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Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

arstechnica.com

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Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#71

Post by chocochunks »

hollow-moe wrote: post #4

Got bitten by the deceptive nature of Nintendo "game key trash". Purchased a game online without reading carefully the description. Sent it back and bought a SteamDeck. I can't recall if the seller even put the correct visuals: game key trash have a banner telling that they are plastic waste and you should instead give all the money to nintendo by using eshop.

Game Key cards have a banner on the box explaining what they are and marking them. They are IMO superior to a digital purchase in all but convenience. You can still sell, gift, loan them, require no Nintendo account to use either. And after the download to the console they work just fine offline.

Valve and Steam Works games happily sold literal trash that were useless to anyone but the first person who redeemed the key. They destroyed the second hand PC market selling codes in a box with potential time saver installers. And they still needed online activation.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#72

Post by alexfringes »

Fascinating listener comment, from a librarian to ATP, about the special legal exceptions with which libraries were equipped to have a chance against copyright and DRM tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u11ar0649Y4&t=373s (timestamped deep-link)

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#73

Post by ndriscoll »

nradov wrote: post #69
quadrifoliate wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just straight up false. Laws don't cease to exist because of a liquidation. Legal rights absolutely matter in the event of a liquidation, and will be part of any liquidation process. For example, if there was a law that the entire source code (including server code) should be immediately put into public domain if the game maker is unable to meet their obligation of serving up the game due to liquidation, then…

This is just straight up false. Apparently you don't understand bankruptcy law. Courts will prioritize the interests of creditors first. And the notion of a law requiring source code to be released in the public domain is so stupid. The source code is an asset which can potentially be sold to benefit creditors. And often the source code contains IP owned by third parties who wouldn't allow a release anyway.

The law is what the people say it is. As the previous generation that created this system dies their successors can repeal eternal copyright laws and institute consumer protections again. e.g. we can demand source escrow to receive copyright (with a short grace period for current copyright holders to register/set up escrow), drastically shorten the period, demand copyrighted material continue to be made available or you lose your monopoly, etc. Or just abolish the whole system, which might completely lose its purpose if AI continues to improve. Actually companies might be doing this themselves on accident by using AI to generate assets, making them ineligible for copyright.

All it takes is for young people to decide that they actually don't think they should have to pay a subscription to e.g. listen to music that came out when their dead great grandparents were kids or that they should have no rights to own anything ever.

The same people whose student loans couldn't be discharged in bankruptcy could I'm sure consider the idea that companies' obligations to them can't be either.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#74

Post by boesboes »

CoolestBeans wrote: post #31

The discs have been a formality for longer than most gamers understand or want to admit. Sony is discontinuing disc sales as a response to how gamers are buying games not the other way around. So it's an irrational response but an understandable emotional response. It's a final marker of an era that realistically ended more than a decade ago. That video games are not an island: an enclosed experience of just you, the…

horse shit

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#76

Post by WillAdams »

dawnerd wrote: post #44
musicale wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If gog.com went away tomorrow, downloaded games and installers should be copyable to another PC relatively easily (so far this has worked 100% for me at least). I'm not sure how easy it will be to copy downloaded games to another PS3 once Sony pulls the plug on the PSN store (and likely PSN login) for PS3 next year.

I’ve run into several games that will not launch at all of you don’t have galaxy or galaxy has no internet.

I have one game, (Lego Lord of the Rings) which won't launch, but it was an impulse purchase on sale, and I am no longer on vacation and stuck at my mother-in-law's, so haven't investigated beyond an unanswered (last I checked) forum post.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#77

Post by Wowfunhappy »

ksymph wrote: post #40
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Splatoon Raiders was released a week ago so I don't think that's a good example to use for games without updates. ...I don't really see why. The question isn't whether a game has updates available, it's whether the un-updated version feels like a complete experience vs a compromised one. I'm not sure how to read the spreadsheet in that context.

> The question isn't whether a game has updates available, it's whether the un-updated version feels like a complete experience vs a compromised one. Exactly -- a game released a week ago is unlikely to have updates that could make it feel like a compromised experience. Take, say, Terraria. I had a blast playing it ten years ago, despite having a fraction of the content and polish it does now. Nonetheless, if that ve…

Hardcover books often contain typos. The Kindle versions of these books will sometimes get updated to fix these typos. These updates make the reading experience better for Kindle customers, but they do not reduce the reading experience for hardcover customers. Your hardcover book will remain just as good as it was at the time it was published.

Now, Terraria received much more significant updates. I think a game like Terraria is fundamentally incompatible with the idea of physical games.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#78

Post by pessimizer »

underlipton wrote: post #50
CoolestBeans wrote: post #31

The discs have been a formality for longer than most gamers understand or want to admit. Sony is discontinuing disc sales as a response to how gamers are buying games not the other way around. So it's an irrational response but an understandable emotional response. It's a final marker of an era that realistically ended more than a decade ago. That video games are not an island: an enclosed experience of just you, the…

I think you misunderstand. The disc was the practical tie-down and compromise that allowed gamers to stomach what was happening. Whether or not gamers actually took advantage of the opportunity, the fact that there was a disc out there that they could physically pick up and buy meant that console game publishers (and, by extension, non-indie PC game publishers) couldn't descend into the depths of perma-Early Access-d…

I don't buy this a bit. Pirates weren't holding back until they got really upset about something. There will be absolutely no punishment for this change, because it is a minor change for the people who stuck them through the PS2->PS3 transition (and far beyond), and the people who were raised in a world where you didn't own things.

If some secret torrent of piracy is somehow unleashed, they'll just unleash a secret torrent of lobbying to increase penalties and investigation, and a secret torrent of partnerships with and cross-ownership of ISPs to unleash a secret torrent of surveillance.

I'm pretty sure I was the only one who dropped consoles entirely when they told me that the PS3 was going to have to be online. All my PS2 stuff still works, and I bought a couple more to make sure I'd always have parts. Pretty much everybody else liked gaming more than they liked their professed belief systems.

This won't even be an adjustment. Maybe they could give you a cardboard disk with a QR code on it that you can slide into fake little slot, in a very pretty box that says "Collectors Edition" on it. Or a DVD with a single encrypted text file on it that has your license number.

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#79

Post by wolvoleo »

augusto-moura wrote: post #59
zeroq wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The discs have been a formality for longer than most gamers understand or want to admit. Sony is discontinuing disc sales as a response to how gamers are buying games not the other way around. On the contrary. It's been a very long process of boiling the frog. I bought a physical release of Spore in 2008 and the game allowed itself to be installed a couple of times. Few years later I bought a single player RPG game…

Steam's policy is that an already published game can only be delisted, allowing old owners to still play the game. I still own the original versions of Skyrim (before Anniversary edition, definitive edition, and all other *ditions), and I can still download it and play it, even though that version is not available for purchase in the store anymore. Xbox and PSN don't have such luxuries AFAIK, after a game is removed…

Yes but they can force new versions with limited functionality. Like when they deleted half the music from GTA San Andreas.

On GoG you can choose to install every older version they've distributed (though GTA is not on there obviously)

Re: Just because a game is on disc doesn't mean it will work in the future

#80

Post by wolvoleo »

wmf wrote: post #12
nonamee wrote: post #2

interesting article about doesitplay community and their observations, but it seems like a lost battle since majority of gamers simply do not care

Gamers know that piracy and emulation will rescue lost games.

For now yes. But what when the industry moves to streaming? It's the ultimate copy protection because you never even get the game code.
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