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Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

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Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#251

I read recently that PlayStation users are moving to PC en masse, and also Xbox has been gutted by layoffs, and there's a backlash against Nintendo for the switch 2 pricing. Is the age of the console finally coming to an end?

> PlayStation users are moving to PC en masse PC is even more digital-only than Playstation. No one buys physical games on PC. The only difference is that Valve has been a very good steward over Steam. Theoretically, PC can get as enshittified as PS. I guess there are other DRM-based purchasing platforms, and there's also DRM free ones like GOG so PC gamers have choice, but those feel niche mostly.

The thing about PC though is that there is no exclusivity. Steam built an extremely well respected brand but if that were to turn, the moat is shallow, install a competing client and buy games from there instead. The only internal competition for consoles is digital or physical retail (Or I guess buying game codes could be pseudo-digital).

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#252

Recent and very related: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation (797 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48745456 So Sony is simultaneously announcing that all purchases will be digital from now on while actively demonstrating that digital purchases aren't actually purchases. They're clearly communicating that they believe in a future where no one owns games any more.

Yet people have been “buying”games from Steam the same way for more than two decades…

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laws are great and all. But what we really need is a massive boycott. Stop buying shit manufactured or sold by Sony for a year. That alone will probably force them to backtrack every single anti consumer decision they've made recently.

Boycotts don't work nearly as well nowadays because a) Consumers don't have enough money already, so they're both stressed out and getting fewer things for themselves. These combine to mean that they're less likely to be willing to give up what little luxuries they have left, even if you're just asking them to substitute one media property for another. b) The companies being targeted are just too damn big. The consol…

You painted an accurate picture about how people act in this case and for boycotts in general but let’s be honest, not buying movies from Sony and its store is the last thing most people would “suffer” from. There’s such a large supply of content today that ditching one source for another has almost no real impact.

How much content really is only on Sony’s store, and how much of it would wear you down if you didn’t consume it within X years?

There are truly painful boycotts (try boycotting the only ISP in your area), and boycotts that are an inconvenience. This one is a far cry from losing a luxury or getting worn out.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please elaborate? The recent moves I’ve seen have been announcing a shift to digital-only and another about clawing back movie purchases. Neither are appealing to me, but also aren’t related to game performance or compatibility.

The obvious next step will be to claw back game purchases. Come on now. This is extremely obvious.

How does that relate to "I never have to question whether the game will function and perform well on the console"?

The point being, if the game says its made for that generation of Playstation, it will run well on that generation of Playstation. There's no comparing specs to figure out if it'll run well on your specific hardware arrangement.

When I get a new Switch game, I know it will play perfectly fine on my Switch as how the developers intended it to be experienced. When I try and play a new game on my PC-gaming handheld, who knows how well it'll run until I try it or spend time reading reviews from others with similar hardware trying to play the same game.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they avoided having a "rent" button by using the technically correct "add to cart", "continue to payment" instead of "buy this game", "buy all games in cart", and just have a separate sentence in small grey text that is confusing to most people. Clearly this law needs to be worded harsher, so the button MUST say "rent" if you are renting.

> Clearly this law needs to be worded harsher, so the button MUST say "rent" if you are renting. No, there is a much better alternative. No renting of copyrighted works for money. The customer owns a copy or GTFO.

No renting of copyrighted works for money. The customer owns a copy or GTFO.

That immediately destroys several useful and viable business models that actually work in that they provide more access to more creative work to more people while the rights holders also make a return.

I am in favour of copyright reform but not of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy isn’t stealing because copies don’t destroy the original

The proliferation of copies economically devalues the originals.

Then they can hire attorneys and bring a tort suit against every single person supposedly unjustly enriched

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#257
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if consoles got replaced by video game streaming. Not the next generation and probably not even the generation after that, but that will be most likely it.

Video game streaming requires a high quality internet connection to a nearby data center. It can work in certain places but there's always going to be places where it doesn't work, and consoles don't have that problem.

The question is, when does the market that does have that access start to completely crowd out the market that doesn't have that access?

In a lot of the metro area where I live cloud gaming over 5G wireless is actually very feasible. I do it from time to time. I've tried it in a few other cities as well, with generally positive results.

There are some games that just don't work well over cloud streaming though.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Clearly this law needs to be worded harsher, so the button MUST say "rent" if you are renting. No, there is a much better alternative. No renting of copyrighted works for money. The customer owns a copy or GTFO.

No renting of copyrighted works for money. The customer owns a copy or GTFO. That immediately destroys several useful and viable business models that actually work in that they provide more access to more creative work to more people while the rights holders also make a return. I am in favour of copyright reform but not of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

> That immediately destroys several useful and viable business models that actually work in that they provide more access to more creative work to more people while the rights holders also make a return.

Does it though? The incremental revenue from customers renting something and then renting it again is going to be very small. The "loss" from providing them with a permanent copy instead would be a rounding error, especially for a product with no marginal cost.

Meanwhile rentals are an attempt to cheat the public out of a bunch of rights they would otherwise have under First Sale etc. Which turns your access argument on its head, because the thing they're being denied is the ability to sell their copy when they're done with it, which in turn denies less well off customers the ability to buy a cheaper copy second hand.

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proliferation of copies economically devalues the originals.

Nobody has a right to have an economic value for what they sell. That is a special privilege, not a right, and harms everyone for the enrichment of the privileged

Nobody has any right/privilege at all, except what a system of rights/privileges spells out.

Behind a system of rights there is always a philosophy, which either postulates rights, or certain primary rights, as being somehow inherent or "inalienable", or else somehow justifies the establishment of rights without circular reasoning ("we need these rights so we can have nice things").

Re: Sony deletes more movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them

#260
post #205
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say the future is cloud gaming.

What is that, like stadia?

Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation Plus Premium, Boosteroid are modern options among others.
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