New law could change how you buy games on Steam
www.pcgamesn.com
external-link
A new law has been passed in California which prohibits the use of words like "buy" and "purchase" on digital storefronts like Steam.

To which I said something like ‘But all that does is highlight the problem without actually changing the situation.’

I think the idea is, that the minimally invasive regulation only has to fix the information imbalance between producer and consumer. Then, once the consumer has all the information, they can make an informed racional market actor descision. That’s supposed to price shitty rip offs out of the market eventually.

… yeah I don’t believe it works either.

sp3ctr4l
link
fedilink
54M

It doesn’t make any sense if the whole market is shitty rip offs.

In this case I’m not saying all games are bad, shitty games, but they are all shitty rip offs in the sense that they all legally can, and many do just suddenly deactivate, and you’re not even compensated for this.

The whole fundamental legal trick the software industry has pulled is making everything into a license for an ongoing service, as opposed to a consumer good.

And the problem is that this is now infecting everything, expanding as much as possible into anything with a chip in it.

Even if the consumer is perfectly informed, it doesn’t matter if the entire market is full of fundamentally unjust bullshit, as there aren’t any alternatives.

All you get is consumers who are now informed that their digital goods can poof out of existence with no recourse.

But the whole market isn’t shitty rip offs.

sp3ctr4l
link
fedilink
14M

Please reread the second sentence.

The second sentence isn’t true.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
1
edit-2
4M

Can’t Stardew Valley, Undertale, Outer Wilds and No Man’s Sky also be legally removed from your Steam library for any reason?

Yes, and if you don’t like it you don’t have to buy them. It’s why I prefer not to use Steam.

They’re just gonna go all in on marketing to Kyle and his CoD buddies, and ignore the nerds who care about weird shit like ownership.

Create a post

For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki

Rules:

  1. Be Respectful.
  2. No Spam or Porn.
  3. No Advertising.
  4. No Memes.
  5. No Tech Support.
  6. No questions about buying/building computers.
  7. No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
  8. No Let’s Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
  9. No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
  10. Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
  • 1 user online
  • 136 users / day
  • 400 users / week
  • 937 users / month
  • 3.09K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 4.59K Posts
  • 29.9K Comments
  • Modlog