EU and national legislators are tightening their regulatory frameworks, and games sit right in their path

Dr Simon Hembt is counsel at Bird & Bird in Frankfurt, Germany. He advises games companies on IP, AI/tech, and media regulation. He co-edited Bird & Bird's Game Plan 2026 report.

Imagine a free-to-play shooter with pay-to-win in-game monetization (aka "golden bullets"), various in-game items (such as skins), voice chat, a user-generated-content (UGC) hub, and an AI companion. All relatively common features, but they represent a regulatory puzzle, since each one might be subject to a different law at national and European Union level.

The EU AI Act's rules on "deepfakes" and the representation of real-world locations and people in games have applied since August 2, and the first reporting obligations under the Cyber Resilience Act followed on September 11 – but there is more still to come, with the European Commission announcing a further two landmark projects.

The EU KIDS Act has proposed rules on online safety that could affect daily log-in bonuses among many other things, while the first draft of the Digital Fairness Act (DFA) is likely to contain several different rules that affect in-game worlds. In addition, the EU Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) has started a series of enforcement actions based on its key principles.

Bird & Bird's international video games team has mapped the legal trends shaping games, and this article highlights six risks that studios need to be aware of, and what they can do to stay ahead.

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