Do you care if you technically don't own a game?

I'll be honest, when I buy a game on GoG, I do take great satisfaction knowing that I can actually put that installer on a USB stick or external hard drive or what have you and essentially "own" it.

But no, I don't really care if I don't "own" a game. Most gamers don't really revisit practically all their games, ever (there are exceptions of course for favorites), and honestly the only thing we lose out on with digital is resale, and frankly that's not a big enough of a deal to get upset about. The advantages of digital far far far outweigh the negatives.

My only fear is that when the dust settles from the "store wars"--that is, every publisher having their own digital storefront, and withholding games from other ones--there will just be too much going on and instead of a handful of really successful marketplaces that have rock-solid foundations and excellent service, we instead get dozens of shaky stores and poor service. If GoG and Steam were the only digital storefronts that existed for the rest of my life, I'd be OK with that.

But no no no, everyone wants a piece of that pie. So now we have EA Origin. And Ubisoft's UPlay. And Epic Game Store. And whatever Ubisoft has. Wonder when 2K will do their thing.

@DocSanchez:

It absolutely is a grey area in many cases. I had bought Peggle HD on my ipad way back in 2013. In 2016 i picked up a new ipad. I was able to download it to that ipad. I deleted it, and then when i went back to redownload it, it wasnt available on itunes any longer.

I remember when everyone was complaining about nintendos way of selling download titles on the wii. The benefit of those non account based sales is you are buying X game for X console. There have been instances where peoples consoles have died and nintendo honored those sales. Of course they are doubling down on this method by now saying "for 3ds" or "for wiiu".

On the other side with Sony you have psn. There is a reason you arent seeing the plethora of psx games on ps4, as was available on ps3. This is because the psn account remains constant. Sony would not legally be allowed to charge you for a license which was already purchased on ps3, on the same account.

Lastly, there are sites, i believe, which allow full control over a digital sale. High res audio sites i believe allow you to burn these files to disc, so ultimately it would be up to the consumer as to how long their ownership was. Heck you buy a music cd back in the day and lose it, you gotta buy a new copy.

No, but kinda. I've always found it fun to pull the shrink wrap off a new title and play.

Hear, hear!

Nowadays I usually finish a game only once and then move on to something else. So I don't really care.

I do. Stores have been telling me for years they were selling me games, not licenses to games. So I treat it as such. If a company wants to enforce that it is merely a license and screw me over some way, I'll get angry.

Nowadays I buy from GOG if I can, because you get the files to do with as you please, so companies cannot do as much to you.

I also believe that any limitations placed on consumer freedom/rights with a game, should come with severely lower prices.

When a digital game is discontinued, it remains in the library of the owner and they can continue to download it at any time.

I think I have a few on the Xbox 360 and steam.

The agreement between stream and the publisher on whether they can continue to sell the product, is separate from the agreement between steam and the consumer on the consumers right to own a license to use that product.

@heirren: Sometimes digital content will continue to be available to you through your download history.

@foxhound_fox: Streaming lol, oh god it makes me laugh every time I hear it.

@HalcyonScarlet:

Its listed, but just greyed out. Not available.

What I hate more is I have the game but my console is broken and part replacement cost higher than getting a backwards compatible console.

I would always like to be able to own a game on an individual basis without having to continuously pay into a subscription model. Streaming and rentals are fine, but for those that like to keep a library of their favorite games, that needs to always be an option without having to give up hundreds of dollars over multiple services and never owning what you play.

Not at all. I am lucky to find some time to play a game, never mind going back and playing it a second time.

if i pay for a game i expect to own the game.

not sure how stadia will work in that regard. with the frequency that google shuts big projects down, because beyond search, maps and chrome they're just not that good at making stuff themselves, who on earth is going to trust them with a game library they've paid full price for, knowing soon as they get bored with stadia or they make a mess of it your library might vanish into the ether

I care, but considering its been a while since I bought a physical game, I suppose I wouldn't cry if we enter the era of digital only...

As far as I'm concern, I still own a game if I pay for it...

Physical all the way...

Digital when it won't cost me more than a dime!!!

I think that's the thing, though, you're not creating a library, you're getting a membership to one.

So instead of buying your own books, for example, and building a nice collection of novels and then suddenly losing it in a fire, you're instead going to a place and for a cheap monthly price accessing their books. If their library burns down, it's no real loss to you outside of the fact you just need to find another library.

It's the same either way. You can lose a physical game or a digital game. As long as I have access then it's all good.

I don't get people's fascination with owning games everyone ends up selling them all anyway when you get a new machine. People paying thousands a year to fill house with old gaming shit the way I spend dollars on Steam games we all won't ever play. I'd love retro collecting if it wasn't so pointless

As for this gen, most aren't even on the disc in first place and the irrational fear of losing something forever is kind of whack, most the best games are resold many times over. Maybe gaps in time you couldn't buy SMB1 or SotN, but you don't need permanent access to everything, yet with archival efforts you literally can. So if you want to keep every game so you can play the shitty ones whenever, be my guest, cause they'll just resell them and I"ll play them again.

As for me, I rather pay $15 a month, than buy Ubisoft games 1 at a time. If I do EA's $5 i get all the new shit in a year although I do that service off and on. And Ultimate Game Pass is best deal in gaming and is the future of all gaming, and crybabies fighting it and cloud. All of that for $35 a month, unless I waited 2 years for new games to get old, $40 a month ain't gonna get me shit.

Only games I feel worth collecting are PS1-PS2 and Xbox/360. Yet, majority of the best stuff is remastered on new machines, and can get rid of as I buy them digitally.

you're required to pay full price for games with stadia though.

so you're paying a membership fee, which is probably for the privilege of 4k gaming hardware and streaming capabilities, then you have to buy games on top of that. at least that's my understanding. the thing i'm unclear on is what happens if i've paid full price for a game but stop my membership.

i'm in a kind of similar situation with audible i guess. i have 50+ audio books that i play through their app. if i stopped my membership i'd still get to play my books through the app. but if they were to go bust, hypothetically, then i'd likely lose my books. i could download all of them and try and circumvent the drm but not sure how much success i'd have. difference with stadia obviously is you don't get to download games, it's all streamed

Yes, i like to have a Collection.

Yes if I own it I can do whatever Iwant with it..

If I don't well then I can't... and sometimes I want to do all kinds of things that a digital license won't allow me to do, some as simple as replaying the game X years later only to find that the digital download service

has been cancelled or theres no distribution or whatever and all kiinds of stuff like that.

Yes.

Having to keep paying for a subscription to keep access to games you got through that subscription, I don't want that.

Yeah I have a bunch of old manuals myself.

Honestly I don’t really care, most games I beat once and I have moved on to something else.

I agree.

I don't care. I'm not an obnoxious racist toxic asshole on PSN, Steam, Origin, or XBL so I don't have to worry about getting banned and losing access to my games. And even if I do for some reason get the boot from these services and lose access to the games then it's whatever to me. I'm not emotionally attached to gaming at all. ??‍♂️

I also don't care what effect my choice of convenience over practicality has on other gamers.