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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

#331

Post by smelendez »

aeturnum wrote: post #327

Sony is obviously the villain here (and pretty much always) but I think this points to an unsolved problem with our model of digital ownership: it's based on the media company providing a service...forever? People in this thread are saying customers should get refunds and I disagree - customers should get video files! We need a model of digital ownership that does not involve the media owner forever delivering that m…

This is how it now works with music, I believe. Apple, Amazon, Bandcamp, etc. all sell you access to DRM-free files along with the ability to download or stream them in perpetuity.

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

#332

Post by VibrantClarity »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #107
goldenarm wrote: post #20

IANAL, but is it illegal to have a "Buy" button that is just a disguised "Rent" button? If not, should we change the law?

If Walmart sold you a lawnmower, but you had to leave the lawnmower in their store, would you consider it your property just because they let you start it up and hear it rumble? If you wouldn't do that for Walmart, why would you do it for Sony?

People are buying vehicles at great cost that can be remotely disabled. If the analogy were slightly less tortured, I'm sure the answer would be yes.

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

#333

Post by fluoridation »

Izkata wrote: post #101
dpoloncsak wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main thing consoles have going for them, imo, is the standardization of hardware. It's very easy to say "Yes this game will run on my console at 60 FPS because its identical to the other consoles where it runs at 60 FPS." Differing builds and drivers are not really a concern in the console world, where-as they are in the PC world. Some console gamers seem to think PC gaming requires hours of fiddling with setting…

During college, before I switched to linux, the DRM packaged with Spore bricked my computer in the middle of a semester. That's what turned me off of PC gaming.

This is a nitpick, but "to brick" means that hardware becomes totally unusable, like an expensive brick. You turn it on, and it does nothing. I'm going to assume that this is not what you meant, and that the OS just got hosed, requiring a reinstallation.

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

#334

Post by ColdStream »

trencedamp wrote: post #9

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?

I get where you are coming from but that is a little reductionist.

PlayStation I think is just going to have a slow bleed as the benefits to the platform seem to be... A new God of war in a few years?

Xbox is being scrapped for parts and is now a zombie console. I suspect they are going to try the 3DO model and try to out source the hardware to any company that wants to buy their SOC and OS licence.

Switch 2, actually doing damn well. Credit to Nintendo, they can be a little rough on pricing something's but they know how to stick to the core of the business. They have managed to keep the momentum between generations and that is difficult to do.

It is a shame, if it wasn't for the high hardware costs, the Steam cube could have made a real don't in Sony/MS but that is not the world we are in. But a PC in a box that isn't locked down can never achieve the same kind of margins that a console can.

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

#335

Post by ColdStream »

Narishma wrote: post #278
trencedamp wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of what I've always hated about consoles is the inevitable push toward an entirely new generation of hardware when the current hardware is more than capable. The best games I've played in the last year would run on a PS4 and probably even a PS3 with a little optimization, yet we're already at the "end" of the PS5. It's so disingenuous. We should be squeezing everything we can out of the wonderful hardware we hav…

The PC is worse in this regard since everyone's hardware is different. There's rarely much optimization going into PC games compared to consoles.

I would argue that in some spaces it has gotten better. Ever since the Steamdeck became popular, that kind of set a lower bound on hardware. Games have ended up being optimised a little to run on that because it is another potential 5 million+ customers.

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

#337

Post by ColdStream »

trencedamp wrote: post #227
JauntyHatAngle wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I can't say I know anyone IRL who has any interest in leaving PlayStation As a counterpoint to that. Most of my 30+ year old dad gamer friends (all of us are the type to own a PC, switch and ps5 pretty much) all are considering whether this will be our last sony generation as most of us are either physical copy people or suspect the pricing will be bad without a second hand market to compete. I don't think there is…

Part of what I've always hated about consoles is the inevitable push toward an entirely new generation of hardware when the current hardware is more than capable. The best games I've played in the last year would run on a PS4 and probably even a PS3 with a little optimization, yet we're already at the "end" of the PS5. It's so disingenuous. We should be squeezing everything we can out of the wonderful hardware we hav…

John Carmack said it in about 2011, if you cannot make your game vision work on a 360 or PS3 you are doing something wrong.

I get that we have made huge strides in rendering tech, but the broad idea behind that I can still get behind.

Other than higher res assets, shaders and cleaner rendering; I havent seen anything that probably couldnt be done on those systems and still broadly have the same overall feel.

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

#338

Post by Rohansi »

afavour wrote: post #298
Rohansi wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll likely see a lot more Steam Machine-like PCs because of this. SteamOS fixes most of the problems you mention. Price is the new normal and you should expect next gen consoles to come closer to it. It's not a bad deal anyway when you consider the bigger library, cheaper games, and no subscription required. https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

At that point I’d say we’re talking about a PC/console hybrid anyway so the distinction gets a little less useful.

But why? The Steam Deck and Machine are pick up and go like consoles by default. Only a small minority care that it's actually a PC you can use for things other than games.

The only thing that sets them apart is Steam's hardware isn't locked down.

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

#340

Post by ashishb »

Many of my friends are surprised that I purchase mp3s and store them in Google Drive instead of listening on Spotify or YouTube.

Heck, I even wrote a player for this [1] The problem is that licensed media like this are always going to become inaccessible over decades.

It happened with Apple[2] and Microsoft (PlaysForSure[3]) as well.

1 - https://musicsync.ashishb.net/ 2 - https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/you-dont-own-your-di... 2 - https://www.cnet.com/culture/playsforsure-officially-dead/

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