Current Events > ?do you actually own a game if you buy digital

(+) Yeah! (+)

discuss.

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Technically no.

Nah fam. You getting scammed if you don't have physical

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I don't really care. I would get extreme OCD over the slightest speck of dust to touch my discs so digital is the best thing that's ever happened to gaming for me

I don't know. I mean technically you pay a license to play physical too. if devs really wanted to, they can make any of any of their games unplayable with a patch.

But they won't.

if it's online only game , you are screwed. And online multi won't last forever.

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Do you own a complete game when a system goes offline these days? Or just a rough draft of the game before it got fixed? We're fucked either way.

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First-sale Doctrine is a hell of a drug

Yes and I don't really care about technical intricacies. The publisher isn't going to undownload my digital games, I'm keeping them, they're mine. I own them and that's good enough for me.

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Wetterdew posted...

Yes and I don't really care about technical intricacies. The publisher isn't going to undownload my digital games, I'm keeping them, they're mine. I own them and that's good enough for me.

Yyyyyeah, except there are a bunch of games from previous gen that straight cant be downloaded anymore, even if you bought them.

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God_Of_Entirety posted...

Yyyyyeah, except there are a bunch of games from previous gen that straight cant be downloaded anymore, even if you bought them.

And if you bought a physical game but lost / broke the disc, you can't reobtain that either, nor buy another one (easily) in many cases - though back at the time you might possibly have been able to get the devs to send you a replacement disc. Likewise with a digital game, you might not be able to redownload it at some point, but if you've already downloaded it that's more or less the same as already owning (and keeping) a physical copy.

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It's a matter of degrees, innit. Technically you only own a license in either case.
But yes, I'd say you own the game to a higher degree with a physical copy
I don't really care myself though, I'm not worried about having my digital collection taken away because I'm a PC guy and I can simply "reacquire" any game that gets removed from my account if that happens

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Trumble posted...

And if you bought a physical game but lost / broke the disc

yeah, you lost the argument

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I don't have a problem with digital on PC, but both Sony and Nintendo have done things that make me plan to never buy digital on console again.

Microsoft has been great though.

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yeah its in our minds

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ssjevot posted...

I don't have a problem with digital on PC, but both Sony and Nintendo have done things that make me plan to never buy digital on console again.

Microsoft has been great though.

almost all of my games from the 360 era are "no longer available" for download and I have to buy the disc. just tried it the other day with db raging blast 2 for instance.

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What the fuck is ownership anyway?

If you pay for a game on a friend's console, who owns the game?

Also if you illegally download or mod games onto a console, does that make you any less of an owner of those games?

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Wii_Shaker posted...

If you pay for a game on a friend's console, who owns the game?

the person whose bank statement it shows up on.

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Wii_Shaker posted...

Also if you illegally download or mod games onto a console, does that make you any less of an owner of those games?

Nope. You took what you wanted.

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either case, you own the game.

difference is that you dont have to deal with the hassle of collecting game cases when you go digital so they occupy space and collect dust... lol

you dont own it if MS or whoever just decides to no longer host the game for download even if you bought it. you're technically renting when you buy digital.

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if i can play it, i own it

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sometimes don't movies that people bought full price on itunes just disappear from their libraries because of apple licensing or something

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Nukazie posted...

if i can play it, i own it

derp

AlphaCuck posted...

sometimes don't movies that people bought full price on itunes just disappear from their libraries because of apple licensing or something

yeah looks like we're agreed they're renting.

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If I can install and play it whenever I want on whatever system that supports it, then yes, I own it.

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If there is no DRM then objectively yes.

Physical games are digital games stored on physical media to begin with.

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No, and its bullshit

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Aressar posted...

If I can install and play it whenever I want on whatever system that supports it, then yes, I own it.

No you don't.

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A lot of advantages to digital, you know you have a game, great deals pop up for digital.

Biggest disadvantage however... you will never get a return on that. Back in the day when we were done with a console we could go trade everything in to get the new one. Console users who still buy everything physical can still do that. I'm on PC, everything I get is digital. I'm stuck with it once I have it.

As far as owning it, no we don't. However, it doesn't matter too much. None of these store fronts (Steam, origin, epic, etc) would be able to get away from cutting off any of their community from the games they've purchased. ANd if they did, the communities would come up with workarounds to give you access back to your games, of that I am certain. Of course I'm talking about PC. Something like this happens on console you guys might have a hard time.

JimmyFraska posted...

Something like this happens on console you guys might have a hard time.

Better pray to god the game you want isnt rare or something, otherwise you're paying like 40 for an old ass game that you already bought years ago.

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God_Of_Entirety posted...

No you don't.

If I bought the rights to download and play it whenever I want, I objectively own it as much as I own everything else that's installed on my PC, regardless of whether I bought it digitally or physically.

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Where do you see that you bought the right to play it whenever you want?

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If you have a game's file(s), you own the game. This is the case when you buy games on GOG

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God_Of_Entirety posted...

Where do you see that you bought the right to play it whenever you want?

That's what I pay for when I buy it, and that's ehat I get. If the deal is I get to install it only once and/or only get to play it a limited amount of time, then fuck that deal.

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Aressar posted...

That's what I pay for when I buy it, and that's ehat I get.

That's what you think. You're renting from their servers.
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Aressar posted...

That's basically the same as streaming as opposed to downloading

Bro, streaming gaming already exists if you wanted to use this comparison.
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Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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Aressar posted...

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

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God_Of_Entirety posted...

Yyyyyeah, except there are a bunch of games from previous gen that straight cant be downloaded anymore, even if you bought them.

I already downloaded them to my system.

I don't have to download it ever again, so it's irrelevant to me whether I can or can't. I already have it, and I'm keeping it as long as I want. They're already on my system and it's never leaving.

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It gets hazy with the subject of console servers, but still yes.

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Wetterdew posted...

I don't have to download it ever again

I guess you use the same console until the end of time. Good for you.

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God_Of_Entirety posted...

I guess you use the same console until the end of time.

If history has shown us anything, right about the time hardware aging becomes a substantial issue, "other means" have matured.

God_Of_Entirety posted...

I guess you use the same console until the end of time. Good for you.

your comment as a reply to my comment doesn't make any sense

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On GOG you do.

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God_Of_Entirety posted...

yeah, you lost the argument

Not at all, because in the same way you can preserve a physical game by not losing the disc, you can preserve a digital game by not losing a storage device that it's stored on. Except that you can back your digital game up to multiple storage devices (and redownload it up until the time the servers are taken down), whereas with physical it's one copy and if you lose it you're fucked.

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God_Of_Entirety posted...

you dont own it if MS or whoever just decides to no longer host the game for download even if you bought it. you're technically renting when you buy digital.

that is the same with physical nowadays. all you own is a disc that is a key that still download digital copy. imagine no internet access then you cannot update the game to play it either!

technology getting better

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Dark_SilverX posted...

that is the same with physical nowadays. all you own is a disc that is a key that still download digital copy. imagine no internet access then you cannot update the game to play it either!

technology getting better

That's so bizarre but it seems to be true for Xbox and PlayStation (not Nintendo)

Anyway yes you own your digital games.

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No you don't.

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You don't own shit if it's digital. All you have is a license to play it.

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Alucard188 posted...

You don't own shit if it's digital. All you have is a license to play it.

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No, I lost like $1,000+ of games when my PSN account decided to start acting funny out of nowhere. That said, do you really own physical games either? They can break, degrade, etc. The reason I started buying digital in the first place was because the Blu-Ray drive on my PS4 crapped out.

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