Californian Law Dictates Storefronts Be Honest About Digital Game Ownership

A license to kill your purchase

by · Nintendo Life
Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

A new Californian law will come into effect in 2025 that will effectively force digital storefronts to disclose that buyers don't actually own their digital puchases, but rather simply licensing the content.

Naturally, we suspect that most of our audience will already be aware of this, but it's entirely possible that more casual gamers will not be privy to the way that digital storefronts function. Effectively, then, as reported by The Verge (thanks, Time Extension) digital storefronts will be restricted from using the words "buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good or alongside an option for a time-limited rental."

Unless, that is, that they expressly disclose that users are licensing the content. This disclosure includes ensuring customers are informed that licenses can be revoked at any time and that certain restrictions to purchases may apply. Any violations of this law may result in fines for false advertising.

California Assembly member and bill author Jacqui Irwin stated:

"As retailers continue to pivot away from selling physical media, the need for consumer protections on the purchase of digital media has become increasingly more important. I thank the Governor for signing AB 2426, ensuring the false and deceptive advertising from sellers of digital media incorrectly telling consumers they own their purchases becomes a thing of the past."

Of course, publishers can still revoke access to content at the drop of a hat if they so desire, but this law at least ensures that customers are aware of this potential outcome ahead of time. We can't be certain if this law will have ripple effects to other regions, but we suspect that if companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are forced to change the wording in their respective storefronts, it will be done on a global scale.

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Talking Point What Would Make You Happy To Give Up Physical Games And Go 100% Digital?

Concessions stand

What are your thoughts on this new Californian law? Do you welcome it? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.

[source theverge.com, via timeextension.com]

About Ollie Reynolds

Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry.

Comments 132

Good, so we can own the digital games forever without worrying about being deleted by their server anytime.

It's an interesting development. Be interesting to see how quickly and how far it ripples out and whether it shakes up the digital download experience.

They should just force them to change it to saying we own digital purchases and those purchases are equivalent to physical media.

It's why I won't buy online only games. If it doesn't have a single player mode and goes down with the server, it ain't worth it.

@Anti-Matter I'm not sure you've read it right. This doesn't change your lack of ownership, it just makes it clearer to you that you don't own. Might have a knock-on effect of increasing the use of the Gog-model, but who knows.

Let’s hope this makes some big and positive changes in the digital market. We’ve seen what these massive tech companies have done in the past by shutting down their servers and content being stuck in digital limbo… (cough looking at you Sony cough barring and removing access to movies and games previously purchased on their PSN storefronts cough)

I can't believe I'm forced to agree with the state of California, but at least I now have a legal precedent for calling digital games fake and cringe

I mean... it's a win for consumer transparency, at least.

But this is a major loss for those fighting to ensure we can keep what we pay for in the first place.

@VHSGREMLIN coughcough deleting Concord from ppl's systems coughcough

And this is why I won't get a digital-only console.

@Zeebor15 what’s with folks like you, disparaging California? It’s a rock solid state, provides ample produce and resources for the rest of the country and it’s pretty stable compared to the rest of your country. What gives? You just riding the hate train for no reason?

Nintendo's the only company that's taken away my ability to redownload a game so far. They gave me Tropical Freeze for free via Nintendo Rewards and were like 'nah we want you to buy this on Switch, yoink'. Most companies just don't want new people to buy the old version and delist that version, but that wasn't enough for Nintendo.

It’s all a license. Physical too.

Edit: (Don’t @ me about this. It is a simple statement. Don’t need to be preached at about Physical. Been gaming since ‘88. My physical game library takes up two rooms. I don’t care. 😑)

@CaleBoi25 exactly, that game may have been awful but to remove it from our consoles without our consent is really frightening to be honest.

@Ryu_Niiyama physical can’t be taken away from you unless pulled away by seizure or recall. Once purchased and in your possession, they can’t forcibly take it from you…

@VHSGREMLIN not yet, anyway.
i wouldn't be surprised if corpo AAA publishers are working on that next.

Removed - off-topic

@batmanbud2 erm… California isn’t communist, fella.

@Ryu_Niiyama True, but with physical games it doesn't matter. That physical item is yours and no company can barge into your home and take it away by force.

@Tempestryke that's why I love Splatoon. They actually take time for the singleplayer, especially in the latest two games.

@VHSGREMLIN I didn’t say anything about that. I simply said physical was a license. Which it is.

Remember that for many modern games, buying physical media is not the solution:

  • The box only has a digital code to download the game.
  • There's a disc, but it only has a few files, the actual game must be downloaded and the disc is only a key.
  • Sometimes, only parts of the game are available on disc, you can play without internet, but not the full game.
  • You can play the game without internet with just a disc, but not the good version of the game, because at launch, the game is full of problems and you need to download a patch later or there's a patch since the launch day.
  • Sometimes, the patch is so big that you are almost downloading the whole game.
  • You still need to connect to the internet to buy and download DLC.
  • To play online, you need to download the most recent version.
  • Many games are online-only, require a constant connection to the internet, even on single-player, and to make things worse, the servers often close, making your physical copy a paperweight.

@VHSGREMLIN it was a joke.

California still needs to get their act together, though.

I bought a ton of digital games on my Vita and 3DS back in the day (and later on my my Switch and Steam Deck), but I've never had any issues re-downloading any of them.

Is it mainly an on-line games only issue where servers are shut down when there very little traffic on them? I sincerely hope so.

@VHSGREMLIN everything is overpriced and Silicon valley is the source of everything that has gone wrong in the past 60 years

@batmanbud2 making weird, baseless accusations like that is no joke, fella. You do know many innocent lives and careers were ruined in the past because of guys like yourself falsely accusing them of such things…?

@batmanbud2 Spacious attic space for rent - your head.

@Zeebor15 I wouldn’t blame the state for that. Blame the individual people working on said projects, perhaps.

If you want some real sick pups to blame, start with the greedy ones in the New York stock exchanges and or the political/corporate elite in each state, yes?

I assume once you download a game they can’t really stop you from playing it because it’s on your console.

@Don I imagine it depends how much data is stored in your console or terminal or devices and if there’s steady/consistent access to a dedicated server somewhere?

@VHSGREMLIN Its to be assumed I hate the government when I'm referring to an area by a government name. California looks pretty yes, but being 70% markup over the rest of the country is evil and insulting. 99% of all creative unioj disputes would be solved by cartoonists and voice actors being able to work from some place affordable. And on to your next point, I can hate many things at once. I'm a multi-facited individual. Especially New York City.

@Zeebor15 so much anger and contempt in your heart it seems. Yikes.

@Don Not really, as Steam requires online connectivity every so often to be able to play games and offline mode requires reconnecting to the servers after a certain amount of time.

As for the consoles of today? as long as you don't delete your content from the console, you should be fine. But, future updates and consoles may come with the ability to delete content remotely as Google has done for malicious apps in the past.

A lot of people are talking about "I get to own the content forever". That is not true. What the law mentions is that it tells digital storefronts to tell people upfront that what they are buying is a "license to use" and not a "license to own". This is the whole reason so many people buy physical games, and why Limited Run and similar operations are becoming more popular.

This is something I hope gets changed in the future. I feel like if I purchase anything physical or digital that I have bought it outright and nothing should have the right to take it away. Of course this is idealism, dunno how realistic this is, but I'm old school: my money, my item.

Remember that even with physical media, technically you're not buying the game, you're just buying a license to use it, if buying a Mario game meant you own the game, it not only meant you could make your own copies and sell them, but you could also make your own Mario games.

Internet just allowed ways for the companies to actually take the game away from us after they were sold, and now, while they can't get into your house and take away the physical copy of your game (yet), they can press a button to make your physical copy useless.

they need to get rid of this. digital games arent f2p mobile games

@VHSGREMLIN Im on the internet. Of course I'm full of hate.

@Ryu_Niiyama No one is preaching anything you. They were just being nice and replying. You left a comment in an open comment section. People are free to reply to whatever you said.

What point were you trying to make by stating it anyways?

@Zeebor15 Good. Good. Let the hate flow through you.

Isn’t this just logic? Of course it should say if you own the game you buy. This shouldn’t even have to be a new law lol, surprised California of all states was the first to do this

Nowhere near good enough. The law needs to specify that ownership of the digital product is with the consumer, and must mandate that any removal of digital products from storefronts requires a full and complete refund to all owners of said products.

@GooseLoose1 The point I was making was that it was a license. Physical or Digital. Which is what I said. If I had intended to elaborate further I would have made a longer initial comment, and use language that invites conversation rather than a short statement of fact. However since that didn't work and now I have folks tagging me about something I don't really care to hash out (as it is what it is...a license and there is nothing to discuss) I updated my initial comment requesting not to be tagged about it because I don't care. And yet here you are, tone policing. And since it is a "public forum" (it's actually a privately owned website comment section governed by a TOS but anyway) I can say what I said so long as I don't violate the TOS. Anything else?

@Don tell that to Ubisoft (The Crew) and Sony (the aforementioned Concord), who removed games from people's consoles without their consent. Even if they had a physical version, they most likely delete the programs as soon as the console connects to the internet.

I really don't know how it works with physical games, but I'm guessing it's like that. The fact there's precedent of companies making physical games useless or unplayable is worrying.

Even if it's officially unplayable now, I can still download Super Mario Bros. 35 on my Switch and boot it up (or at least I could last time I checked in 2023).

@Zeebor15 Silicon Valley created the harware and infrastructure that you are using to post on this website.

Though, considering what the internet has done to us, you're not totally off base here.

A California law we can all agree on! Hopefully this trickles down to other jurisdictions sooner than later🤞

Certainly won't complain about more transparency as that's always a good thing, but personally if I went out of my way to make a law then it would be to ensure that digital games (and technically physical ones as well like some mentioned, but good luck taking those away from consumers unless they require online connectivity when you boot them) are actually owned.

I never knew we didn't technically own any of our games, so far no company has abused the system that I know of but that doesn't mean we should be complacent with it

@silverdamascus Thank you!

“I try not to whine but I must warn ya
‘bout the lack of digital storefront shenanigans in California!”

— The Red Hot Chili Peppers, probably

This is the end of quality gaming! The constant release of unfinished content, it makes it easier to say- if you wanna play this, it’s at your own risk if you wanna play an unfinished content, and you agree to saying I am willing to play this in any shape or form and it can be taken down anytime… this is a disgusting practice and I won’t buy any content labelled as such.

@judaspete HEMCE

Hey this is a step in the right direction!
California can't force publishers to grant ownership to the buyers of digital products, but they can and should force companies to be honest about what they are selling. I hope other jurisdictions follow suit, and the games industry is forced to be up front and speak plainly about these licenses and not bury the facts in impenetrable legal small print.

I played home video games for decades without knowing what an EULA was, and I dislike the whole concept. It still feels icky when Bandai or Ubisoft mandates consent before they let me play Gundam, Fenyx Rising, etc.

I like to "purchase" and "own" games, not just "license" them at full retail price, while the publisher reserves the right to revoke my license for whatever reason. It's why I always buy physical editions for games I care about, and only "purchase" (oops, "license") digital games when they are suitably cheap.

I've always felt that digital games have less intrinsic value than physical editions, and should be priced (and advertised) accordingly.

@Ryu_Niiyama You only said a couple of words. Silver on the other hand explained what I guess you were trying to say better.

But I do think you are taking it a bit too personally. No one attacked you or anything. Just replied.

If are one of those individuals who struggle conveying thoughts in written form that's totally fine. A lot of people are like that. But try not to get frustrated at people who are just talking to you, not down at you.

@LadyCharlie no, it isn't? This is forcing them to admit the obvious.

The next step is pressurinthem to make ownership a reality. The only way they can try to dunk on this is malicious compliance, but it would be their own fault and choice in that case too.

The law should be that once you buy the game its license can't be revoked and that it must be available for free redownload (as long as proper credentials are provided) for a reasonable period after the sale. It's nice that they have to let us know they can revoke the license, but that doesn't really make things better at the bottom line.

Makes no difference really a different term like access and that's it. How about actually giving some actual rights, like a minimum licence term, if a paid game goes free to play wshould be refunds for recent purchasess at least etc

@VHSGREMLIN It’s racism. They live in places with just white people and the thought of seeing someone else in their neighborhood causes them fear.

@Zeebor15 What wonderful place do you live in?

@Quiet2down I only said a couple of words because that was all I wanted to say. If I said water is wet...on an article about rain should I elaborate further? I simply made a very simple statement. Someone else made an assumption. I civilly clarified to the person that tagged me that his assumption had nothing to do with what I said or why and simply updated my post to state that I didn't care to be tagged further about that initial comment. If you mean me saying Thank you to someone else after the fact...that would have been posted regardless. as I have moved on from my initial comment.
I know I ramble but my English is pretty straightforward. Has been the more than decade I have posted here. Yet I keep getting tagged about how I said something simple. I'm not sure how that is "taking it personally". You are making an assumption. It isn't as if I tagged any of y'all first or refuted anything about a person's belief on what a physical game is. If it is that someone is taking umbrage with the word "preach" you have to take that up with the Southern culture I was raised in...I can locate the number for my county's board of education if required. I'm not going to change the way I speak when I didn't say anything charged enough to be offensive, neither did I attack anyone or have the intent to do so. Meanwhile y'all are rushing to the keyboard to tone police. Also I am not frustrated. I just don't like to be misunderstood (and unfortunately I do respond when I am tagged out of polite etiquette.)... Notice my responses keep getting longer? It would have just been that first comment and maybe the Thank you one I did later had nobody tried to make a big deal out of this.

So again.

It's all a license. Both Physical and Digital. That's all I wanted to say. Thanks.

Good in theory I guess but companies will simply change the wording or add an agreement box. "Add to cart" instead of a buy button. Click a little box that says 'I agree to yada yada' and move on. Nothing changes. Thinking this will force companies to always make your purchases available is silly.

Now if only Commiefornia would address its real issues like unchecked crime and Hollyweird trafficking rings.

@Bonggon5 Florida

We've got multiple soap operas going on in these comments.

@Dr_Corndog LMAO. As always it's never my intent. I just get dragged into messes and I respond if I am tagged (at least until my 3 strikes rule is hit). I do notice it is people that are newer here though. Sigh. I do apologize for any derails. I'm sure someone will get mad and sic the mods on me later.

Edit: To the mods, y'all have seen my post history. I don't try to antagonize people...but I understand if you need to weedwhack my posts.

@Ryu_Niiyama I don't see anything worthy of mods, but I guess that doesn't stop some people.

Sick legal burn on the eshop's "Purchase" button.👌

@WoomyNNYes I am just liking that because that was such a Millennial phrase. I haven't heard sick burn in years.

@VHSGREMLIN tell that to physical copy owners of The Crew.

@Ryu_Niiyama I was also going to say physical purchases are only actually licenses - glad someone else here knows that.

@SilentBluntman Yeah I hadn't want to go into further but I have a whole box of PC games that I can't play anymore because the changes made to license terms/service/dead authentication servers. Still bothered by what happened to Warcraft III.

@Ryu_Niiyama yeah, I have quite a few unplayable PC games. It’s happened with some of my old iPad games too. It’s more obvious when buying PC/Mac programs as they often specify “purchase license”.

I mean ... you don't own you physical games either, you are just licensing the software on whatever media it comes on. You also don't own the software running your console. Or your computer. Unless you choose to never go online for any reason, "they" can make your physical games unplayable at any time with OS updates (and have done this before, mostly around music license issues) , or even brick your console to force you to buy a new one.

This is a brilliant move by pro-business groups to put forth a law that completely ignores the actual problem; that all software is licensed, while attacking the buzz word that is "DIGITAL GAMES" to ensure the masses blindly support it and stop asking for real, meaningful change.

Governing angry people is so easy.

While this may seem be a good thing. I fear that this law might result in Video game publishers/developers/store fronts taking advantage of it.

For example: "You may license this game for only 1 year. After that you have to pay again for a license if you want to play it again for another year."

Let's see what happens.

This law doesn’t actually do anything and if anything does more harm then good. Cool you point out the super obvious, but now good luck actually trying to push for anything beyond that now with that wording.

@VHSGREMLIN This has to be either bait or just plain ignorant about the issues in California. The Beverly Hills/Hollywood elite bubble doesn’t reflect the rest of the state.

Homeless rates is stupid high that there are tent cities, cost of living is absurd even for a 1 room apartment in a crap area, cities like San Francisco that used to be a great tourist spot two decades ago is a trash dump full of thieves exploiting bad state laws, the beaches has been disgusting with the pollution over the years, I can go on.

If California was so amazing of a “utopia” as some were to claim then why is states like Nevada getting an absurd rise of state residence changes from California despite Vegas having hotter weather, no beach, etc? For California sake I wish it was “for no reason you just hating”, but reality says otherwise.

Also the “Silicon Valley produces stuff! You can’t criticize California” logic is laughably bad. Putting aside the obvious of Silicon Valley not negating the real issues California has….by that logic China should never be criticized because something in your home is manufactured from China.

Only thing objectively great about California is the weather right now tbh, but if you just wanted that then there are other places you can go.

@shoeses Not true. You could still redownload the game.
https://www.reddit.com/r/wiiu/comments/8g1e02/has_donkey_kong_country_tropical_freeze_been/

Also to those who say you don't own physical copies of a game as well. My argument would be that you do own a copy of the game, so you can play it anytime you want. (Minus the ones that requires a server to play, and the ones that stop working properly for whatever reason.)

Sure you don't own the game itself, but you own the physical product for it to play the game. So basically you do own something. You own something that plays the game. It's not like you don't own the cartridge/disc.

(I'm still going to say I own the game if I have physical copy of it though, because it just sounds right/natural to me.)

While it is technically true it's only a license, games being taken away doesn't happen nearly as much as some people like to believe. The way some people talk, you'd think every digital game gets ripped away after 6 months lol. I have a large digital library and I have never lost access to any game. Some of y'all need to chill.

This is pretty bad actually. It basically enshrines in law that you don't own your games. I wouldn't be surprised if next time we see Ross Scott he's bald from tearing his hair out.

@Pichuka97 Claifornia? California's younger sister?

@Bigmanfan

Just to put some numbers behind that ...

Based on reports from the numerous industry groups, around 98% of all digital games are playable today, with the 2% mostly being made up of live service games where you can't play physical copies either.

By contrast, factoring in the natural decay of CDs/DVDs, lost or stolen copies, and damage due to accident or natural disaster, only around 80% of physical games purchased since 2003 (the year Steam came out) are playable today.

So simply by the numbers, the average person with a completely digital library has access to more of their games then the average person with a completely physical library.

@Zeebor15 Not true. Aside from home prices Arizona's cost of living is actually higher than California's.

@IceEarthGuard

There is nothing at all wrong with that argument, but it's important to note it comes with a cavoite. Legally, their is nothing stopping the game's developer, publisher, or the platform owner from pushing an update that makes the game's physical copies unplayable on your device. This has happened to a number of games in the past, generally around licensed music expiring.

Sure, you can either hack your console or role-back to a firmware that doesn't lock you out, but doing either breaks the TOS and mean you are technically doing something illegal. And if you're willing to do something illegal to play a game .. well, the whole conversation is moot isn't it? You have better options!

The problem isn't digital games. The problem is how software ownership as a whole is handled.

@VHSGREMLIN Physical can't be forcibly taken from consumers by recall. That's voluntary, seizure is the only way physical can be taken by force. The only people forced to do anything are stores removing items from sale in the case of a recall.

@NintonicGamer Both Sony and Ubisoft have deleted games off people's systems with no warning (The Crew and Concord) and revoked their licenses. Sony at least had the decency to refund peeps but...

@HeadPirate Usually when the music license ends, they only take the game down from the store for purchase. Game should still be playable both digital and physical though. For example, the first Fitness Boxing game.

@Anti-Matter i don't think that's the case, it's more like, the sellers have to be transparent about the fact that they can revoke the license whenever.

@IceEarthGuard

Yes, that is what usually happens.

There have only been 2 or 3 games I know of where the physical game was made unplayable. But that's still a non-zero number.

Even if it wasn't, the option is there. That's all I'm trying to point out. Having a physical copy doesn't make you "safe". The license owner can still revoke your right to play the game at any time for any reason, and force the platform owner to make it unplayable even in a physical format.

The only way to be "safe" would be meaningful laws that changed software ownership in general, not token, meaningless laws that target digital games because that's a buzzword.

@HeadPirate That's really interesting. Wasn't really an angle I considered. It's so true though. As a kid I accidentally scratched so many DVDs and CDs. One of the reasons cartridges on the switch are great.

@link3710 And ubisoft wonders why they're struggling smh. Concord I can understand though, cause the game wasn't playable at all anyway, so nothing really lost there.

@HeadPirate Now I am kinda curious to what those 2-3 games are that you mentioned. Do you recall the game titles for them?

Also I agree, that having a physical copy of the game does not mean you are safe from the license owner.

@WiiWareWave that average is thrown off by retirees

I understand the intention behind something like that, but I've transitioned to 100% digital anyway. I mean, as long as the games remain installed on my storage device, even if they remove them from the storefronts, I still will be able to play them.

@WiiWareWave lol goes to show how dependent I am on autocorrect

@IceEarthGuard The Crew and Concord are the two I'm aware of. Both only the PS versions afaik?

@deadmaker Nope, this is in response to sony deleting games off people's hardware as soon as they connect to the internet, not just removing from the storefront.

I don’t understand the uproar here. With digital downloads you own the storage media containing the downloaded data that makes up the game you have a licence to play. Which is basically the same as owning an official cartridge containing the game data that you have a licence to play. And as long as you can play the game offline you should always be able to play the game. Live service games are the problem but that’s the same whether the base game is digital or physical. This clarification is to make sure the storefronts correctly reflect the copyright licensing law. Nothing really has changed. It’s always been you buy a licence to play the game. Same with music heck even books!!

@IceEarthGuard

Around 10,000 CD keys for Far Cry 2 were deactivated on PC. No reason was given other then to say it was intentional, it was never fixed. If you own one of the CDs with that key, you can't install your physical disk.

Early physical copies of Driver: San Francisco are not playable due to them falling DRM checks (on PC) or giving a cryptic error message (on console). Digital copies and some later re-released physical copies still work. While they didn't give full details, Ubisoft said it was due to a licensing issue with the early releases.

That's the 2 I was thinking of. There are other legacy DOS and Windows games where the online verification or DRM server is no longer online, making physical disks unplayable, but I don't remember any particulars.

Other examples that are a little different include Wipe Out: Pure and Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, which were unintentionally made unplayable by a PSP update. Physical copies no longer work, although a later update allowed people with a physical copy to download a working digital update. Importantly, they were not legally required to do so, and for a while it looked like they weren't going to.

Physical copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas won't play because of music license issues, although you can download an updated digital copy if you own one. The digital copy is incompatible with any of your previous saves from the physical game, however. That went over GREAT.

Guitar Hero Live sorta counts too. While playable, almost half the songs on the physical disc can't be used any more.

@WiiWareWave Yea it is. And since rent is being baked by a few of the real estate companies and RealPage rent (and home prices) keep marching upwards at a rapid clip but wages aren’t as high as California (in general. A lot of the big IT companies have branches in AZ so you can negotiate to a wage that is higher than AZ norm.) in order to keep up. I work in IT but it is attached to the real estate industry and geez the stories I can tell would turn your stomach.

People from a certain side of the aisle can throw all the hate they like at California, but it's one of the only states out of the whole US that actually goes out of its way to pass pro-consumer laws that improve citizens' protection and awareness.

@Ryu_Niiyama I still call my sister hipster, so I guess I'm stuck in my old millennial ways. yells at Amazon clouds

@Zeebor15 Texas is also overpriced and overrated, and also has negatively influenced economic and cultural trends for decades. But I don't see anyone going out of their way to hate on Texas, for obvious reasons.

@Burning_Spear “The law should be that once you buy the game its license can't be revoked”.
Sure, but here’s a quick reminder that laws are not tailored to our best interest, but for the corpos. The fat cats who own the corpos also happen to own our lawmakers.
Which is also why California is merely dishing out a warning label, making it clear we don’t own jack.

I really like this law, and hope it adds more transparency when it comes to digital purchases.

That being said, digital storefronts still need to go a long way to ensure that we're actually owning the content when we make a digital purchase. I doubt that will happen anytime soon, but until then, at least being more clear that we're only buying a license for the content is a step in the right direction.

@Gryzor They're passing this law because it's much easier to get everyone to agree on transparency at the bare minimum. It's the lobbyists jockeying for all those fat cats that makes reconstituting digital ownership a lot harder to legislate.

Gamers who have been conned into buying digital will come on here and preach about how physical isn't technically better, but it does a few things. The biggest being that it shows there's still a market for physical media regardless of the lies the industry tries to force feed us. It also is the best possible option out of the two because if absolutely nothing else, you own SOMETHING physical for your money. Plenty of games can still be played in some basic form if you have the cart even if you won't have all the DLC or updates. Not so with digital.

Removed - flaming/arguing

@SilentBluntman what on earth are you talking about? I’m just gonna block you now. You’re not making sense.

@Ryu_Niiyama you could try not antagonizing others by not antagonizing others. Just a thought…

@WiiWareWave very true.

@Bonggon5 that was my guess too.

@VHSGREMLIN Google it.

Wow the defensive stance on California all because someone said they didn’t agree with a state lol and apparently it’s “racist”. Classy comment section.

But yea it sucks when you have something like Concord, and then a company can take it away just because or whatever reason. I try to buy physical as much as possible.

@Bigmanfan You think I don't know how to redownload a game? It doesn't appear in my Redownload section plain and simple, but everything else since I've bought the Wii U did like normal.

The rest of the world needs to get together and tell California to eat poop, what you doing and voting for in cali is great, more power to you. But the fact they are constantly messing with the rest of the civilized world is obnoxious. I buy kids pjs and there is a label in California this is blah blah blah . I used to buy juul, in California tobacco bad, even my pot vape has a California sticker on it. kick rocks California.

@Ryu_Niiyama Keep the faith, Ryu. I still appreciate your style and demeanor.

@Tempestryke That has nothing to do with the game being digital or physical. You could buy a physical copy of an online only game. Doesn't make a difference when it gets shut down.

@axelhander That doesn't make any sense because when a game gets removed from the eshop or any storefront you still keep your digital copy. They don't take it away from you.
Or has there been a case where that happened? Where a game disappeared from your console, even a single player game.

Despite my suspicions about digital games, particularly for games with any notable single player content, I can't imagine it will be a trend to delete people's purchased games. It would just be too unpopular and would be clowned on by everyone.

That being said, there are a small handful of games by terrible companies that could get away with it because they're too popular.

@Nancyboy Appreciate it. I am not going anywhere and besides the ignore/block button is there for a reason.

I do find it baffling though. I am one of the most literal folks on this site. And still folks take something I say and run with it. I try to use precise language (within the realm of my regional and age appropriate slang) and loathe the concept of implication in speech (I am not above it as I was socialized like every one else on earth) but 9 times out of 10 I say what I mean and mean what I say. No extra biscuits or horseshoes. It’s fairly obvious when I joke as well. That being said I don’t abide tone policing as it is the online equivalent of “you should smile more”. Just ugh. 😩

@Summer235 buying physical won’t necessarily save you - even physical copies of The Crew no longer work after the sever shutdown. Regarding the comments, there’s a reason this site has to disable commenting on more sensitive news stories, even gaming companies donating money to people affected by disasters.

So they have to put a line somewhere that no one will read anyway because no one thinks about this until they lose their digital content, and all this will do is give companies a sign to tap when customers are throwing a fit about said lost stuff. Good use of resources.

What's the new verb then if it's not buy or purchase or own? Will it be lease, rent or borrow? That will be a fascinating adjustment.

We're reaching a point where physical media isn't even guaranteed ownership, in the sense it will work. Nothing to stop companies dropping updates or patches that mean "you can't play this" when a disc is inserted. In a practical sense, there's a natural expiration for most media anyway due to loss of interest or general availability. As is often the case, a lot of fuss about nothing. Nothing lives forever.

@Gryzor In a lot of instances the corporations are owned by politicians.

@Summer235 The comment section is overall fine. It’s mainly just one rabid user here (we all know who) who is blatantly troll baiting multiple users in this comment section at this point.

@link3710 whaa?? I didn't know they were doing that! This is utterly unacceptable! What a horrible company they've become...

Do you have a link to an article about it? I'd like to know more.

While I believe this is good, it's kinda ironic coming from a state that says, "You will own nothing and be happy."

@Xeacons That’s not a thing that California says, though. It’s like the Rightists who claim that California is “communist” - attempted hyperbole or not, it’s nonsense that bears no relation to reality.

@deadmaker https://gamerant.com/concord-removed-from-playstation-libraries/
Here's one!

They should also create a law saying we can get our money back as easily as they can blip a digital game out of existence.

Digital purchases are so common, some people are rabbidly defending them, not even getting the obvious problem. I've seen so many stupid news saying that X% of the games were purchased digitally, trying to justify digital only consoles, not even thinking that most indy and pc games aren't even available in physical version... Sad sad state of the industry.

I'm enjoying my unrestricted ownership interest in all the games I own! By that I mean the cartridges I finally have access to via my awesome Mig Switch Dumper and all the ROMs I've gotten, which I've realized over the course of 2024 I feel much more of a sense of ownership and freedom over vs the worthless eshop purchases I've unfortunately made over past years. I'll be skipping the corporate lawyer crap from now on and stick to old fashioned owning my games!

This is wonderful news! I’m so glad that all the digital game lovers will finally realize how much of a waste of money digital games are! I have been campaigning for this transparency for years, and my motto still remains… “if the future of gaming is digital, then gaming has no future!” That statement holds so much weight in so many ways. These digital games, servers, and even dedicated platforms will NOT stand the test of time. But you can still play your physical games for decades. I’m tired of people who argue with me about how this isn’t true. I’m still playing games I’ve owned since the 70s thru all decades since. Maybe the systems can degrade or quit working but many emulator systems have been released over the years to allow me to keep playing them. Two fine examples are the Analogue Pocket which I can play my GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance games on, plus it will play GameGear, Lynx, etc. And I have a SupaBoy S that plays my Super Nintendo/Famicon cartridges, as well as my Super GameBoy adapter cartridge which plays GameBoy games. And I will keep enjoying my legacy games anytime I want with no one restricting me or dictating me or taking them away from me.

I've known it misleading since over a decade ago when I was watching TV on my parents cable service and Comcast was all the time running commercials telling us to "buy or rent" digital movies.
I knew that since it was digital and certainly not stored on the box (which would be locked to the service anyways), there was nothing to "buy" and they were really just advertising "rent for a short time or rent for a long time".

This doesn't solve the problem, instead it merely offers corporations more excuses and loopholes. What we really need is a law that bans the confiscation of previously purchased media, as the problem is theft, not false advertising.

@link3710 well, it says they offered refunds, so I don't see a problem there.

@VHSGREMLIN They are just riding the hate train for no reason. In American minds, California = Hippies. Hippies are the enemy of American Freedom™.

Yes, it's nuts. No, most of us don't get it either. There's this whole unfunny, unstable pocket dimension that some people in the USA live in.

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