DRM Gaming Related questions *spawn*

[Davros]

There's the option of buying the digital license at a discounted rate.

and does the game become playable without any connection to ms ?
one of my issues I have (and I have a few) is if ms ever decide not to run this platform bang goes your games
ms have a history of this I think it was called PlaysForSure it was a service that sold drm'd music
one day they said "hey we've decided to close PlaysForSure sorry youve just lost all the music youve purchased life's a bitch aint it"

 

[AlNom]

Good question...

 

[BRiT]

That's not an accurate statement of what MS did at all. In the end they provided more than a 3 year notice.

Microsoft announced that as of August 31, 2008, PlaysForSure content from their retired MSN Music store would need to be licensed to play before this date or burned permanently to CD,[5] although this decision was later reversed.[6]

Footnote 6:

On April 22, Microsoft notified you that as of August 31st, 2008, we would be changing the level of support for music purchased from MSN Music, and while your existing purchased music would continue to play, you would no longer be able to authorize new PCs and devices to play that music.

After careful consideration, Microsoft has decided to continue to support the authorization of new computers and devices and delivery of new license keys for MSN Music customers through at least the end of 2011, after which we will evaluate how much this functionality is still being used and what steps should be taken next to support our customers. This means you will continue to be able to listen to your purchased music and transfer your music to new PCs and devices beyond the previously announced August 31, 2008 date.

Microsoft continues to recommend that you back up your music on CD or hard drive along with other important data.

Sincerely,

MSN Music team

 

[AlNom]

Doesn't sound great really... How do other stores handle DRM music?

For gaming, you'd hope they'd at least be able to match Steam's commitment (*cough*).

 

[BRiT]

So what are the other stores' plans if they ever opt to stop their business? I couldn't find any statements concerning Steam.

 

[orangpelupa]

Doesn't sound great really... How do other stores handle DRM music?

For gaming, you'd hope they'd at least be able to match Steam's commitment (*cough*).

Steam commitment? The one where they say something like they'll release global offline patch if steam dies?

@BRiT
Dunno with the policy when they die. But EA was pretty awesome in bringing old, pre Origin games into origin.

It ranges from "input your old cd key and get origin copy" to "here your old game has been upgraded to deluxe edition for free for you".

All of them are an ass with truly offline work flow tho.

GoG is an anomaly because its DRM free.

 

[idsn6]

Rather than looking at Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM from last decade, look at how they shut down their ebook store three months ago and removed purchased books from users' libraries just last week.

 

[BRiT]

Once again someone with selective telling of events. Why not tell the entire story? Oh right, because it doesn't paint them as evil as you want them to be. Directly from the story you linked:

Microsoft will refund customers in full for what they paid, plus an extra $25 if they made annotations or markups. ​

When they closed down Groove music subscription service they offered up 2 months to Spotify.

 

[AlNom]

Steam commitment? The one where they say something like they'll release global offline patch if steam dies?

That's what I recalled.

On MS/Xbox store, usually titles affected by licensing are just delisted from new purchases, but they're still accessible via the purchase history, which is the general practice.

In recent memory, MineCraft Story seems to be one of the few exceptions where purchasers were given about a month to download the title once and forever - can't be redownloaded. Not sure why that's the exception so far.

 

[AlNom]

RE: Win10 Offline

You have to go into the WinStore settings to toggle the particular PC for playing your content offline.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-play-windows-store-games-offline-windows-10

Given the size of their gaming market, I'd be surprised if they didn't give a long enough warning about a hypothetical collapse of their store.

 

[idsn6]

Once again someone with selective telling of events. Why not tell the entire story? Oh right, because it doesn't paint them as evil as you want them to be. Directly from the story you linked:

Microsoft will refund customers in full for what they paid, plus an extra $25 if they made annotations or markups. ​

When they closed down Groove music subscription service they offered up 2 months to Spotify.

As you note, I linked directly to the entire story so that I didn't have to quote it all here. I'm hiding nothing, your addition is just basically irrelevant.

How well do you think it would go down if Steam were to retroactively remove all gamers' local libraries on short notice, even with refunds? If they deleted all of your game saves and achievements, would $25 in Steam wallet credits make up for it?

 

[BRiT]

As you note, I linked directly to the entire story so that I didn't have to quote it all here. I'm hiding nothing, your addition is just basically irrelevant.

As if. Thats a critical part of the truth and you didn't mention it at all.

 

[Malo]

Doesn't sound great really... How do other stores handle DRM music?

From my experience it's fairly simple. If you pay for a subscription service like Spotify, Google Music, Apple Music w/e they're called then you're paying to play whatever is in their library whenever you want. If you pay for an actual product, like I do in addition to a subscription to buy actual albums from Google Play Music (to support bands in addition to the copper they get from streaming and for playing in my car), then I download the album in mp3 format and its mine forever. Once I have the files they're my responsibility. The store allows me a total of 3 downloads I believe (in case I lose the files?).

 

[idsn6]

As if. Thats a critical part of the truth and you didn't mention it at all.

Whether it's critical or not depends on the answers to the questions you selectively elided from my post you quoted.

 

[BRiT]

Whether it's critical or not depends on the answers to the questions you selectively elided from my post you quoted.

Those are irrelevant.

My reaction to the events does not matter to anyone else.

 

[idsn6]

I'm not going to teach you what analogies are.

 

[orangpelupa]

That's what I recalled.

On MS/Xbox store, usually titles affected by licensing are just delisted from new purchases, but they're still accessible via the purchase history, which is the general practice.

In recent memory, MineCraft Story seems to be one of the few exceptions where purchasers were given about a month to download the title once and forever - can't be redownloaded. Not sure why that's the exception so far.

On playstation there's PT that got totally pulled from PSN, except the license.

Yep.

They still allow you to keep your PT license. But the game data and store listing has been scrubbed.