European Union Ruling Strikes a Blow to the All-Digital Market
The EU Court Justice has ruled that the secondhand sale of purchased downloaded content is legal. Aaron explains the ruling and ramifications.
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Well it might just be me but I still love my physical copies more than the downloadable copies so the longer this all digital market holds off the better.
I like to be able to go somewhere and purchase a physical copy of a game, so that i still have it even if i somehow have no internet connection somewhere or a circumstance happens where acquiring something digitally is made difficult.
At least with my physical copy i know ill always have it, and dont have to worry about Hard Drive limitations or anything like that ...
Call me old school, but i hope physical media is never made obsolete, and im pretty sure a lot of others feel the same way.
Not just you. I am terrified with this digital trend. I hate the idea of not having my physical good looking pile of games at my desk. I hate it so much that I even refrain to get games I normaly would (re4 and code veronica hd) for being downloadable only.
I strongly prefer physical copies as well. Probably has to do with the fact that when I pay for something, I like to physically see and hold it. Also, I'm a collector, and we collectors prefer our physical copies.
I prefer physical because it gives you the feeling of actually owning something you paid for. Then you can lend the game to a friend or sell it second hand...and let's not forget the retro nostalgia (what will happen if you want to take out your 10 year old console and play the retro games i f you only had your games digitally in a server and they are removed?)
Smart ruling, needed to happen along time ago. I think that the end user's right have been trampled. Now since this has passed, there needs to be some safe guards for the developer/publisher.
Well this ruling allows for, and indeed centers around, the secondhand sale of downloaded media. I would assume that all digital purchases would be stored in various cloud services which would minimize the risk of losing your data. Only time will tell however as I fear that the phasing out of physical media is an inevitability.
My curiosity extends to season pass/multiplayer codes.... when we buy a game we often get a season pass/multiplayer code which is a "single use" download code that is tied directly to our initial purchase. Does this ruling now mean that if I sell my game that the EA's of the world would need to allow the new purchaser of the game a code to use?
It's potentially a huge blow/win for used game sales if my question is answered with a "yes".
I honestly don't know the answer to this question. My honest guess is that the answer would be no as the pass is sort of a free-be gift from the publisher. But I'm sure that this issue and many other applications that are similar will be challenged and interpreted from within this ruling by various lawyers and courts in the coming months.
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I like to be able to go somewhere and purchase a physical copy of a game, so that i still have it even if i somehow have no internet connection somewhere or a circumstance happens where acquiring something digitally is made difficult.
At least with my physical copy i know ill always have it, and dont have to worry about Hard Drive limitations or anything like that ...
Call me old school, but i hope physical media is never made obsolete, and im pretty sure a lot of others feel the same way.
It's potentially a huge blow/win for used game sales if my question is answered with a "yes".
This is all a fairly new process.