2024 was the year gamers really started pushing back on the erosion of game ownership
2024 was the year gamers really started pushing back on the erosion of game ownership
A bit too optimistic, but hey, at least it's a post pointing people at GOG, which has otherwise been losing big publisher support (SEGA and Sony used to put some big games there and don't anymore, for instance).
I'm also not sure that the big failures of prominent games as a service are an indication of a return to appreciating ownership. I'm afraid it may be rather that the established genre leaders are taking all the oxygen out of that space, just as it happened for causal mobile F2P games a while ago.
If the perception makes players more likely to give up on their forever games and go back to buying piecemeal experiences they get to keep indefinitely I'd call that very good news, but I'll need a bit more evidence before I declare myself optimistic on that subject.
I’m also not sure that the big failures of prominent games as a service are an indication of a return to appreciating ownership.
Perhaps in a roundabout way it is. My guess is that this is a reflection of the lack of value that people find in live service games when it isn't an immediate hit, because their value comes from other people valuing it as well. If the game's showing signs of shutting down in a year or two, you're less likely to bother giving it your time and money. Meanwhile, people will rally behind a game that they assume will be popular with those around them. That's how it appears to me anyway. You can say that is or is not valuing ownership, but it's showing that these games have less value inherently, in any case.
I think there is absolutely a sense that some of these games aren't worth jumping into because the longevity won't be there. That doesn't necessarily mean the alternative is people sticking around and playing traditional paid experiences instead, though. What seems to be happening instead is people sticking with a few "forever games" and getting stuck there, sort of out of the market. We've seen that dynamic before, when everybody was trying to come up with a MMO to replace WoW, or in the very stagnant mobile market.
the pushback has always been to pay for what you want on Steam/GOG/Epic/whatever... then be open to stealing things if and when they get taken from you.
Indeed. I’ve been radicalised by Ubisoft.
In 2012 I bought Splinter Cell Blacklist for Wii U. Loved it so much I paid for all the DLC, just like I did with Assassin’s Creed III also on Wii U. Not too long ago, Ubisoft announced they were terminating legacy activation servers, and multiplayer modes would no longer function. But this also meant that without those activation servers, I would lose access to the DLC I paid for (as Ubisoft disclosed) because the game phones their activation servers and authenticates if I own the DLC. With enough public gamer outrage and pushback, Ubisoft walked back this decision… for now.
I thought I was safe buying physical games like I always have. I thought I was safe if the DLC was downloaded to the console. If this legacy server decommissioning went through, I would never be able to legally play the stuff I paid for and should own. Lesson learned, and every last ounce of ever wanting to play a modern Ubisoft game died in about ~2020 when they announced this. I don’t trust them, and I’m glad to see their company is beginning to tank because they stopped innovating and making good games like they used to decades ago.
When I wanted to replay Blacklist recently, I pirated it. The pirated copy ran better than the copy I own on Steam and Uplay - no crashes every 30 minutes (seriously, look it up), no bugs, etc. I didn’t want to play the Wii U copy because it’s a very slow console and the loading times for levels is insane (10+ minutes to load in due to the archaic Wii U architecture, back when I first played it in 2012).
I’m receiving a better service from the pirates rather than Ubisoft. Not that I want to play any modern Ubisoft games, but this whole “ownership” thing has made me question every digital purchase I’ve made. Now, I rip all my Blu Rays to PC and archive them. I buy on GOG, and only buy on Steam if I can’t get it on GOG.
Sorry for long story, Ubisoft just really pisses me off and they destroyed the last thread of good will I had for them. I’ll just stick to playing Beyond Good and Evil on my GameCube if I get nostalgic for the games they made that had heart and innovation.
OK: Some of the arguments seem a bit out-there. A proposed class-action lawsuit saying players of The Crew were "duped" by Ubisoft compared the situation to the publisher entering peoples' homes and stealing parts of a pinball machine.
Which part of that is "out there"?
... By doubling down on Steam being a subscription service by actually telling you it was, or how Steam admitted it would basically not allow accounts to be passed through inheritance and there is only one service that says they will try, that being GOG? We literally have to fight to have libraries of old games when the generations before had no problem having libraries of their old entertainment to access, communally so even.
The article really is disingenuous. All there is that is seriously doing this is a EU petition, one that will be dead on arrival because most of the affected games sell themselves as subscription services and because shit in the EU gets done when lobbyists usually aren't homogeneous across country lines, and for this they are. A slap warning or two, that's about all this will accomplish.
If people moved their game collections over to GOG from Steam, and were clear that this was the reason they were doing it, that would accomplish a lot more. It's not going to happen, just look where governments are sliding towards, it isn't towards consumer rights and society as a whole.
I definitely try to buy on GoG (and download them locally for offline play/install) instead of Steam when I can help it… but that’s not very often as many games just don’t make it over there.
So how's that working out?
It's at about 5TB. I've got it copied. Just fine, man. How's your collection, going?
Someone please explain to me why a game after selling millions of copies shouldn't be open sourced
Because it will create expectation on the side of players that the game will become free in a while, driving down sales.
The open sourcing period should be at least long enough to justify purchase, probably a decade after the release.
Because it will create expectation on the side of players that the game will become free in a while, driving down sales.
Sales reasons... gotta make more millions to stuck up
If that was true pre-orders wouldn't be a thing, especially after so many half baked releases. And the prices for new releases would not have gone up so much in the last few years.
By and large gamers are not a patience kind. They want the new thing not the old thing.
Godd old games was also the time, where you paid once for playing. This should be added to the initiative as well.
Do you not remember expansion packs?
No is wasn't. The dumb gamers were praising steam for doing the same thing Ubisoft was doing.
I think most gamers see a serious difference between ubisoft and Steam.
Ubisoft is a publicly traded company who only exists to make money for shareholders, and Valve is a privately owned company with no plans to go public, so it has no greedy shareholders forcing the company to engage in anti consumer decisions.
Anyone who looks at the two entities can clearly see which is better for the end user.
Cope
I'm sorry, do people buy AAA games when they first come out?
What does that have to do with this?
stopkillinggames.com
EU PETITION