Ownership of games/software, what are my rights as a consumer?

3 Posts

MSE has always interested me in how the tagline has "fighting your corner" so I have a dilemma that is currently rearing its head in the digital marketplaces.
Years ago, digital content was sold through physical media such as you have a CD or a case that holds a unique identifier for a license to download and use a piece of software from the creator of said software. You own it, you can install it, gift it to another person, sell it on second hand.
Physical media has been slowly phased out from the supply of digital media, nowadays you can buy games or software through digital marketplaces such as gog, steam, adobe which being as it is would be the natural progression, but theres something new that has come up, or rather something old that is now coming up into mainstream use.
Digital streaming, and no I do not mean like TV streaming, or perhaps.. there is overlap. Allow me to explain:
Google had plans. To capitalise on an old problem. The problem being that as software becomes more complex, you need better hardware to run it. Computers, laptops, PC's have improved vastly in power, graphical output and so on, but upgrading requires constantly spending and time to find something that can last through the next few generations of software that is being produced. They came up with a system called Stadia where they would provide upgraded hardware for a monthly fee. Sadly they decided to be a platform. Any Games you already own, you have to buy separately on their own system in order to use it on there. As of yet, it does not seem to be showing the results that they expected.
Roll on 2019/2020 and nVidia has now opened up a streaming service with a similar purpose but with a slightly different aim and this is the important bit.
They will provide the hardware, set up a virtual machine for your use and charge a subscription fee to said service. They do not sell games like any of the aforementioned services or companies. What they do allow is to use said services on the virtual machine. Anything you have bought, you can use. Except... you cant. Activision Blizzard, EA among others have complained and refuse access through such a service.
So my question is, if I own a license to a game or software, why can I not use it on hardware I can afford and what are my rights I can bring to bear so I can use the digital products I have paid for?
Extra information, you can Rent actual PC's, have them delivered to your door, pay a monthly subscription, the only difference between this and Geforce NOW (nVidia's service) is that this is local as opposed to a virtual machine and yet wouldn't this be counted in the same vein? Still a service, still borrowing hardware from a company for personal use.
Extra extra. Microsoft and Sony announced that for their new consoles, if you have the last generation of console, the games you can play on one can be played on the newer console with no extra upgrade fee.
TL:DR
Companies want to challenge the fact of ownership. Charge per machine/service. What are my rights to say I own this license and I can use it on the hardware I choose?
Years ago, digital content was sold through physical media such as you have a CD or a case that holds a unique identifier for a license to download and use a piece of software from the creator of said software. You own it, you can install it, gift it to another person, sell it on second hand.
Physical media has been slowly phased out from the supply of digital media, nowadays you can buy games or software through digital marketplaces such as gog, steam, adobe which being as it is would be the natural progression, but theres something new that has come up, or rather something old that is now coming up into mainstream use.
Digital streaming, and no I do not mean like TV streaming, or perhaps.. there is overlap. Allow me to explain:
Google had plans. To capitalise on an old problem. The problem being that as software becomes more complex, you need better hardware to run it. Computers, laptops, PC's have improved vastly in power, graphical output and so on, but upgrading requires constantly spending and time to find something that can last through the next few generations of software that is being produced. They came up with a system called Stadia where they would provide upgraded hardware for a monthly fee. Sadly they decided to be a platform. Any Games you already own, you have to buy separately on their own system in order to use it on there. As of yet, it does not seem to be showing the results that they expected.
Roll on 2019/2020 and nVidia has now opened up a streaming service with a similar purpose but with a slightly different aim and this is the important bit.
They will provide the hardware, set up a virtual machine for your use and charge a subscription fee to said service. They do not sell games like any of the aforementioned services or companies. What they do allow is to use said services on the virtual machine. Anything you have bought, you can use. Except... you cant. Activision Blizzard, EA among others have complained and refuse access through such a service.
So my question is, if I own a license to a game or software, why can I not use it on hardware I can afford and what are my rights I can bring to bear so I can use the digital products I have paid for?
Extra information, you can Rent actual PC's, have them delivered to your door, pay a monthly subscription, the only difference between this and Geforce NOW (nVidia's service) is that this is local as opposed to a virtual machine and yet wouldn't this be counted in the same vein? Still a service, still borrowing hardware from a company for personal use.
Extra extra. Microsoft and Sony announced that for their new consoles, if you have the last generation of console, the games you can play on one can be played on the newer console with no extra upgrade fee.
TL:DR
Companies want to challenge the fact of ownership. Charge per machine/service. What are my rights to say I own this license and I can use it on the hardware I choose?
0
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The streaming model does make sense - I'm sure many people would pay to use the NVidia service in the way they use Netflix instead of buying DVDs and Blu-Rays. It will succeed or fail on whether the most desirable games/publishers are available on that platform and it might be a bit chicken and egg - if the publishers don't do a deal; they may lose sales but if the service doesn't have the games on offer; they may lose subscribers.
nVidia's model is the hardware that netflix runs its service on. Steam runs on top of geforce now. They are only renting hardware, not software. I need my own license of a game in order to use it on nVidia's hardware. nVidia arent a platform. They dont sell the games. And thats what the publishers are crying about. They wouldnt be able to sell you 2 copies of the same game instead of just 1. You dont see that problem?
Your post seems to imply this is a new problem but it's always been the way that if you need to run software on a different architecture then you have to buy another copy of the game. Porting between architectures is not free and in some cases can take a significant amount of time so there is no logic either technically or legally that developers should not be allowed to charge money for that porting work.
The simple solution is buy a PC and you can run pretty much anything that's ever been made for X86 regardless of when you bought it and you have the added bonus you can choose almost any form factor you want.