Video Games: Consumer Law

Henry Tufnell Excerpts

Monday 3rd November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Henry Tufnell (Mid and South Pembrokeshire) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) and the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) for their excellent speeches.

For millions across the UK, video games are more than just entertainment. They are a creative outlet, a way to unwind and a means of connecting with other gamers across the world. As a cornerstone of our creative industries, the UK is one of the largest video game markets in the world, with sales reaching nearly £4.3 billion in 2024. From Harry Potter and James Bond to British premiership football, some of the most popular games worldwide are rooted in British culture. I am delighted that this Labour Government are backing the sector’s continued growth, investing £40 million in start-up video game studios and expanding creative industry tax reliefs to incentivise further innovation and investment.

The Welsh Labour Government are also championing our creative industries through their dedicated economic development agency Creative Wales, which supports creatives across the country, including the brilliant Goldborough Studio, an independent game developer based in Lawrenny in my constituency of Mid and South Pembrokeshire.

Some of my constituents are concerned that consumer rights in this space have not kept up with advancing technology, leaving gamers in danger of losing out. As Members have set out already, the publishers of online video games can, at their discretion, shut down the servers that keep the games running. When that happens the games become unplayable, leaving consumers who have paid for them without access to the digital worlds in which they have invested their time, imagination and money.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, digital content must be as described by the seller. If the game is sold without clear information about its support, lifespan or potential server shutdowns, consumers are entitled to a repair, a replacement or a refund. A recent example is “Concord”, a game released for PlayStation 5 and Windows in August 2024. Following a disappointing launch, Sony Interactive Entertainment made a commercial decision to shut it down. To its credit, Sony refunded all purchases, but that is not always the case.

Members will agree that if publishers fail to make the lifespan of a game clear at the point of sale, they must be held accountable, which is why I welcome the strengthened consumer protections in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which came into force earlier this year. The legislation rightly requires traders to provide clear, timely and accurate information to consumers, including in respect of the longevity and functionality of digital products.

More broadly, my constituent Stewart Coombes raised an important cultural point. Video games are unique creative works that blend music, design, storytelling and interactivity in ways that no other medium can. They allow players to inhabit imagined worlds and engage with complex narratives.

[Matt Turmaine (Watford) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) for securing this important debate. As we are all making declarations, I should say I am a self-confessed fan of survival horror games. Does my hon. Friend agree that the evolution of video games over the years to include an online component has created a cultural product that is unfamiliar to us in other territories, which therefore presents potential problems in terms of the longevity of the online component as opposed to a game’s stand-alone playability? For example, would one expect to be able to revisit a concert 10 years after it had taken place, rather than simply playing the album of that music again?

[Henry Tufnell]

I agree with my hon. Friend about the extent to which games have a cultural identity, and that to take them down erases a cultural and artistic heritage that is vital to society and to the wider industry as well. As campaigners have rightly argued, if every copy of a book, film or song were destroyed, we would see it as a cultural tragedy. We should view the loss of video games in the same light, so I thank my hon. Friend for his timely intervention. Does the Minister agree that video games are a vital part of our creative and cultural landscape? Will she commit to exploring how we can better protect consumers and preserve access to digital works even after commercial support ends?