Phil doing what Don couldn’t

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6 points

No benefit? I only buy physical (when possible), because then the game is mine. You dont own digital only games, you just license them. I can give back, resell or lend my games and I get a feeling of ownership. I hate the direction the games industry is going.

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6 points

because then the game is mine.

EULAs say otherwise even in that case.

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10 points

They don’t. They clarify that owning a copy of the game does not confer copyright ownership, and they outline public performance rights, but it’s ownership over a physical object in the same way owning a lamp is, or perhaps more appropriately, the way in which owning a book is.

If you say that you “own a copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” no one crawls out of the work to argue IP and copyright law. Everyone understands what is meant.

This is no different.

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3 points

Given the wording of some EULAs that’s debatable. Not that those clauses would be enforceable if anyone actually tried, mind you.

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4 points
*

It’s a physical box that contains a download code. There’s no game inside. No disc, no cartridge, nothing that actually holds the product.

You’re not reselling that.

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4 points

Thats exactly what bugs me.

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5 points

Yes, but understand the exchange you’re having:

“Why sell a physical box if it contains no game? There’s no benefit to buying it!”

“No benefit? Buying physical means I own it!”

Does it not seem like you’re ignoring the actual issue being discussed?

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3 points

But physical disks now won’t let you play unless you download 500GB worth of “updates”

I miss old physical games where you had the disk and that’s it

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1 point

That’s still the half the case on Switch. You can put the cart in and play without installing the game to system storage, but how big the patches are and how necessary they are varies.

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1 point
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A lot of the third-party compilations for Switch include one game and allow you to download the rest (Assassin’s Creed is one).

On the plus side, Nintendo is good about releasing revision cartridges with updates. I think that new copies of Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey have been fully patched for years.

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2 points

because then the game is mine.

What? No, that’s wrong. You only ever purchase a license to play the game. The only thing you own is the package and the disc.

Also, you can just copy the files of the digital download.

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1 point

You only ever own a license and possibly a medium, not the game. From the perspective of the law there is very little difference. Now, the terms of use of a particular DRM platform, this is a different matter.

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