The death of ownership and it's consequences

_games
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Woke up today to the news that starting 2028, there will be no more physical media for Playstation. On the same day they announced they are shutting down the ps store for ps3 and vita. On the same week they announced they would be deleting purchased digital movies from users libraries without any compensation. And this after Nintendo came swinging with game key cards. Who knows how xbox plans to top all that.

Between this and the reality that new consoles will have to cost at least 1k dollars due to memory crysis, I’m wondering if we are reaching the point where gaming as a hobbie goes back to being very, very niche, after exploding in popularity during the pandemic.

Of course, cost of console is a way bigger deal than no physical media, considering the data on digital sales, but pair those sales with the lack of consumer protection on digital ownership and i personally start to see a big piracy comeback.

What are your thoughts on this?

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augh, I can’t believe i’m gonna lose access to my PS3 digital games already. :frowning:

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Oh I hate it so much. I can’t imagine that anyone wanted this and I don’t know what they want to achieve as if that would stop anyone from wanting to rip those games. Piracy is probably going to make a large comeback with people preferring to wait for emulation or PC releases for sure. Nintendo’s Switch 2 was the canary for me though; everything locked off that even repair is a risky process, your “right” to use the console, their increasing use of game-key cards.

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This is what a lot of game companies have been aiming for.

Ubisoft was the first, though, not Nintendo.

“You need to accept the idea that purchasing a license doesn’t confer ownership,” they said (paraphrased).

Well, if purchasing isn’t ownership, pirating isn’t theft.

… looks like I’m gonna have to get an actual PS Vita sooner rather than later.

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not to defend Nintendo anything but I think game key cards were made to try to improve on those awful “Download required!” Switch physical releases many 3rd parties were doing (coughCapcomcough) that either had only a tiny part of the full game on it, or were just download codes only. That probably contributed significantly to wider adoption of the practice by more 3rd parties, however, but I vastly prefer the concept of game key cards to codes in boxes.

I’m contemplating writing a blog post on this, IMO it’s another sign that consoles as a format are dying. The PS6 and Xbox Helix are dead on arrival unless RAM manufacturers are successfully sued for price fixing. PC gaming will probably hang on from the fact that people still need PCs for other things.

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