this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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[–] LoamImprovement@beehaw.org 7 points 9 months ago

Actually, I do tend to buy my games when they're available (and affordable) on the platforms I already use, but I've also sailed the high seas just because I didn't feel like paying $70 for a game that I didn't think was worth $70 and offered no demo for me to confirm my suspicions, or that was platform-exclusive on a platform that I don't use.

I think the thing is, if I could buy a file and know that I would own it in perpetuity, and while the company that sold it to me still existed, would offer the best support they could for it, I'd be a lot more amicable to the prospect of curating a legal digital library. But the way it is now, with exclusivity deals, licensing terms, intrusive DRM, Fomo bonuses, and the implication that pirating old unsupported software is a crime just because whoever owns the rights might decide to repackage it and lease it to you again and again, if they feel like it?

And keep in mind, these are the same ghouls who insist on making live service games, adding loot boxes and micro transactions, just to prey on the most susceptible people. They're responsible for good talent leaving or retiring just because they get in the way of people who want to make good games, which would be profitable, but maybe not as profitable as the shareholders want them to be. ZA/UM got eaten from within, Arkane withered down to nothing because they were forced to make a live service game, I can't count how many studios got tanked or cannibalized by EA and Blizzard/Activision. Corporate is a cancer.