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You're going to have to explain how that would work.
Sure, but you're definition of 'obsolete' seems synonymous with 'not my preference'.
More DRM Discussions *spinoff*
- Thread starter Nesh
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You're going to have to explain how that would work.
Sure, but you're definition of 'obsolete' seems synonymous with 'not my preference'.
My preference is irrelevant. The market's preference defines what's obsolete.
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Right. And the last figures I saw had users still showing a preference for physical media.
I would imagine in such a scenario, we would be given a period of time to download titles we own to our own HDDs. There would be a license key file that enables us to run the software we purchased. Then they fade off to existence.
It can be done today, steam games can be played in offline mode.
I imagine that part of buying into steam as a developer is also knowing that valve has a contingency if they go under.
I think it could go a little something like this....
Press Release from the Digital Content Distribution Alliance (DCDA)
The DCDA, representing companies that handle 90% of digital content distribution of movies, music, gaming and books would like to announce the creation of the ContentSafe™ program. This program represents the commitment of the member companies to guaranteeing consumers access to purchased digital content in perpetuity, even in the event that the original content seller is no longer able to provide that access.
To fulfill this commitment, we are also announcing the creation of ContentSafe LLC, an independent entity, funded by the member companies, who will mirror all digital content sold in their storefronts. Should a member company no longer be able to provide access to purchased content, consumers will be able to download the content from ContentSafe for a period of one year and will be allowed to create local backups of their content that will authenticate via ContentSafe servers. After the one year of content availability, ContentSafe will no longer provide downloads of the content, but will continue to provide authentication services indefinitely. At this point, the consumer takes over the responsibility of storing and backing up their content. Should a situation arise where ContentSafe is no longer be able to provide authentication, an unlock mechanism will be made available to allow the content to be accessed freely.
So where's the problem? As long as people want to buy physical media from B&M stores there will be B&M stores selling physical media. When there aren't, there won't be. I'm fine with both situations.
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The real world problem with that is users would need a few weeks notice which means Valve would need to make such a move a few weeks before filing for bankruptcy. Since such a move is basically saying "we're filing for bankruptcy" their immediate revenue drops off a cliff which is why companies generally don't do this because they want money coming in for as long as possible because that may still avert bankruptcy.
Once Valve has gone into administration, they cannot deploy such a solution, they can do nothing at all. Valve's servers would be shut down immediately because there is a real world cost to keeping them running and the administrators need a zero sum balance sheet to assess assets so they can pay creditors.
The urban myth is that Gabe Newell commented that Valve would remove DRM but he made no such pledge because he's not an idiot. If Valve removed the DRM for every game ever sold through Steam that would mean easy mass piracy for every game ever sold through Steam and it would also massively reduce any prospect of a buyer being found for Steam.
This is going to happen eventually to some digital library. It's inevitable.
I like your optimism. You know why this wouldn't happen, aside from cost? Because digital distribution is highly competitive and any provider going out of business is a massive opportunity for affected consumers to re-buy from a surviving competitor.
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Yep. It's the sort of move that'd be necessary if people were refusing to buy digital for fear of losing access to it. As long as people are willing to buy, there's no corporate reason to provide such consumer-friendly failsafes.
i'd love to hear a study on this if you wouldn't mind
I'm not being optimistic. I'm just pointing out that it is possible, easily possible in fact, for these companies to do if they had to. I don't actually think it would be that expensive either. Think of it like insurance, healthy companies paying into the co-op over time will more than be able to cover the expense of one of those companies becoming unhealthy and actually needing to use the service.
Edit: And, to be clear, I do agree that as long as consumers continue to be OK with the risk, adoption continues to rise and a disaster doesn't happen, they probably will try to get away with not providing something like this.
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They way it'd have to work is for a group headed by someone big enough (Google) to opt in and provide this guarantee as a competitive advantage. Buy from Valve and you may lose access to your content. Buy some GOG and you'll be secured against Google's ForeverAfter guarantee, ensuring you have access to everything you buy for as long as Google exists (until the dolphins take over).
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Server farm guy here. It would be ludicrously expensive to maintain a redundant CDN system like that. Server farm costs are astronomical.
I accept your expertise but, keep in mind, it wouldn't have to be a CDN all the time and I woudn't expect that the process of the backup taking over would be seamless or that it would need to be. Maybe you have more of an idea how possible it is to have a contract with a CDN that can be activated on demand (allowing for a phased spin-up period where, initially, people would not be able to download content and could only authenticate and that would ramp up to enabling content download). Up to that point, though, you are acting as off-site backup and fielding (and denying if this is just from a temporary loss of connectivity) requests from consoles that can't connect to the main servers. How expensive is that?
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It would need to be active all the time to allow new content to be stored and made readily available.
Forget "readily available". Now how much would you pay?
To elaborate: This system isn't going to even try to provide uninterrupted access to content no matter the scenario. What it will be designed to do is, in a worst case (where a company shuts down with no advance warning and no time to activate this fail-safe while the company winds down operations), re-enable access to content within a short enough window to prevent people from losing their shit (emotionally) because they lost their shit (their content).
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Another, more realistic approach is to have Digital Content Insurance with your insurance provider. You pay them a fee and if a service goes down, they cover the cost of you recovering digital copies to archive.
I expect months, if not a whole year. Most large and successful companies also see the writing on the wall well in advance and begin shutting down operations while walking away with something as opposed to running the funds bone dry, failing and then announcing a bankruptcy. Failing like an amateur is something I don't expect from any of the big 4.
about CDN,
with sony on PS4, they separate their content take-down with license revoke. So P.T. Silent Hills was taken down from PSN CDN, but the license are still available as long as you already "licensed" it before it was taken down.
thats why the proxy-trick still works. it simply re-routed the PSN content into other server where the installation file is still available.
with sony on PS4, they separate their content take-down with license revoke. So P.T. Silent Hills was taken down from PSN CDN, but the license are still available as long as you already "licensed" it before it was taken down.
thats why the proxy-trick still works. it simply re-routed the PSN content into other server where the installation file is still available.
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The devil is in the details, which this is rather light on. If Sony goes down and PSN goes down how do I get PS4 games? Will PS4 seamlessly access the replacement service, will the repository mail me disc versions of games I've bought?
You can see a profit/los decline and predict financial collapse in advance based on nothing materially changing. But if you see financial doom a year off and make a move that effectively signals your impending doom, your doom is suddenly in your face because very few people will be willing to buy from you and your weekly revenues drop like a stone. Companies don't tend to do this, they begin to make drastic internal changes that do not alert customers, creditors or the market that they are that much in trouble.
And if Sony go down, PSN goes down. They'll be nothing left to proxy around.
Is that not similar to the above? A third party paid by the largest digital distribution networks of digital content, they provide backup for downloads and keys should a member be unable to do so.