<story><title>Ubisoft Says Out Loud: We Want People to Get Used to Not Owning What They Bought</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/19/ubisoft-says-it-out-loud-we-want-people-to-get-used-to-not-owning-what-theyve-bought/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rdedev</author><text>&amp;quot;One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That&amp;#x27;s the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That&amp;#x27;s a transformation that&amp;#x27;s been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don&amp;#x27;t lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That&amp;#x27;s not been deleted. You don&amp;#x27;t lose what you&amp;#x27;ve built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it&amp;#x27;s about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I still have two boxes of DVDs. I definitely understand the gamers perspective with that. But as people embrace that model, they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you&amp;#x27;ll be able to access them when you feel like. That&amp;#x27;s reassuring&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is the longer context. I understand where he is coming from but people like to own things so that they can enjoy them later without getting the company involved again. Sure the save files are there but if the company changes their terms and services it just straight up stop offering them in their subscriptions what good are they? The guy claims that they support multiple mediums now but at the end of the day that&amp;#x27;s a business decision and they could decide to not sell DVDs or things like that anymore.</text></item><item><author>fidotron</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s worth going to the source here because this is being widely misinterpreted:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gamesindustry.biz&amp;#x2F;the-new-ubisoft-and-getting-gamers-comfortable-with-not-owning-their-games&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gamesindustry.biz&amp;#x2F;the-new-ubisoft-and-getting-ga...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That&amp;#x27;s not been deleted. You don&amp;#x27;t lose what you&amp;#x27;ve built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it&amp;#x27;s about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;He could just as well be telling the rest of Ubisoft (and the games industry) that in order for customers to be comfortable you need to not delete things and allow people to keep what they invested in the game, and that if you take things away from them then people won&amp;#x27;t be comfortable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zdw</author><text>The difference here is that Game makers they want the video model - entirely DRM encumbered on DVD or BluRay (trivially broken, but still...) or streamed with an ongoing cost, as opposed to the audio model where you have the option of downloading DRM-free content from multiple sources (Bandcamp, Bleep, Qobuz, etc.) or buying it without DRM on CD.&lt;p&gt;There are some DRM-free gaming - GoG for example, and while Valve still has DRM, Steam hasn&amp;#x27;t been caught up in forcing people to go to perpetual streaming models.&lt;p&gt;From a preservationist standpoint, I really want media available in ways that will last through corporate shenanigans, and platform DRM limited or streaming-only isn&amp;#x27;t it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ubisoft Says Out Loud: We Want People to Get Used to Not Owning What They Bought</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/2024/01/19/ubisoft-says-it-out-loud-we-want-people-to-get-used-to-not-owning-what-theyve-bought/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rdedev</author><text>&amp;quot;One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That&amp;#x27;s the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That&amp;#x27;s a transformation that&amp;#x27;s been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don&amp;#x27;t lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That&amp;#x27;s not been deleted. You don&amp;#x27;t lose what you&amp;#x27;ve built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it&amp;#x27;s about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I still have two boxes of DVDs. I definitely understand the gamers perspective with that. But as people embrace that model, they will see that these games will exist, the service will continue, and you&amp;#x27;ll be able to access them when you feel like. That&amp;#x27;s reassuring&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This is the longer context. I understand where he is coming from but people like to own things so that they can enjoy them later without getting the company involved again. Sure the save files are there but if the company changes their terms and services it just straight up stop offering them in their subscriptions what good are they? The guy claims that they support multiple mediums now but at the end of the day that&amp;#x27;s a business decision and they could decide to not sell DVDs or things like that anymore.</text></item><item><author>fidotron</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s worth going to the source here because this is being widely misinterpreted:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gamesindustry.biz&amp;#x2F;the-new-ubisoft-and-getting-gamers-comfortable-with-not-owning-their-games&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.gamesindustry.biz&amp;#x2F;the-new-ubisoft-and-getting-ga...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That&amp;#x27;s not been deleted. You don&amp;#x27;t lose what you&amp;#x27;ve built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it&amp;#x27;s about feeling comfortable with not owning your game.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;He could just as well be telling the rest of Ubisoft (and the games industry) that in order for customers to be comfortable you need to not delete things and allow people to keep what they invested in the game, and that if you take things away from them then people won&amp;#x27;t be comfortable.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ethbr1</author><text>The implied length of the service, and rights that ownership confers after it&amp;#x27;s terminated, could be a lot less murky.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How long do you expect to run the necessary online components for me to be able to use this?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;What will you do when you turn off the online components required for me to be able to use this?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Are important questions that most services haven&amp;#x27;t provided clear answers to.&lt;p&gt;Getting a global right-to-jailbreak after service is terminated by the owner would go a long way towards making me comfortable.</text></comment>