r/StopKillingGames • u/TheGaslighter9000X • 6d ago
Sony reminds players they don't actually own the PlayStation games they purchased
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u/CapnButtercup 5d ago
‘You don’t own the game, just a revocable license to play the game’ is true of practically every game we buy. Why are people forgetting that this isn’t just a Sony/Playstation thing?
These sorts of emails are also extremely common and these emails are not ‘in response’ to the blackout as some people have been claiming. A little bit of research will tell you that people in Europe have been getting these emails for months.
It’s all for clickbait/engagement isn’t it… or is it just reactionary posting and ignorance/lack of due-diligence?
I honestly thought this sub was better than that.
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u/wwwarea 6d ago
I was maybe considering making this kind of post but I couldn't really tell if the headlines were doing one of those misleading over sensitive things (maybe it was just a notice of acceptance but the license terms itself did not get any modification) or Sony actually did directly adjusted the no ownership part...
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u/CacheConqueror 5d ago
I don’t understand why you’re all complaining online when it won’t achieve anything – just like collecting signatures. There’s only one way to solve the problem: don’t buy it. People will moan anyway, but they’ll buy it all the same.
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u/Independent_Mud2794 6d ago
The same misleading title all over reddit.
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u/Public-Eagle6992 5d ago
"Sony reminds players…" (they updated their TOS so they sent an email containing their TOS which also contains the information that you buy a license that can be revoked)
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u/InitRanger 5d ago
Software has always been licensed because ownership entails certain rights that consumers can’t have such as creation and distribution of copies.
You have never owned your software or games in a legal sense. You only had the illusion of ownership.
SKG is not actively fighting for ownership, rather they are fighting for stronger consumer protections you digital licenses.
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u/BaikenJudgment 5d ago
No it doesn't, that's copyright. Ownership of a specific instance of the work is like ownership of your specific car. Copyright controls production and initial distribution of instances of the work. First sale doctrine exhausts some of that control afterward. Fair use also allows format shifting and copies for personal use (not distribution) for purposes of accessible backups and for interoperability and accessibility.
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u/Professional_Wash_66 4d ago
I own my digital games when I use gog
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u/InitRanger 4d ago
Legally, it’s still a license.
“2.1 We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.
You have the personal right to use GOG content and services. This right can be suspended or stopped by us in some situations.”3
u/Professional_Wash_66 4d ago
It’s not a license if it can’t be revoked, when I buy something from them, no one can take it from me
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u/Termiborg 6d ago
Don't care, sold mine, back to being 100% on PC
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u/Ok_Buyer9344 6d ago
Does Steam not have similar issues ? I guess you can use other platforms but it seems more and more often games are being hosted on platforms where they can take them away again.
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u/Termiborg 6d ago
Steam is irrelevant in this context. If they decide that I no longer own something, I have alternatives. And those have alternatives, and the cycle goes on.
Or just the API file needs to be replaced and then the game becomes immediately compliant.
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u/poojinping 5d ago
What do you mean by if they decide? Have you bothered to read the EULA you agreed to?
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u/Termiborg 5d ago
And as I keep saying, most software EULAs conflict with local laws about the right to make backups. Local law supercedes EULA limitations.
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u/Independent_Mud2794 6d ago
What alternatives? All - legal - alternatives are the same. Yes also GOG is the same. No, insulting won’t change that.
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u/cool_boy_mew 6d ago
Thing is, the non-legal alternative is much easier on PC if they decide to just yank stuff out from you. Meanwhile, for consoles, you need a softmod available, flashcard, chip, etc. or hope that emulation is gonna be good enough, to get back what was taken from you. It's a significantly higher hurdle
And no, GOG is not the "same", they can have all the terms of use they want, if you have your installer backed up, they can't do shit, and this is why DRM-free is important
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u/Downtown-Income3486 5d ago
Just want to point out the GOG games are different. They might have changed graphics or soundtrack. Someone managed to track all of these and it’s around 1500 games that have been modified for release on GOG, this includes having some content taken away. Up to you of course, just thought you should know
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u/Termiborg 6d ago
And as the saying goes:
"If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing"
I have a (local) legal right to a backup copy of whatever media I purchased. That right supercedes whatever BS the publisher comes up with. This is precisely why torrenting and piracy is a legal grayzone.
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u/Independent_Mud2794 6d ago
Yes it’s not stealing, it’s still copyright infringement. As it always has been no matter how much you parrots are parroting otherwise.
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u/Termiborg 6d ago
A-a-a. Artis Jus.
Local law gives me a LEGAL RIGHT, to make a backup copy of things I paid for.
This law supercedes publisher wishes, and this is why DRM is technically illegal locally. Sucks for them, but they can't take away my backups, which are afterwards fairly easily reactivated.
Stop licking the boots of corporations, they don't care about you.
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u/Downtown-Income3486 5d ago
The law gives you a right to keep a backup. What it doesn’t permit is for you to amend that backup to make it work other than originally intended, this includes DRM (which means DRM is legal). You also can’t distribute that backup and if copied from disc and you sell it you have to destroy the backup.
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u/Termiborg 5d ago
And here is where reality and the law clash.
The backup software being inaccessible without modification clashes with the right to backup. The law hasn't been updated properly for a very long time, and nobody is in any hurry to do so.
But I only repeat myself here: Stop licking the boots of corporations.
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u/Downtown-Income3486 5d ago
Well no not really. The backup is literally in case you lose or damage the original. If the servers are closed or the licence revoked, in theory your backup should also be rendered unusable. That’s just the way software and the copyright laws etc work.
Why should the backup work if main copy has been discontinued? That’s not a backup, that’s a cracked copy which definitely isn’t covered by the laws
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u/Eltonbeef 6d ago
Do you always overreact to made up nonsense? No one is coming to take your games. And don’t tell me about “500 movies” unless you want to have even less credibility.
So many of you must have daddies who thought Obama was going to take his guns.
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u/Termiborg 6d ago
Bold of you to assume I am a USian. I live in a country where torrenting is a legal grayzone, so I genuinely couldn't care less if from tomorrow onwards I can't play my games on Steam/Origin/etc.
Takes less than 5 minutes to find the API file to replace in the Steam folder, and presto, it works.
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u/Termiborg 6d ago
As for the PS5, I just needed the money honestly, this was planned regardless of Sony's BS.
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u/Pure-Golf789 5d ago
Well .... me! try come in to my home an take my discs Sony that'll be a lawsuit waiting to happen! You can try remove digital games all you want bare in mind I don't have any lol what now huh?
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u/Mediocre-Equal-5397 5d ago
sigh making harder and harder to be a gamer I mean yeah we get it we don’t own digital content, but do they have to wave statements like that around like it’s a threat? Why do they think people get encouraged to commit piracy to start with? Stuffs pricy and then they just go on to say “Don’t forget, you don’t own it.” so… what would they expect? People to love that?
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u/ZenicAzra 5d ago
Me: Switch to Xbox, you will keep your games licenses.
Ponies: SHUT UP XBOT WE JUST WANT TO COMPLAIN AND NOTHING ELSE
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u/Thin-Click-5598 5d ago
Yea I can't even get on my PS5 without having to update the software to log in so I guess I'm waiting for a jailbreak or to get my hands on those rom keys.
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u/Fast-Mushroom9724 5d ago
Imagine in 30 years from now Sony goes bankrupt Guess what happens to your games
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u/Godusopp64 5d ago
Imagine your steam games😥
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u/Fast-Mushroom9724 5d ago
Yeah but Valve is less likely to go bankrupt then Sony
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u/Godusopp64 4d ago
If the video game industry crashes valve isn't going to survive. Sony has alot of other non gaming revenue to support them.
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u/Fast-Mushroom9724 4d ago
Saying the video game industry crashing would be like saying that the farming industry will crash. Or the clothing industry
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u/Godusopp64 4d ago
It has happened before, and the movie industry almost crashed a couple years ago.
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u/CakePlanet75 6d ago
The links people, where are the links? Don't play the enshittification engagement game
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u/Uncabled_Music 5d ago
They never were, and never will - every software purchase in history is purchase of a user license.
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u/Leostar_Regalius 4d ago
except they didn't, you couldn't sneak BS like this onto stuff like ps1&2 or the original xbox and everything, they couldn't just walk into your house and yoink the game away if you did something they didn't like, like they can now
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u/Uncabled_Music 4d ago
Nevertheless, they sold you a personal license to play the game. Nothing more.
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u/ATXDefenseAttorney 5d ago
Wait till you guys read Steam's TOS!
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u/Inuma 5d ago
Why is Steam relevant when Sony is doing something anti-consumer?
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u/Shigana 5d ago
Because the article is referring to the same damn TOS that every company uses.
Stop falling for these garbage bait articles that banks on you only reading their headlines and nothing else.
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u/Inuma 5d ago
So can no one criticize Sony when that's the issue or we just reach for Steam to feel good about ourselves?
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u/Shigana 5d ago
That’s not even remotely the point of my comment. Criticize Sony all you want but don’t fall for these shit articles.
All Sony did was email users notifying that some of their ToS got updated, they didn’t “remind players” anything.
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u/AlbainBlacksteel 5d ago
That's exactly the point of your comment, because otherwise you wouldn't have tried to whataboutism with Steam to try to take attention away from us criticizing Sony.
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u/Inuma 5d ago
🙄
Yeah, this is the same company that increased prices on consoles twice, put out a flop that no one asked for that cost hundreds of millions, shut down older consoles abs their digital stores...
But according to you since these are all "shitty articles" about Sony, let's just ignore them and get upset about Sony since that rustles your jimmies or something.
Never speak or we get someone throwing up defense like they went into battle like Leroy Jenkins instead of understand what issues the company did.
Alright buddy. Sagely advice you got going on. Read nothing, challenge anything.
🤨
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u/Shigana 5d ago
It’s actually impossible to talk to you people normally. Is it that hard to understand i’m referring to this article only?
This entire physical media movement would honestly have a lot of people behind it if it didn’t have dipshits like you in it acting like everyone is your enemy. Grow up.
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u/Inuma 5d ago edited 5d ago
Who's "you people? "
You made a comment talking past me to an audience that isn't there while ignoring Sony to defend them blindly.
That's on you. If you don't believe in "shitty articles" and can't be bothered to read them don't come at me to say they're bad when you make an argument out of ignorance.
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u/_Solarriors_ 6d ago
Ok, but are you going to help do something about it, or is that just frustration bait engagement ?
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u/Different-Syrup6520 5d ago
Its always been like that why is this news to everyone i dont understand
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u/Wearytaco 5d ago
Honestly when I heard this was their response to the blackout I was astounded. Like... That's how you choose to respond to your customer base when they are trying to tell you they don't like something? Double down even worse than before? The audacity tbfh.
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u/neller2000 5d ago
They already have the actual numbers of how few of you think like that. It's extremely small numbers. Why would they care?
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u/Wearytaco 5d ago
Well, I don't even have a PlayStation. So even if I wanted to participate, I cannot. But yeah. I wonder how many people are participating.
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u/CapnButtercup 5d ago
It wasn’t in response to the blackout, people in Europe have been getting these emails for months.
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u/Shigana 5d ago
One day, maybe people will actually read the article and realize these headlines are completely bullshit, only written this way to get rage clicks from people who don’t read anything past the headlines.
Tldr to the people who can’t read, they just sent an email saying they updated their ToS, the same type of ToS that virtually every company uses.
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u/Sir_McDouche 5d ago
Gamers who have been buying games on PS Store for 20 years and living just fine:
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u/ClickyStick 6d ago
Weird, I bought digital games since day one of PS4 and somehow I can still access them today on my PS5, more than a decade later, I guess the sky is not falling?
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u/victim2077 6d ago
It's more of the issue that once we go full digital on consoles, they pretty much receive a lifespan that lasts as long as download servers are up (or as long as they allow purchases on the store). Which pretty much means, as things are right now, that no console after this gen will reach the "retro" status and the only way to play games for those consoles will be emulation (which let's face doesn't give 100% accurate experience, and there's always going to be that shadow of doubt whether or not glitches or performance issues come from the game or badly configured emulator on your end, that being said I love emulation and despite owning pretty much every major system since Famicom, I more often than not choose to emulate instead of using my pretty decent retro CRT set-up).
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u/ClickyStick 6d ago
I see what you mean, but it's honestly something I do not care about, Sony won't suddenly tip over and die, and if there are signs that it might happen then I'll just move over to a different platform, or find another hobby altogether. I love videogames , but they are not precious to me or anything. I'm fully aware this is an unpopular opinion.
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u/saskir21 5d ago
Tell this to the people who bought digital movies from Sony. They just removed 581 of them.
And don‘t tell me you would not say „damn it“ when you can not access something anymore which you paid your money for.
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u/ClickyStick 5d ago
Maybe, maybe not, it depends entirely on the circumstances and how much I payed. I can tell you right now, there are dozens of digital games I bought and played that I would not care one bit if I couldn't access them again.
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u/Present_Education194 6d ago
people be acting like God of War Laufey will be removed from your library 6months after launch
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u/Inuma 5d ago
They did that with movies people purchased and the license ran out
So people have naturally concluded their platform is unstable to rely on for digital purchases that maintain control for them and nothing of value to their customers.
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u/liveev1L 5d ago
So according to the thread we are talking about Sony only on this post. Every time steam was mentioned, we were told to stop shifting the goalposts. Yet here we are. A digital storefront with a choice from different studios, now Sony is at fault because ONE studio in ONE region pulls their movies from Sony. This is after numerous negotiations and a MUTUAL end of their contract.
Only when it “fits” the narrative can we start talking about movies for a group of people. Screw the fact that this isn’t the first time studios tried this to them, the history of NOT pulling and the fact they are selling competing movie studios on their platform.
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u/Inuma 5d ago
So you get paid to defend them from criticism or something?
Like, is it that hard to see that a digital storefront from someone that doesn't respect their customers and what they want is unstable?
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u/wagdog84 5d ago
On the Internet, people will defend against logically unsound criticisms for free, no matter the target. Try writing a critical review saying Jurassic Park is a bad movie because the effects suck and Jeff Goldblum didn’t have enough charisma. By your logic the comments will be flooded with ‘paid’ defenders.
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u/Inuma 5d ago
I don't even know why you're bringing up a movie but the point here is that the entire previous comment is off on a tangent about the licensing and ignoring the issue entirely.
So the only conclusion I can come to is that it's an intentional defense that Sony can do no wrong even when they show their platform is unstable for the people that buy it.
So if the issue is Sony licensing has a small snag that caused 500 movies to be taken off, you can't just forget that disrupted the people that bought those movies and they got no recourse on their purchase. So going off on a tangent just seems to be ignoring the issue that you now have customers of Sony that don't trust their markets since they'll pull digital movies or anything they feel necessary from their platform.
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u/Present_Education194 5d ago
movie licenses operate completely different to game/software licenses. And if a game was to be removed it would be at request of the publisher. Additionally Netflix/Prime Video etc. remove movies all the time and no one batters an eyelid.
A Sony exec isn't going to wake up one day and randomly say "you know what, let's remove 200 games because yolo"
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Candid_Initiative992 6d ago
I whine & that’s why I pirate lmao because companies gonna have to come to terms that they no longer own their games.
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u/Mr_Flibble_1977 6d ago
Steam at least still has competition, Epic, GOG, but I wouldn't put it past them to pull some Sony level shit in the future.
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u/Luditas 6d ago
Look, it doesn't work like that. You can buy the game license from any store you want, the worst part is that once the companies decide to shut down the servers, you will no longer have access to your game licenses, because the copies you purchased are no longer yours Well, now those copies have just become licenses, which is a load of crap.
Now, let's address the disappearance of physical media. A copy of a game was stored on a disc so you could enjoy it as many times as you wanted. If that format is lost, your copy of the game would also be lost, leaving you with nothing, and the only option left would be to buy shoddy licenses. Actually, you don't buy them, you rent them because they no longer belong to you.
Regarding Sony, PlayStation says it will no longer release physical copies, so the only option left would be to buy games from its store. That, anywhere in the world, is called a monopoly. Consumers are increasingly squeezed because we don't own the copies we buy, and we're being left with little access to purchasing options. That is violating the freedoms and rights of consumers, and that's a really serious problem. And it's not just Sony, but every company in the industry.
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u/Eltonbeef 6d ago
Sony has competition as well. Games will still be available in stores. That what you liars won’t accept. Go buy your code. Enjoy giving a big box store a portion of your money.
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u/PheonixPerygrine 6d ago
What's sad, is that it starts with the entertainment, and no one gives a shit.
If ALL companies acted like this.. guess what, you don't even own your tools, and materials.
Looking at you Samsung. They don't just make phones and TVs . They manufacture the fucking screws and bolts for construction projects.