Steam now tells gamers up front that they're buying a license, not a game
Steam now tells gamers up front that they're buying a license, not a game
Steam appears to have started posting a notice in its shopping cart that purchases on its storefront are only for a license and not a game.
This is in response to the new California law that forces stores to clearly disclose that the customer is buying a temporary license.
82Just like the EU, California does a lot for global customer protection.
47Except the cancer warning thing which didn't exactly have the desired effect. Good intent, bad execution.
3
Honesty is good.
67I still hate the future.
45
So if I download a pirate copy, I'm in the clear because I purchased a license.
Doesn't GOG provide the games without copy protection? Doesn't that mean you can actually back up your installed games?
In any case, these services should allow their customers to download a digital copy of an ISO or an installable package of the game so it can be saved as a backup and installed independently.
39So if I download a pirate copy, I'm in the clear because I purchased a license.
Nope since the copy of the software was obtained with someone else's license. That said this would be hypothetically impossible to prove in court so 🤷
Circumventing DRM is questionable since I think it's illegal to distribute but not own. So let's say you have a CD installer for the Sims and download a crack exe to launch it without the CD. You are in the clear but the host for the download is not.
GOG or backing the game up yourself is the only way around this.
18Yeah moving forward I'm going to buy on GOG.
4
It's already legal to download backups in certain jurisdictions, for example in France.
Also, it's very undocumented but you can actually generate an offline installer for a copy of a game you own on steam. It will still require steam and to be logged in in offline mode with an account that has a licence, of course, but it is a thing you can do.
13Interesting. I'll check that out. There's a few games I would like to keep a backup of just in case.
2
When you buy on GOG you really get the game, you can (without needing a launcher) download installers without any trouble and you can do whatever you want with them. Want to put a bunch into a pen drive and share with you friends? No problem. Want to install them on a device with no Internet connection? No problem. Want to back them up for whatever reason? No problem.
EDIT: People telling me its not legal, its not about being legal or not, its about having the power to decide to do whatever you want.
7You still buy a license from GOG like with any piece of software. It’s just that you get the files without DRM. You can’t resell those files like you could if you truly owned the game.
13This isn't actually true.
Gog isn't 'piracy is strictly legal' there is still a license attached to the software that can have restrictions.
11
Company complies with the law.
PCMR: Wow, what a great company!
10I find it indescribably funny that no matter what, every news site somehow manages to always put a mobile app install screen with the company's product as the banner image for their articles, even in this case, when I think most people would have probably never even thought of Steam as a mobile app, only as PC software.
12I'd rather own the games that I pay for than "rent" them in the first place. Sure, this is useful. But it doesn't really solve the issue of not owning anything you buy these days. If anything this will just give them an excuse when they decide to take games you paid for away from you.
20I’d rather own the games that I pay for than “rent” them in the first place.
But people will still pay up anyway.
9Gamers have a very short memory. The "ooh shiny!" mentality means that, as a demographic, they are willing to tolerate a high degree of abuse as long as they get to placate themselves with self amusement software.
7
corporations would make breathing a subscription service if they could
18When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you're really not very price sensitive at that point in time. A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10,20,30,50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high. But it is a great model and I think it represents a substantially better future for the industry.
I was reminded of this. They would if they could. I am glad i am not living in that timeline.
21When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you’re really not very price sensitive at that point in time
Forgot how evil that was. God, if i was 6 hours in, and they asked me a dollar to reload, i'd uninstall the game, and go play some minecraft or something.
15I am glad i am not living in that timeline.
Yet
2Wait. They did this?!
2
This was always the case. The only difference is the words they use.
14The only difference is the words they have to use. They aren't making this change by choice
10
They should be forced to make buyers own it instead of another popup nobody reads.
It COULD become a good change if games get backlash for having the popup but when 90% of games have it nobody will care.
This just gives the "well you didn't read the TOS so it's actually your fault" idiots more talking points.Could go either way but I assume it wont change much.
14I just really want to pass on my game library to my kids one day. Can licenses be passed on, or is inheriting entertainment just dead now?
6According to the EULA, no. According to common sense, leave the steam password in your will and you're fine.
14If i remember correctly, gog allows this
7Buy from GOG, download and archive the installers yourself.
2
Good. I like transparency and this has always been the truth. And I'm glad Valve isn't doing much to fight against it.
6I feel like there needs to be some kind of way of recording what games have been purchased (licensed) so that if a store were using goes out of business we should be able to get it from another store, at least for a very reduced price just to cover their costs.
6This isn't up to the stores. It's up to the gaming developers who own the right to license the games. I have been making this argument for years, and explaining digital (and physical) content licensing to people on the internet for years and almost always get downvoted because they don't like facts that interfere with their sense of righteousness.
I don't disagree that is scummy practice to randomly end a license and take something someone paid for out of their library or otherwise deny them access to it. but I cannot stress enough that this is the fault of both parties or the licensing agreement (the license seller and the entity that agrees to allow the license seller to sell licenses to the content). People will always blame Sony or Amazon or Apple. But never Universal, or Disney, or Paramount or whoever. It's both. They're both assholes in this scenario. One of them is limited by the law. The other one can offer that content by other means to people who have already purchased it once but won't because capitalism and greed.
2If gamers weren't so against it, honestly NFTs could actually be that thing.
0
If you didn’t already know this 20 years ago then you are special.
1Oor you dont pay attention to tech news.
Theres a reason california passed that law, its not clear enough that you dont own the games
1
Is it a blanket statement for every purchase regardless of what game it is?
If so, that's completely useless.1It informs customers, that licensing a game on Steam is not like buying a pair of pants on
pantsshop24.org. That's what it's meant to do.7Just like popups about cookies!
0Those are like a real life Navi from Zelda.
"Hey! Link!" one every site is annoying.
That crap really needs to be a browser setting.0
Not really. If you buy the game on gog, you own it.
-1GOG themselves literally said that you do not, even very recently. You own a license like every other customer, and it can be revoked at their discretion.
GOG choose to exclusively sell games for which they can sell DRM-free versions, which is a great option for consumers. It is not a straightforward decision however as this is, whether it is a priority or not, a tradeoff for the things that Steam integration provides - cloud backup, mod workshops, multiplayer functionality etc.
Steam also sells plenty of DRM-free games, and offer customers the informed choice when selling Steam DRM and Third-Party DRM controlled game licenses.
This is not an argument that Steam or GOG are objectively better. But it is a straightforward lie to state that the license you buy from GOG is legally different from the one you buy from Steam. What is different is the possibility or otherwise of DRM software being used to control your adherence to the license.
6
You used to able to buy a game in a box and it came with a code. Games got too large and instead of the next thing after Blu-Ray, they went full digital. Maybe we can get legislation for PC game have to have a physical option and have discs for installing and when you use the code you can undo the code and be able to resell it. Thoughts?
-1To play devils advocate, which I seem to do a lot lately I admit, you were still just purchasing a license then as well. The process of revocation would be so convoluted as to be all but impossible, but you were never actually purchasing permanent and irrevocable access to the game.
And if you want to get back to that, just buy your games from GOG.
Or just pirate the games you purchase, and it won’t matter if your Steam account is banned or deleted. Which is honestly often the better option these days, because it has the bullshit DRM ripped out of it.
7Or just pirate the games you purchase, and it won’t matter if your Steam account is banned or deleted. Which is honestly often the better option these days, because it has the bullshit DRM ripped out of it.
most games don't have DRM, so this is easily done by making a copy of the game files, and using the goldberg steam emu on it
2