Today a majority of the U.S. Senate (52-47) voted in favor of halting the Federal Communications Commission’s effort to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules intended to ensure the free flow of information on the Internet.
This is a big deal for the game industry given how many developers make their living selling games through online marketplaces (Steam, Humble, itch.io, etc) and/or work on online games (see: Fortnite, League of Legends, Clash of Clans, etc).
However, there’s no guarantee that this will preserve net neutrality: now that the motion to halt the FCC’s dissolution effort has (narrowly) passed in the Senate, it goes to the House of Representatives for a vote, and then on to the President’s desk to be signed into law. The odds of it surviving through both challenges seem risky at best.
If the FCC is able to follow through on its plan to repeal net neutrality (originally scheduled for April 23rd and since delayed to June 11th), Internet service providers will be afforded more leeway to do things like speed up customers’ access to specific websites/content or limit access to online services based on how much a subscriber is paying.
In the months since the FCC’s decision, the Entertainment Software Association and others have lobbied to save net neutrality, and the state of Washington has gone ahead and passed a law aimed at preserving net neutrality for its residents.