
Why your digital games collection isn't yours to own - benologist
http://www.techradar.com/news/the-double-edge-of-digital-games-and-changing-ownership
======
hueller
Support DRM-free purchases from places like
[https://www.gog.com](https://www.gog.com) or
[https://www.humblebundle.com](https://www.humblebundle.com) (when they're not
doing a DRM sale) if this kind of thing bothers you. Exclusives are also
something that should probably die. Portability of games shouldn't be a
problem in 2017.

Edit: buying from the creator/studio directly is also often another option,
but less convenient and reliable.

------
Joeri
This isn't just games.

Apple has deleted paid music from my itunes account, despite it still being
for sale, and refused to restore it when asked. They said the publisher
removed that specific version of the album from the store (the new version has
an identical track list) so their hands were tied, and to use the file backups
I made of those files.

Microsoft threw away my e-book collection when they shuttered their first
ebook store back in the day, with no (legal) ability to carry those books onto
a new device, even if I copied the files.

So far the only long term reliable digital goods business I know has been
amazon with the kindle, but I'm sure you can find horror stories there as
well.

You don't buy this stuff, you rent it indefinitely.

~~~
wodenokoto
> so [Apples] hands were tied, and to use the file backups I made of those
> files.

Is it really a digitals stores duty to indefinitely offer re-downloads of
material bought? Sounds like you should have taken better care of your own
stuff.

When a seller sells you a digital asset that is not encumbered with copy
protection, I find it quite fair that they don't see themselves as responsible
for also being your backup solution til the end of time.

If they do, however, sell you an encumbered digital asset, which requires
access to theirs or their 3rd party server in order to function, then yes,
they do owe it to their customers to be available til the end of time.

~~~
DanBC
Did you miss the part where Apple deleted the files?

~~~
im3w1l
Joeri said Apple deleted the files from his _account_ , which may or may not
include the files on his hard drive.

~~~
endemic
Apple did not delete files from his hard drive.

~~~
Joeri
Indeed they did not. But, they did break the (unspoken) promise that I could
freely keep streaming and redownloading all my iTunes purchases from every
machine. You can call it a courtesy service to provide that, and technically
that's true, but that courtesy is a huge part of the convenience of iTunes,
and definitely convinces people to "buy".

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
I think you just learned that unspoken promises are worth the paper they're
printed on.

That said, the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions clearly state:

SERVICES AND CONTENT USAGE RULES

[...]

All Services:

[...]

\- It is your responsibility not to lose, destroy, or damage Content once
downloaded. We encourage you to back up your Content regularly.

[...]

REDOWNLOADS

You may be able to redownload previously acquired Content (“Redownload”) to
your devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID (“Associated Devices”).
You can see Content types available for Redownload in your Home Country at
[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204632](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT204632). Content may not be available for Redownload if that Content is
no longer offered on our Services.

So next time, I suggest you read the T&C before you buy something.

------
hd4
This doesn't get said enough and is why we need better consumer protection
laws, like the ones that the EU has implemented or seeks to.

Publishers can't have it both ways. The way gamers are treated has been
embarrassingly bad for way too long now. With the sums of money in the
videogame economy I'm annoyed this hasn't been solved yet.

Also, we gamers need to stop accepting the pathetic treatment we get. Use your
wallets and vote.

~~~
TillE
The EU isn't a whole lot better on this particular issue at the moment.

But it's basically inevitable, as younger jurists and legislators take power.
The idea that digital property is ephemeral is just a quirk of IP law which
can be changed with the stroke of a pen. Digital property intuitively _is_
personal property, and they'll only be able to weasel their way around this
fact with contract law and "licenses" for so long.

------
supergreg
This is why emulators are important. Console makers should be compelled to
release documentation of their hardware when they EOL one of their products so
the community can make use of it.

~~~
HalcyonicStorm
I agree. I'm not sure that PS3 games will survive into the future because its
unusual architecture makes porting difficult. The most popular games may
eventually have custom code that makes them playable, but there is a vast
collection of games on the ps3 that won't get that kind of attention. As a
side note, the previous generations (ps2, gamecube) all have great emulators.

~~~
Bokagha
RPCS3 ([https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3](https://github.com/RPCS3/rpcs3) |
[https://rpcs3.net/](https://rpcs3.net/)) has come a long way in the past year
or so.

Only around 6.65% are actually playable start to finish, but the fact that
over half over half the games (64.02%) on the platform can at least load the
title screen is great progress for such a weird architecture.

I would be more worried about having the original Xbox emulated.

------
mnm1
Sony in the past has gone through periods of removing purchased games, at
least on the PS3. I have not noticed it on the PS4, but on the PS3, I bought a
Worms game many years back which later simply got removed from my account (I
looked in history and downloads and could never download it again). I assume
that's what will happen to all the games. The precedent is already set. What
was I going to do? Sue Sony over the removal of a $20 game? They do whatever
they want. "Piracy" is the only real solution when legal means are
unavailable. You fuck me over, I fuck you over. That's pretty much where we're
at with digital goods like this.

------
jakebasile
I think this is pretty rare, but when it does happen it sticks out. For
example: P.T. was pulled by Konami when they decided they hate video games and
canceled Silent Hills. You can't download it anymore, even if it was already
purchased. I remember people buying PS4s that had it installed.

Although DRM free options exist on PC, Steam is far and away the main
marketplace with many games not being released outside of it, not even
physical. Consoles of course have only one option on where to buy digital
games. That said, I've rarely run into games removed from Steam... I actually
can't think of one that was retroactively removed. You can even still buy
games (keys) that are no longer sold on Steam and activate them, for example
you can find unused copies of Prey for PC and unlock it on Steam even though
they no longer sell it on the store.

~~~
pandaman
>You can't download it anymore, even if it was already purchased.

PT was never for sale though so how you purchased it? It was a demo you could
freely download for a period of time then it was gone after an ample warning
period.

>I actually can't think of one that was retroactively removed.

Google to the rescue: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/12/30/steam-
remov...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/12/30/steam-removes-game-
order-of-war-challenge-from-user-libraries/)

------
dabber
The scripts ( read: ads) on this article crashed my browser. My phones not new
by any metric but still; I don't think its unreasonable to expect a page
intent on serving text to load without issue.

------
nommm-nommm
I think of digital games like rentals so I'll only buy them if they are priced
accordingly. That is, at a price point I'd pay for a rental and no more.

