They are gonna remove games in future like they did with the movies
They already have lol.
Licensed titles are different. Unless they’ve done that for non-licensed titles.
Kindle literally removed 1984 from people’s devices
That was a case where the seller literally didn’t have the rights to the book. If you search for the title today you’ll find a version that is listed as the Authorized Orwell Edition.
Not the same as what I was referring to. Video games based on licensed IPs, often get taken down from digital game stores because the publisher’s license has ended. What you described with 1984 is someone who shouldn’t be selling the media, having sold it. Sure, it sucks if the title disappeared from your device but maybe that was the only legal resolution?
Conveying something to someone in perpetuity (i.e. “selling” it to them) when you don’t have the right to do so is fraud. Just because Amazon or whoever’s right to continue offering the thing ended doesn’t mean their customers’ property rights somehow end with it.
It’s exactly as absurd as a car dealer stealing back all the cars they previously sold just because they ended their agreement with the manufacturer.
There is absolutely no sane world in which stealing your customers’ property could ever be the “only legal resolution!”
Sometimes the license for the music in games expires and developers/publishers just remove it from the games.
That, by itself, is absolutely outrageous and absurd. The game developer’s failure to license the music appropriately is between them and the music copyright holder; nothing gives them the right to steal the content back from the third parties they conveyed it to in perpetuity.
Agreed, licensing for anything like that in game should be required to be permanent. Only exception I can possibly think of is live service games where the content cycles out of availability.
I wouldn’t argue just that it should be; I would argue that it is and we have a massive problem with the FTC failing to enforce existing law.
I think it will no longer be available as an option.
I will be buying no more PlayStations then.
Same.
Xbox is pushing the same thing with gamepass, Nintendo lowered their digital games pricing to match/go lower than physical media. Everything is going that way.
Honestly, if I have to go digital, my money is going to Valve
Valve and GOG.
Better to Gog, atleast you own what you buy
Fun fact: Some Steam games are also DRM-free
Stop spreading this lie.
https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog
2.1 We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a ‘license’) to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.
This refers to downloading, after you donwload the DRM Free Game from Gog there is no license or online check forever, the game is just yours.
You can also do that on Steam, that doesn’t make it any less piracy.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, but let’s stop pretending that GOG is somehow better than Steam.
Nobody is saying you cannot do on Steam, the big difference is that you can do that on 100% of Gog games, on Steam only on a very small percentage.
And there are other noticeable difference, on Steam you have to go through the file and backup them, on Gog you get the drm free installer for the last version of the game and any previous version that you want.
Is clear to me that on this regard Gog is much better than Steam, would be crazy to say otherwise.
on Steam only on a very small percentage.
citation needed
If buying is not owning, piracy is not stealing
This is such a great quote.
But if you read the fine print, you are not buying these games, you are entering into a subscription to them. Paying a one-time fee to subscribe to the games indefinitely. That’s why it feels like buying.
That’s how they getcha.
So it’s almost like buying is not owning?
Almost, but not exactly.
And look, I’m not saying its defensible, I’m just saying that they technically trick us into subscribing, and thus we can’t technically say we’re buying these games. So, GOG ❤️
I will no longer be offering money to receive playstation games. 🤷♂️
Fair
So don’t buy a fucking Playstation.
This isn’t that hard to sort out.
I already have one because they were the best platform when it came to actually owning your games.
If they could be trusted to treat digital copies as actual ownership, this wouldn’t be such a big deal.
Cool. If thats the case I will no longer be offering Playstation my money for games.
Sony I already didn’t intend to buy the next game console, you don’t have to keep trying to push me away.
“It will be over $1000.”
“Ew, no thanks!”
“But wait, there’s more! You also won’t be able to buy games used or trade them with friends!”
At this rate why sell hardware to people anymore? Might as well rip the bandaid and make it a cloud-gaming device.
Many people will tolerate digitally distributed games, but not subscriptions
I’ve been a PlayStation guy since 1998. Looks like the PS5 is my last PlayStation console.
Steam being all digital is fine because I’m buying games for 75-90% off… If I got told I was losing access to a game I played $2.50 for 6 years ago and played for 40 hours I would… actually I’d still be annoyed but less annoyed than losing hundreds of dollars.
Steam lets you play games that you bought, even if they’ve been delisted in the meantime.
Steam is the good guy (for now). GOG is even better though, since they let you save offline installers with no DRM.
Yep, Love GOG
Also, if they delist a game you had, you can just sail the high seas easily, and there are even revival projects for always-online games that reverse engineer servers.
My main problem with this is I can’t sell or trade a digital game after I’m done with it. This needs to be
feltdelt with legally.I like being able to share a disc with friends. Or get one from the library. They kill that, they’re making a hell of lot of enemies.
I feel you but I’m no lawyer.
For real, every jurisdiction needs to extend the first sale doctrine to digital media
So. They have chosen death.
The majority of people do not care.
Then the majority of people will get shafted. Nothing new under the sun, I guess.
Unfortunately. The market chose convenience over consumer rights. We no longer own anything and can have it taken away at any time.
They were already getting shafted, by your definition, as they were already buying digital only games.
Well exactly.
Oh no! Anyway…
EDIT: Just to be clear, I am not dismissing OP. I’m saying “fuck Sony” and “this would be a good time to convert to PCmasterrace or go retro”
The concept that not everyone has big internet or even good enough might be super strange for these C-level people.
I don’t think they care about those markets (even though they could make a lot of money out of them)
So is that market the last $1 billion still buying physical? A graph was passed around showing sales are down from an $11 billion peak in 2009 nearly 20 years ago.
I wonder how much of that last billion is Switch. I assume physical sales are higher there. But I might be way off.
Even with physical media you have to download large packages of data to start playing the game
