Whereas just about each digital storefront says you are “buying” your video games, the nasty little secret is that you just’re solely ever shopping for a license to entry any given title. Most shops reserve the precise to revoke that license in the event that they so select, and as a brand new California legislation forces shops to truly admit that truth, DRM-free outlet GOG is reminding PC players that you just can reside in a world the place digital video games are yours to maintain.
As The Verge reported yesterday, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a brand new legislation that’ll come into impact subsequent 12 months which primarily bars digital shops from utilizing phrases like “purchase” if you’re spending cash on digital items like video games, motion pictures, and music. It is a well timed transfer given the global consumer rights campaign following Ubisoft’s shutdown of The Crew, and it might see firms that revoke entry to bought video games fined for false promoting.
“If solely there was a storefront that really enables you to personal your video games,” GOG joked on Twitter within the wake of the information. The storefront, which is owned by Witcher and Cyberpunk dad or mum firm CD Projekt, made its identify by promoting DRM-free variations of digital video games, in distinction to the larger digital PC shops like Steam.
Gamers have been fast to level out that GOG’s personal user agreement makes clear that video games you purchase are merely licenses there, too. “Once we stated we allow you to ‘personal’ your video games,” the shop stated in a follow-up tweet, “we meant that it doesn’t matter what occurs—whether or not it’s licensing points, storefronts shutting down, or perhaps a zombie apocalypse reducing off your Web—you’ll nonetheless be capable to play them due to our offline installers. We need to guarantee your gaming legacy is all the time in your palms, not ours.”
We have seen some discussions relating to this tweet so allow us to make clear ⬇️Once we stated we allow you to ‘personal’ your video games, we meant that it doesn’t matter what occurs—whether or not it’s licensing points, storefronts shutting down, or perhaps a zombie apocalypse reducing off your Web—you’ll nonetheless be… https://t.co/MBkC1P9PN2September 27, 2024
And sure, GOG is without doubt one of the few fashionable PC shops that permits you to obtain installers in your video games, again them up, and reinstall these video games any time you need. GOG’s license settlement does imply it might revoke your entry to redownload a given title, however it could possibly’t attain into your pc and delete the installers you have already pulled down.
Different PC shops have a a lot worse observe file with this type of factor. Video games bought on Steam all require the launcher to run, and whereas there’s an offline mode that is hardly a everlasting answer within the aforementioned type of “zombie apocalypse” state of affairs. Some Epic games operate with out the launcher, however not all. And each shops enable publishers to incorporate their very own – generally fairly obtrusive – separate DRM options.
So no, you do not really “personal” your video games on GOG both, but it surely’s quite a bit simpler to hold onto them in perpetuity than these video games you get on different storefronts. As we proceed to reside ever extra on the whims of digital content material suppliers for entry to our video games and media, I want different shops have been keen to take extra cues from what GOG is ready to present.
