Late last year, reports emerged that PlayStation gamers who purchased Discovery Video content from the PlayStation Store would lose all access to the material – despite having purchased it. This can also happen with video games that we purchased digitally, as publishers have the right to remove them. We’ve seen digital storefronts shut down, preventing us from downloading the games we paid for.
This opens up a debate about owning things digitally (as opposed to physically), which does mean you have to be prepared to lose some content, or in the worst case scenario, lose everything without being able to do anything about it. Now Ubisoft has expressed their opinion on all this and they think it’s time for gamers to get used to not owning any video games.
exist GamesIndustry In an interview with subscription service Ubisoft+, their director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay talked about owning video games:
“One of the things we’ve seen is that gamers have gotten used to, kind of like DVDs, owning and owning their games. That’s the consumer shift that needs to happen. They’re comfortable not owning their own CD collection or their own DVD collection. This transition happens a bit slowly (in the game). As gamers get more comfortable with this… you won’t lose your progress. If you continue the game at another time, your progress will It’s still there. The content hasn’t been removed. You don’t lose what you built into the game, and you don’t lose your participation in the game. So it’s about the feeling of not owning your game.
I still have two boxes of DVDs. I definitely understand the gamers’ perspective. But when people embrace this model, they will see that these games will exist, the services will continue to exist, and you will be able to access them when you need them. This is reassuring.
Ultimately, Discovery and Sony resolved any licensing issues they had and delayed the removal of all Discovery video material from the PlayStation Store by 30 months – which could mean the issue will resurface in two and a half years.
What do you think about all this, is Ubisoft on to something, or is it simply a tragedy that a generation of gamers are now growing up without games? This means that when they grow up, they won’t have retro consoles to remember their childhoods with, and we all risk losing everything if online support for older formats or online stores is shut down.