the Minister to do this—is clearer, more tangible responsibility from Government and protections for consumers.