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Quote of the day by Gabe Newell: "Piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue" — Sony just proved why digital storefronts are broken (www.windowscentral.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 42 points 4 months ago (42 children)

Don't know why you're quoting Gabe in this instance, Valve is selling the same "licenses" Sony is, revokable at the whims of the publisher.

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  • [–] 130 points 4 months ago (14 children)

    Valve have a long history of ensuring that games purchased are still downloadable for customers who purchased them even after publishers have pulled their game off the store, or of providing refunds.

    Sony has done neither and that’s a core part of the problem.

    Part of this is Valve’s agreements with the publishers.

    Sony could easily do this but they’re poisoned by the music and movie industries.

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  • [–] 95 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah for all the shit steam gets, I bought that now de-listed Deadpool game like, however many years ago when it first came out (it was okay thanks for asking) and recently started a family sharing thing with my partner on steam, who was surprised to see that not only did I own it, but she could play it through steam's family share. Are they perfect? Hell no, but is Gabe right about this? Hell yes.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago

    I bought a game and similarly forgot about it for years, and when I finally got around to playing it there was no discussion board. Come to find out the game was completely delisted, felt like I was in a ghost town, but it was still functional!

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    I've got a few like that too. Apparently The Last Remnant got a remaster which for some reason didn't get a PC release. despite the original being on PC. That sucked, but whatever. Then they removed the original from Steam.

    Fuck you, Square.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    As far as I know, Sony has the same history for games. Valve does not sell movies and TV.

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  • [+] 3 points 4 months ago (6 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (5 children)

    until they don’t

    why would you trust Sony with anything?

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  • [+] 0 points 4 months ago (4 children)
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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    the entire point is Sony can’t be trusted to keep any of this in the future given their current behavior

    the facts of their current policies mean nothing

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago* (8 children)

    As far as my account goes, even when publishers remove games, I still have access to my files.

    This is crucial for community led projects that revive game servers, like The Crew, Hawken or Blacklight Retribution.

    Sony is remotely deleting stuff (or more accurately, threatening to do so)

    Just to clarify: I still prefer buying on GOG but the catalog there is slimmer. Steam so far has been more aligned with their users' rights.

    The fact that a company loses a license to something in a game disallows them to keep selling them, not stealing them back from their customers.

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  • [–] -3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (7 children)

    even when publishers remove games, I still have access to my files.

    Your personal experience here is not relevant. Everyone lost access to their files when Valve allowed Sony to pull Concord from Steam.

    Or when Valve pulled Total War Arena, The Day Before, The Culling 2, etc.

    Sony is remotely deleting stuff

    Sony is not deleting anything. They're just revoking your access to it.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    You can still download the client side files for those games after de-listing.

    And it's not Valve that chose to pull down those games. It would be quite the power play for Valve to be able to tell other companies their games are no longer able to be sold.

    Sony is deleting purchased movies from people's libraries. It's the same as when Ubisoft deleted the Crew from people's libraries, so they are no longer even able to download the client files after delisting.

    Delisting and deleting are not the same thing.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    We are not discussing delisting. We're discussing games that were removed completely.

    And it’s not Valve that chose to pull down those games

    And it's not Sony that chose to pull down these movies.

    Delisting and deleting are not the same thing.

    That's exactly right.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    If you know there's a difference then why are you saying customers who bought those games no longer have access to the files? You should know that's not true if you know how delisting works on Steam.

    I don't know if it's Sony's choice or not but I know your statement about how it was Valve who chose to delist those games was incorrect.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago* (2 children)

    So you’re conflating delisted Steam games with items being permanently removed from libraries on purpose?

    I'm not conflating anything, you are. I was discussing games permanently removed. If Concord is still accessible then I stand corrected on that account. What about the other games I listed?

    I don’t know if it’s Sony’s choice or not

    Sony does not control the licenses for these media. They have no choice to make.

    I know your statement about how it was Valve who chose to delist those games was incorrect.

    It would be, had I made that statement.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    Pointing out that Sony (apparently) making Concord unable to be downloaded again is not at all like how Valve lets delisted games usually still be downloaded by people who owned those games is the opposite of conflation. Conflation is when you say Valve is just like Sony when it comes to delisted games in that they both don't let you download the game files again even though that's false for one of those companies.

    Do you not realize what you said with these lines?

    Everyone lost access to their files when Valve allowed Sony to pull Concord from Steam.

    Or when Valve pulled Total War Arena, The Day Before, The Culling 2, etc.

    Did you think you named the actual publishers for those games this whole time and didn't realize you put it all at the feet of Valve? Did you not remember that you said Valve has the power to allow a publisher to delist their games or not?

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    Conflation is when you say Valve is just like Sony when it comes to delisted games

    If you're going to repeatedly attribute statements to me that I've never made in bad faith then I see no reason to continue this conversation.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Do you own concord on steam? Check again you can probably download the client anyway. I don't have it, but I remember for a brief time people were playing with community servers after it got taken down.

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  • [+] 31 points 4 months ago (10 children)
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  • [+] 13 points 4 months ago (3 children)
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  • [–] 17 points 4 months ago*

    valve (actually the devs) does not put DRM restrictions into most games. most of them don't work without steam because the developer coded it with the expectation that steam will always be there, and that can be fixed with the goldberg steam emulator.

    most games you can just download from ypur library, prepare it for goldberg, and it will work without steam

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago

    I have this mentality too so it's really weird for me to see so many people just blindly praise Valve. Corporations have great track records until they don't. Don't get too comfortable.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Not the same

    Exactly right, it's not. You're talking about delisted games, not removed games.

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  • [+] 2 points 4 months ago (5 children)
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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago* (4 children)

    Can't have what on other platforms? What second point?

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  • [+] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)
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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    because Sony is clearly absolute garbage...

    name something valve has done that's horrendously stupid and anti consumer...

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Fighting the classification of lootboxes as gambling. Sony is absolute garbage, but Valve isn't perfect.

    https://youtu.be/13eiDhuvM6Y?is=6S3VWl4DnKcaw3LQ

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