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Great buildup on Sony's side to gain trust in this move in the gaming community ahead of this announcement when just this week they again pulled hundreds of "pu
by fcsp 3mo ago
Great buildup on Sony's side to gain trust in this move in the gaming community ahead of this announcement when just this week they again pulled hundreds of "purchased" movies from customer's libraries without refund, reminding everyone that digital content is rented, not owned.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/sony-erases-digital-content-from-libraries-were-reminded-we-dont-own-what-we-buy/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/sony-erases-digital-...
- Marcan 3mo agoAnd don't forget closing the PS3 and Vita Playstation stores, which they announced at the same time: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/an-update-on-playstation-store-for-ps3-and-ps-vita/ https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/an-update-on-playsta... This is a weird marketing strategy. They must feel free to do as they please since they know consumers are trapped.
- dogwalker5000 3mo ago> they know consumers are trapped. Gaming is a luxury good. We can all just walk away.
- NegativeLatency 3mo agoPlenty of PC games, the linux distros that run steam are great too!
- Pxtl 3mo agoJust because valve is a benevolent dictator doesn't mean they don't already have the same dictatorship powers that Sony is currently chiseling out for themselves. I wish NFTs had taken off as a system for managing decentralized transferrable digital purchases instead of being another investment scam.
- brendoelfrendo 3mo agoAn NFT is superfluous here. If you buy a digital copy, and someone gives you DRM-free files that you can copy and run anywhere you'd like, you have about as much ownership as you can get over a digital good. In this case, an NFT would just serve as an entry in a crypto ledger that you bought the game... which is an alternative to running a digital storefront and tying game purchases to an account, but it doesn't really change the fact that you can only redownload something for so long as it is hosted at the place where you bought it.
- Pxtl 3mo agoI mean the NFT as a means of implementing standardized DRM instead of letting companies roll their own copyright laws.
- RIMR 3mo agoAt least with a PC you have control over the system. You're even freer with Valve because now have the ease of using Linux. My entire Steam library is backed up to LTO tapes. I can get most everything running without needing Steam. I will continue to support this business model, because I retain the power to own the system and the data.
- tremon 3mo ago> I can get most everything running without needing Steam. I thought most Steam games relied on remote activation/verification? Can you install and run them on a non-networked machine? If not, your LTO tapes are close to worthless because Valve (or its buyer) can still pull the same trick that Sony did here, with the same effect.
- saghm 3mo agoI'm not positive whether this is what they're referring to, but you can add external games to your Steam library. This is how the Steam Deck is able to run arbitrary games without needing to be in desktop mode, and the most straightforward way to run Windows games via Proton on Linux even if you obtained them elsewhere.
- prmoustache 3mo agoCan you backup steam games and run them without steam?
- craftkiller 3mo agoMany of them, yes. It's up to the individual publisher whether they want to release their game DRM-free on steam. https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games_on_Steam https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_g... If you want to guarantee that you can backup your PC games and run them without a client, then there is always https://www.gog.com/ https://www.gog.com/
- JoeAltmaier 3mo agoSo are cigarettes and liquor. And pot and on and on.
- galleywest200 3mo agoThe vast majority of goods are luxury goods.
- kjkjadksj 3mo agoInsurance will tell you teeth are as well.
- mapontosevenths 3mo agoLuxury bones.
- lenerdenator 3mo agoThe writing has been on the wall for a decade now for gaming being a purely rental-driven, consumer-antagonistic segment of the software market. People have been talking about "walking away" for at least that long. The soles of those walking shoes are as thick and un-worn as they've ever been.
- Loughla 3mo agoI'm old enough to remember when people bemoaned the death of physical media, and saw Steam as the death of PC gaming. Like all things, this too shall pass.
- someonebaggy 3mo agoYes. The new generation will grow up without ever owning any media, and will not be able to conceive of the idea of owning media.
- PaulHoule 3mo agoI play Arknights on my iPad but that's the one live service game I have anything to do with.
- dogwalker5000 3mo agoIf you decide to buy into Sony’s future, make sure you do it with your eyes wide open. Unlike Valve who has never taken away what people have bought without a refund (to my knowledge), Sony doesn’t deserve that benefit of the doubt: https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/this-should-be-illegal-sony-is-deleting-over-500-movies-that-people-bought-from-their-digital-libraries-just-proving-further-why-4k-blu-rays-popularity-keeps-growing https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/this-shoul...
- MindSpunk 3mo agoReminder that Valve's liberal refund policy only exists because they were sued by the Australian government.
- bogwog 3mo agoWalking away from the closed platform you invested hundreds/thousands of dollars into over the years is a luxury (especially if you were mislead into buying a PS5 with a disc drive thinking it'd be supported at least until the end of the product's lifespan) Monopolies, anti-competitive behavior, and anti-consumer behavior in general are all bad bad bad. You have to be a very interesting individual to disagree with that.
- hnlmorg 3mo ago> especially if you were mislead into buying a PS5 with a disc drive thinking it'd be supported at least until the end of the product's lifespan 8 years is roughly the lifespan for a games console though. And I say this as someone who hates Sony perhaps more than most, having lived through their the CD rootkit and PS3 OtherOS debacles. And been burned by their substandard yet overpriced audio equipment.
- xandrius 3mo agoGame consoles are not biological beasts which decay as a matter of nature or fact. They are tools, toys, they are devices. I can still play my PS1 as before, I just need to pop in a CD and I'm good to go.
- hnlmorg 3mo agoYou’re conflating two completely different things. I’m a retro gamer. I have around 20 systems all hooked up and ready to play from the Atari 2600 through to modern systems like the PS4. In fact I bet I have systems you hadn’t even heard of, and machines that are older than you are. So I know better than most that consoles can live for decades. But that’s not what people mean when they talk about a consoles life. What that term means is the period of time that a console is the current generation (and yes, “generation” is the technical term here and not something I made up). Also decay isn’t a phenomenon exclusive to biology. Plenty of things which aren’t organic can have a life and decay, even though we know they’re not technically a life form. For example stars. But even technology can decay. Capacitors and batteries are the biggest two killers of old technology, and common problems I’ve had to repair in my old hardware. The laser in your PS1 is also a consumable. I’ve had to replace the laser in my PS1 for that very reason. Solder can crack. Any moving parts like motors, fans, and CD/DVD trays can seize up over time too. There’s also sun-bleaching that happens to white and grey casing too, which is thankfully a very easy fix.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- spicymaki 3mo agoExactly. Nothing is going to get better until consumers realize they have the power (at least for now).
- fcsp 3mo agoWell it's just for new sales, access to purchased content remains "for the foreseeable future". How long the future is foreseeable for Sony? Might want to ask the Concord team maybe.
- snovymgodym 3mo agoI mean the PS3 was launched in 2006. The fact that the PS store has still been supported on the console for this long is kind of incredible.
- dear-leader 3mo agoThe PS store enables spending money on the platform. It’s gotta be incredibly easy to justify server expenses for that.
- neilv 3mo ago> This is a weird marketing strategy. They must feel free to do as they please since they know consumers are trapped. I've been on PlayStation family since PS2, and used to think I was married to it, with my game library and my player character stuff/gear/creations in various games. But the platform no longer lets me play many of those games, anyway, whether due to console gen or server shutdowns. And nobody cares about my PlayStation gamer score or trophies. So there's little tying me to the platform for the next game I buy. Sony, please don't make me move to "Linux" gaming, via Valve/GOG/Epic (since I don't want to endorse Microsoft hegemony over the low-level gaming "standard"). PlayStation should be a beloved brand and platform that can be trusted to keep games working -- not one that throws away history, nostalgia, and community. You already impose rules on publishers, so this is within your power. Related: Project Aces, I was fairly highly ranked in a couple of the Ace Combat installments, but when you shut down the servers, you took away what I'd invested in. I reluctantly bought AC7, but found I didn't have the heart to invest in it, just to have it taken away again, and I won't be buying AC8 nor anything else in the franchise.
- hnlmorg 3mo agoServer shutdowns are a problem regardless of the platform. There used to be a time when PC games allowed you to connect to random servers. These days Minecraft is the only one that still allows it. And even there, Microsoft go hard on the upselling of their Realms. Some studios kill their servers after just a couple of years. Even for games that are online first.
- neilv 3mo agoIs this a place Sony could differentiate from other platforms? Contractually require (and technologically support) that the servers are kept running for n years after the last sale, for example?
- someonebaggy 3mo agoThis week a Microsoft representative told Congress that all Minecraft servers except the ones sponsored by Microsoft are illegal piracy.
- PaulHoule 3mo agoI made a decision to get away from other consoles and only invest in Steam a while ago. In the 2010s I was a big Vita player but Sony backed away from investing in the Vita and I saw that the kind of Japanese games I liked were coming out on Steam so I sold my Vita.
- eru 3mo agoSteam has been (mostly) a good citizen. But there's not much in the way of legal or technical hurdles to them going down the same path. It's all goodwill and reputation. I hope it's enough.
- mjevans 3mo agoIf steam ever goes up in smoke, there will be infinite justification to never trust download only ever again.
- eru 3mo agoGoG deliberately comes without DRM, so that's still good.
- fluoridation 3mo agoYou can at least make local backups of your Steam games. If a game is removed such that you can't even download it anymore, you can always just install it manually.
- dtech 3mo agoSteam has DRM,so no. Easily cracked yes, but then you can just go the full pirate route.
- Hikikomori 3mo agoOptional DRM, but essentially on by default. Could maybe consider it malicious compliance as its so easy to bypass but still allows them to check the DRM checkbox.
- II2II 3mo ago> They must feel free to do as they please since they know consumers are trapped. My take is somewhat difference: Sony is offloading the cost of their prior decisions onto consumers. For things like movies, they should have negotiated a contract where sold copies are sold copies and cannot be revoked (even if their right to sell/rent copies lapse). For things like the PS3 store, it cannot be run indefinitely. That said, from my understanding, the authorization keys expire if the clock battery on the PS3 dies. That should not be permitted. I don't think that this is a "do as they please" situation. I think it is a case of bad decisions being made in the past. For some, like the movies, there isn't much they can do to fix the problem after the fact. There is absolutely no incentive for the rights holders to let consumers continue to access previously purchased content (especially with Sony taking all of the blame). Even something like offering refunds to people who purchased the movies is problematic. In all probability, all of their contracts have similar terms. They would have to refund everyone for every purchase in the long run. Other stuff, like access to PS3 purchases, are likely fixable. The question is: where is the incentive? They could create a patch for old consoles, but it would only affect a small number of customers who still have those consoles. (Worse yet, it wouldn't do anything for those who stored their consoles in the closet -- only to pull it out later to discover the authorization keys are invalid.) The math probably doesn't work out for them so they aren't going to do it.
- rubyfan 3mo ago> They would have to refund everyone for every purchase in the long run. That is the minimum they should do. At best they should offer the movie collections for free through competitors.
- reactordev 3mo agoSony is dead to me now.
- protocolture 3mo agoParasocial relationship with corporation update from love to hate.
- pseudosavant 3mo agoAnd it doesn't have to be this way. I started buying Xbox games digitally for the Xbox 360, and with their backwards compatibility that ended up being a great choice. My current XSX plays games for the last 3 generations of digital purchases I've made.
- raxxorraxor 3mo agoIn the long run I think consoles might get replaced to "consolerized" PCs (they are already technically, but I guess we might see more advanced software environments like steam boxes). Neither Sony nor Microsoft had a consumer orientation and they will likely loose against the competition. Physical media was a method to have a "plug & play" game, although that changed in recent times. With that I don't think classic consoles can compete, especially with their new price points.
- musicale 3mo agoMany Switch / Switch 2 games can still be played offline with just the game card.
- binsquare 3mo agoSony also used to mock digital only approaches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA Now at a time when memory and storage prices are at an all time high - they pull a move that directly hurts the customer.
- Dylan16807 3mo agoThe storage price isn't really an issue. For the average game it's probably $2 of storage on a hard drive when it's not currently installed on your console. And digital versions see discounts more often. I'd say screwing up ownership is a much bigger issue.
- donkey_oaty 3mo agoI remember when the ps3 released Sony mocked controller rumble as a 'last gen feature'. Now their haptic feedback is the only distinguishing feature of their console.
- extraduder_ire 3mo agoIf you're only counting ones not on their previous consoles. How easy it is to disassemble and clean is a change from prior playstations too.
- musicale 3mo ago> Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video this is how you don't share games on playstation :(
- rdschouw 3mo agoAlso let us not forget the rootkit malware Sony BMG distributed on their audio CDs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootk...
- MoonWalk 3mo agoIf you hadn't brought that up, I would have. Sony should not be let off the hook for its offensive (essentially criminal) behavior. I won't even review Sony's decades-long efforts to undermine industry standards...
- minitech 3mo agoDigitally rented content is rented. My music via Bandcamp/iTunes, my games from their developers’ websites/itch.io/GOG, and my ebooks are owned (for the purposes of the “owned”/“rented” distinction people are making here). Not all physical things are owned, either. Wrong distinction. We can ask for better with respect to digital.
- musicale 3mo agoThis is a very good point. DRM is not the same as digital. There doesn't seem to be a lot of clarity though around reselling digital downloads the way there is with physical media (first sale doctrine, etc.)
- pseudosavant 3mo agoThe sad reality of DRM is that only rentals and subscriptions can honestly be done with it. You can guarantee access to a subscription library (Netflix, Xbox Game Pass, etc) for 30 days. You cannot guarantee access 30+ years in the future. And selling access like that is just a lie.
- mchusma 3mo agoI do think if you are claiming something is not permanent you should basically have to make some specific claims about the timeliness of it (eg you can use it for at least 10 years or your money back).
- secretslol 3mo agoUtterly brazen they are. You'd think they'd be keeping a low profile after the pulled all of those movies, but no - they are doubling down on the asshattery.
- ChrisRR 3mo agoIt probably reduces the amount of media attention if they do it all at once instead of spreading it out over months
- sylware 3mo agoThis is fraud: they all know what 'to buy' means to own and they are abusing people with it. A less scammy terminology must be setup then.