There are a lot of video games out there... I mean a lot. Many of those games are more than just puzzle-solving, story telling, or arcade reflex games. Lot's of games allow you to 'craft' something personal and special to you. They allow you to design, model concepts, draft architecture, make pretty things, and use your own creativity to express yourself.
But now more than ever, it has become clear that no matter what you create... it's not really "yours."
This manifests itself in several different ways; I was recently told of the sorrow of people playing games that rely on servers that are exclusively owned by game companies, who have no intention of making sure it's there for you whenever you want... especially when that game is no longer producing the kind of revenue growth the industry calls 'worth it.'
From TechdDirt.com: LittleBigPlanet: Now You Don’t Own What You’ve Created, Either
For several years now, we’ve had a running series of posts discussing how, when it comes to digital goods, you often don’t own what you’ve bought. This ugliness shows up with all kinds of content, including purchased movies, books, and shows on digital platforms. But it has reared its head acutely as of late in the video game industry. The way this goes is that a publisher releases a game in whole, people buy it, and at some later date the publisher decides to shut down backend servers that render the game partially or totally unplayable for those that bought it. This has the effect of deleting pieces of culture, a real problem for those interested in the preservation of this artform, and a real problem for the entire bargain that is copyright, where all that culture is eventually supposed to end up in the public domain.
The thing that spawned this specific lament was to do with PlayStation 4 and their management of the game LittleBigPlanet 3. For many years, things were fine... but then, back in January they announced...
“Due to ongoing technical issues which resulted in the LittleBigPlanet 3 servers for PlayStation 4 being taken offline temporarily in January 2024, the decision has been made to keep the servers offline indefinitely,” Sony wrote in the update, first spotted by Delisted Games. “All online services including access to other players’ creations for LittleBigPlanet 3 are no longer available.”
Now I am a realist. No company is going to operate servers for free, forever. But the way this went down... I don't know...
It's bad enough to have to buy media over and over as the Disc, tape, or "object" fails... but games that we love, and the content we created... I think there should be something in the terms and conditions (and even the operation of the app itself) that should make certain that users know just how tenuous their access is.
But now more than ever, it has become clear that no matter what you create... it's not really "yours."
This manifests itself in several different ways; I was recently told of the sorrow of people playing games that rely on servers that are exclusively owned by game companies, who have no intention of making sure it's there for you whenever you want... especially when that game is no longer producing the kind of revenue growth the industry calls 'worth it.'
From TechdDirt.com: LittleBigPlanet: Now You Don’t Own What You’ve Created, Either
For several years now, we’ve had a running series of posts discussing how, when it comes to digital goods, you often don’t own what you’ve bought. This ugliness shows up with all kinds of content, including purchased movies, books, and shows on digital platforms. But it has reared its head acutely as of late in the video game industry. The way this goes is that a publisher releases a game in whole, people buy it, and at some later date the publisher decides to shut down backend servers that render the game partially or totally unplayable for those that bought it. This has the effect of deleting pieces of culture, a real problem for those interested in the preservation of this artform, and a real problem for the entire bargain that is copyright, where all that culture is eventually supposed to end up in the public domain.
The thing that spawned this specific lament was to do with PlayStation 4 and their management of the game LittleBigPlanet 3. For many years, things were fine... but then, back in January they announced...
“Due to ongoing technical issues which resulted in the LittleBigPlanet 3 servers for PlayStation 4 being taken offline temporarily in January 2024, the decision has been made to keep the servers offline indefinitely,” Sony wrote in the update, first spotted by Delisted Games. “All online services including access to other players’ creations for LittleBigPlanet 3 are no longer available.”
Now I am a realist. No company is going to operate servers for free, forever. But the way this went down... I don't know...
It's bad enough to have to buy media over and over as the Disc, tape, or "object" fails... but games that we love, and the content we created... I think there should be something in the terms and conditions (and even the operation of the app itself) that should make certain that users know just how tenuous their access is.
