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Xbox Store emphasizes digital games are licenses, not ownership

adamsapple said:
Not just 'licenses'.

Digital games should always be cheaper than their physical counterparts, since there's no manufacturing, pressing, shipment etc. The cost to the publisher is lower.

The fact that games are sold at the same price digitally as they are physically, and it isn't fussed over, has been fucking us over for decade(s).
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When this first kinda started weren't we told it would be cheaper? for the reasons you listed

But nah, it's just MORE money for the companies at this point. At least PC games have many competing store fronts to buy Steam and GOG keys from to keep prices down. Not really the case on consoles sadly
 
ShaiKhulud1989 said:
This is just a law-required disclaimer and pure nothingburger.

Surprised that this thread is not locked.
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We're just using it to bully LectureMaster LectureMaster now.


ax88YY7.gif
 
DenchDeckard said:
I think if Xbox does go away, the thread count on gaf will probably drop by like 80 percent. 🤣
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Targeting new audience is the next logical step, every other compony did it and ran away from increasing the cost of both hardware and software. We saw it with Mobile, Sony, Nintendo, PC, Apple, both in hardware and software and on different regions.
 
I mean it's what it is. My stance is that if any of the licenses for the games I've purchased are revoked then I'll be finding alternative ways of accessing those titles that I paid to play...

I really should move over to GOG for PC games in all honesty. It's just a fucker getting that kind of stuff on Steam Deck and I'd rather buy them on Steam simply down to the way SteamOS does all the shader precompilation during the download stage. Games from other store fronts don't seem to perform quite as well for me on Deck.
 
demigod said:
Yes you do, just like you own a car if you paid for it.
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You own your car, you can take out its engine, build something else using it and sell it as another product.
You cannot rip off a game engine, or it's resources, and use it for something else. They're not yours and you do not own the content of the game, you only bought the right to play it. Just like you do not really own the movies you bought on discs, only the right to watch them.
In the case of a physical game/movie, that right is not limited in time and transferable by selling the support, but it is still a user license.
 
HeisenbergFX4 said:
Whether you can actually play it or not is dependent on what type of game it is

Most physical copies are just license as well that can be pulled at any time
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Those games will tell you on the back of the box that online is required and yes those can be shut down any minute.

Which physical games that do not require online that you own that was pulled?
 
demigod said:
Those games will tell you on the back of the box that online is required and yes those can be shut down any minute.

Which physical games that do not require online that you own that was pulled?
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Sadly physical games today, not all, but some either don't have the full game on it, or needs a major Day One patch in which case, the disc is a half baked game.

I would say older games and carts you do "own" in that sense. My PS1 games will always be full copies of games and can be played anytime regardless what Sony does.
 
All games are licences everywhere but it's a bit strange/ominous to put that on the advert of the game tile showing availability of the game.
 
Guilty_AI said:
demigod demigod you laugh but this is an actual thing that exists

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Didn't some cars either implement or spoke to implementing monthly subscriptions for like heated seats? Don't pay, they shut it off? which sounds wild

Edit: Appears they did and was going to be $15-$20 per MONTH for a heated seat. Due to backlash BMW scrapped it. But shows just how much these companies love squeezing the consumer dry
 
Odd world we live in when physical games (at least in my country) are 68€ when preordered but 80€ for a licence of a product.
Shouldn't licences be cheaper since we don't really own a product?
 
Mr Moose said:
You own the disc but not the software on the disc, you own a license for that software.
Same with movies and music.
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I'm not disputing that. No company will physically go to your house to take it back. The only way they can is if you violate their policies by pirating games where they can brick your console.
 
Ok?

The fine print being more front and center isn't necessarily a bad change

edit: so it's the publisher doing it?.
 
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That's true for all digital games on all major storefronts. (and technically true for physical games too)
How Xbox being upfront about it can be see as a negative thing is beyond me.

ultrazilla said:
hq720.jpg


Slowly building out my library on GOG.

THIS IS THE WAY
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Love GOG, it's a shame most games don't release on it.
DRM free digital games are the best way to "own" games IMO. You can have an offline installer saved locally on your PC and create multiple backups of it as you see fit. Access to your games doesn't depend on servers staying online, you not violating some 100 page TOS or some physical madia that can break and/or degrade over time.
 
adamsapple said:
Not just 'licenses'.

Digital games should always be cheaper than their physical counterparts, since there's no manufacturing, pressing, shipment etc. The cost to the publisher is lower.

The fact that games are sold at the same price digitally as they are physically, and it isn't fussed over, has been fucking us over for decade(s).
Click to expand...
You can't price gouge essential products, I guess food, electricity, water, but digital entertainment could even be more expensive than physical if the market, the people, allows it. It's not any company's fault if people pay the same for a mostly inferior, just more convenient product.

Clarifying what "buying" means is definitely important. It boggles my mind how often I read questions in youtube videos about Plus games staying in their library if they end their subscription. No idea how people still don't know that those "free" games go away, once the money stops flowing and regularly disappear from the Extra and Premium tiers even if it says they are in your library, at the moment.
 
Fbh said:
That's true for all digital games on all major storefronts. (and technically true for physical games too)
How Xbox being upfront about it can be see as a negative thing is beyond me.



Love GOG, it's a shame most games don't release on it.
DRM free digital games are the best way to "own" games IMO. You can have an offline installer saved locally on your PC and create multiple backups of it as you see fit. Access to your games doesn't depend on servers staying online, you not violating some 100 page TOS or some physical madia that can break and/or degrade over time.
Click to expand...
The downside to physical is someone robbing you, house fires, weather events that destroy your home, floods, media breaking, forced to sell due to life circumstances and needing money etc I do own hundreds of games physically.

But it's nice to have a user name and password and bam.. full access to my collection no matter where I am.
 
I have to import my games from USA, which costs $20 more and there's a good deal of waiting involved, so I usually buy digital.

If I had stores that sell the game for the right price basically everywhere I wouldnt buy digital EVER, I don't know why digital cought up so much in the States, there's a fucking GameStop on every corner.
 
Pasta la Vista said:
Well yeah no shit. Also could be prepping their customers to lose access to their console games.
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Bro i hate this POV, when was the last time you lost access to a game You bought a license too that you havent played to death and got sick of it…. And even if you lose access to it itll be 10 years later or down the line and you wont even care about it anymore….

Some Ppl will cry "OMG i spent 70 Dollars on this game 15 yrs agooo" who cares honestly. Enjoyed it back then and moved on. Money well spent

Barely lose license to important games anyway
 
adamsapple said:
Not just 'licenses'.

Digital games should always be cheaper than their physical counterparts, since there's no manufacturing, pressing, shipment etc. The cost to the publisher is lower.

The fact that games are sold at the same price digitally as they are physically, and it isn't fussed over, has been fucking us over for decade(s).
Click to expand...
You forgot the retailers cut on the purchase.
Which can be between 25/40%
 
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TGO said:
You forgot the retailers cut on the purchase.
Which can be better 25/40%
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Right.

Digital games being priced 1 : 1 as their physical counterparts is a massive scam and we've all been falling for it.
 
ultrazilla said:
hq720.jpg


Slowly building out my library on GOG.

THIS IS THE WAY
Click to expand...

That is indeed the way. Everything else is bullshit. This whole you don't own anything is pure crap and people should not just accept it because corporations just say so. If i buy something it should be mine.
 
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