The New Law that Reveals: We Don’t Own Digital Games
In the modern era, digital media has revolutionized how we consume entertainment. The shift towards streaming music and movies has made physical products less common. The same trend is now affecting video games, with over 90% of games sold in the UK being digital.
While digital media offers convenience—like instant access without the need to visit a physical store or manage multiple discs—it also comes with hidden terms and conditions. Digital storefronts are now required by California’s new law (AB 2426) to disclose that buyers do not hold unrestricted ownership over their digitally purchased content.
Key Points:
- Disclosure Requirement: Californian sellers must clearly state they are providing a license, not selling digital goods outright.
- Limited Ownership Rights: While this does not preclude the right to access your purchases temporarily, it highlights the transient nature of licensed media.
- Permanent Exclusions: The law does not apply when products can be permanently downloaded and is not applicable in situations where buyers are notified of terms clearly.
Implications:
This new law adds awareness that digital games, as well as other digital content, do not confer long-term ownership. It also brings to light the challenges of preserving retro or modern games through permanent downloads or physical media.
In the age of digital content, do you think it’s more important to own a permanent copy or have accessible licensed rights?
Another problem is that physical is a red herring. You don’t own modern physical games any more than you own digital ones, as the famous The Crew shitshow has demonstrated. It doesn’t matter if you still have the fancy disc, if you can’t even go past the main menu when the publisher decides to shut down the game. In the end DRM is the only deciding factor, not if the game is digital or physical.
You mean The Crew, the online-only racing game?
“It doesn’t apply to an online game, therefore it doesn’t apply to any situation.”
But I agree that it’s best to purchase DRM-free copies.
It doesn’t apply to any situation with these kinds of aggressive DRM, like other games such as the latest Gran Turismo. Or games that don’t come full on disc, the OG release of the Spyro trilogy comes to mind (thankfully that’s been fixed).
In any case my point was for people to check each case before assuming physical is safe from publisher meddling. Since in many cases you don’t own much more than a fancy installer in a pretty box.
You said
This is false. Most games do have the full game data on disc (or card). There are some specific examples, usually AAA titles like Hogwarts and Jedi Survivor, where there is either online DRM (I gather you mean online DRM, as that is the only thing that would make sense in context) or the title was too big to fit on one disc and they cheaped out. This is somewhat more common with Xbox hybrid discs; the disc will generally contain the Xbox One version, while the Series X version is a download. PlayStation 5 games generally have the full game on disc. Switch cards have the full game.
For the most part, if you buy a physical game, it has the game data on it.
If it’s an online-only game, of course it’s not playable if the servers shut down. Don’t want to pay for a time-limited game? Don’t buy them. (I don’t.)
This is also false. DRM (again, presumably you mean online DRM in this discussion) is not the sole deciding factor. The actual deciding factors are the things are cited above.
When you say that physical and digital are equivalent, you’re just factually wrong. There are certain cases where the physical disc isn’t sufficient, but by and large, this sweeping statement is incorrect.