Nothing new there. I don't even consider game libraries on online contend delivery platforms a collection. And Ubisoft have been on my black list since about 2014 (2 years after I blacklisted EA) for being anti-consumer.

If they had a shred of decency they'd made an offline update and left the game to those who had it, but Ubisoft haven't been known for having a spine for a very long time.

Was it the first game to be removed in this manner? The news is old, but this is the first game I see to be affected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZYy9KzFT2w

we don’t own a damned thing

That's it.
You never buy games, music, movies...but only a right to use them in a context.

There's even more fun with "collector editions", which include much crap but no games at all.

UNBOXING THE CREW 2 MOTOR EDITION / COLLECTOR'S EDITION 4K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a0PBSNHylk

Collector's Edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzXm5A2dq3g

It's going to get worse with streaming; companies have worked out that they can make much more money long-term by having you pay a rolling subscription fee. Netflix have been removing things for ages.

I've never been anti-free market, but I hate this practise; and it won't stop without regulation.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2024-04-13, 21:31:

Was it the first game to be removed in this manner? The news is old, but this is the first game I see to be affected.

I just checked my account and Might and Magic Heroes 7 is also removed. I don't know why this would be, but alas it is.

Any digital game that you purchase on steam or epic, make sure to make a backup of the installed files. If you get it from gog, go to your account page on the website and download its offline installer.

Don't buy stuff from MS store or publisher stores.

Don't buy online only games, and if you do, do it with the knowledge that they will stop working at some point.

Ubisoft has been scummy for years, this is just their latest escapade. I do wish someone would take them to court over revoking the download license, just to see how EU laws would treat that.

In my view, PC game ownership became problematic during the late 2000s and early 2010s, as online activation got more common. Even worse were single player games which needed an always online internet connection to run. That was one of the reasons why I switched back to console gaming around that time. It helped for a while, but sadly, things aren't much better there now. At present, it's not uncommon for a physical disc of a console game to only contain the installer which sets up a download. Or that a console game requires you to log into a publisher's service to unlock all the features.

Nowadays, I just stick with retro games, preferably the DRM-free kind from GOG. Or the old console stuff, before online crap had infested them.

as a rule i would think of everything that relies on being online as being rented - even if its a hardware system that wont work unless it downloads periodic updates or 'phones home' to function

really, there are enough films, music, games and so on that are outside of the 'rental' conditions, i can just do without.

it means there will be many media i never see, hear, play - and that's fine with me

This isn't just an issue with games, but also movies, and any other kind of media at this point. This is also why I don't trust others with "ownership" if the so-called "product" lives on THEIR servers of which I am refused the ability to manage the very existence of such data.

I don't trust corporations at all. Generally, I find most companies grimy, slimy, sleazy, and not trustworthy at all these days, and when they are trustworthy, I know it's a limited time that they will remain such, and it's likely to "jump the shark" per-se sometime in the future. And I have a feeling it's going to get worse in my lifetime.

With gaming, it's less of an issue for me anyway because the biggest "newer" franchise for me is Five nights at Freddy's (up through UCN), and I figured out a way to archive that one off my installs from Steam somehow without the DRM attached. Probably 99.5% of what I play is old stuff that came on floppy disks or cartridges, so none of that is impacted by DRM. There's a part of me thinking a lot of us are going to be playing 40+ year old copies of The Legend of Zelda in the future on 40 year old hardware or ROMs rather than trusting these questionable companies with their "cloud" crap! Seriously f*** SaaS!

This is why we prefer to collect physical game copies.

eddman wrote on 2024-04-14, 01:03:

Any digital game that you purchase on steam or epic, make sure to make a backup of the installed files. If you get it from gog, go to your account page on the website and download its offline installer.

Don't buy stuff from MS store or publisher stores.

Don't buy online only games, and if you do, do it with the knowledge that they will stop working at some point.

expiration dates like food
heck amazon luna added a feature like this is available only until certain date for the fallout series

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-04-14, 01:39:

Ubisoft has been scummy for years, this is just their latest escapade. I do wish someone would take them to court over revoking the download license, just to see how EU laws would treat that.

In my view, PC game ownership became problematic during the late 2000s and early 2010s, as online activation got more common. Even worse were single player games which needed an always online internet connection to run. That was one of the reasons why I switched back to console gaming around that time. It helped for a while, but sadly, things aren't much better there now. At present, it's not uncommon for a physical disc of a console game to only contain the installer which sets up a download. Or that a console game requires you to log into a publisher's service to unlock all the features.

Nowadays, I just stick with retro games, preferably the DRM-free kind from GOG. Or the old console stuff, before online crap had infested them.

theres gog, humblebundle, itch io, jordan freeman group, drm free media but that comes at the cost of wheres the recurring revenue for one time perpetual subscription sites where you pay once and get unlimited access or rights to download the media.

MAZter wrote on 2024-04-15, 16:31:

This is why we prefer to collect physical game copies.

retro physical game copies from 80s to 90s given in 2000s internet drm became a thing with product activation starting with windows xp. i remember finding old games at thrift stores but i let it go considering it might be a scalped copy

capitaine wrote on 2024-04-13, 22:01:

That's it. You never buy games, music, movies...but only a right to use them in a context. […]
Show full quote

we don’t own a damned thing

That's it.
You never buy games, music, movies...but only a right to use them in a context.

There's even more fun with "collector editions", which include much crap but no games at all.

UNBOXING THE CREW 2 MOTOR EDITION / COLLECTOR'S EDITION 4K
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a0PBSNHylk

Collector's Edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzXm5A2dq3g

you never did own, since you cant resell your license or rights to use them in a context

You do still own the software but you are limited as to what you can do with it. As for as situations where the technological measure fails to "effectively control" or "effectively protect" (online functionality it depends on to work no longer works) then as per the DMCA and the redundant DMCA excemption (if the DMCA applies for you country) then you are good to circumvent the DRM so that you can use your owned software. It doesn't matter what a store TOS says, this is covered by precedent in similar prior cases.

I remember a similar argument from the companies about CDs and ownership. I don't remember what exactly it is but their argument at the time boiled down to you own the CD but not the music on the CD. So my suggestion at that time was to scratch up every CD and make the companies pay to replace their defective product. Not that I did this , and the movement didnt happen =).

When games are pretty much only fun online and the company who owns the servers shuts them down you are out of luck.

I got lucky with my favorite game being picked up by Voobly.com (Age of Empires II) so I can still play it online but even they won't be around forever.

Even games from GOG that you can download won't be playable forever since newer OS can break them and old hardware will die.

Any game big enough to have DRM will have a group crack it sooner or later.

MAZter wrote on 2024-04-15, 16:31:

This is why we prefer to collect physical game copies.

Unfortunately, that's not enough for certain games released in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Some of those have online authentication DRM, and the servers which used to facilitate that are no longer functional. Meaning, you can't legitimately play the physical copy of your game, and have to look for alternative workarounds.

Relevant video from Tech Tangents: Digital decay of 2000s PC game DRM.