You may not own what you purchase: Licensed content vs. digital ownership
Malachi Brown - Contributor
Graphic by Gabriella Vinson
Since the dawn of digital media, one question has persisted: what do consumers actually own when we purchase digital products?
Gaming giants PlayStation and Xbox answered.
As games continue to move towards digital transactions and away from physical disc sales, many gamers have questioned what they actually purchase when they buy a digital game.
Sony answered this question by altering their terms of service. According to the changes to PlayStation’s terms of service in section 10, when a consumer purchases a digital game through the PlayStation Store, they are purchasing a digital license to the game.
In fact, the terms of service explicitly state that you do not actually own any part of the game.
“Use of the terms ‘own,’ ‘ownership’, ‘purchase,’ ‘sale,’ ‘sold,’ ‘sell,’ ‘rent’ or ‘buy’ in this agreement or in connection with the content does not mean or imply any transfer of ownership of any content, data, software or any intellectual property rights from SIE, its affiliates, or its licensors to any user or third party,” it reads.
Furthermore, section 10.2 of the terms of service states that “all content” is “revocable,” insinuating that Sony can terminate access to licensed content at any time. Sony, like many mothers around the world, maintains that it can take back what it has given to consumers, with the added caveat that we actually pay for it. At least you get cookies in both cases.
On the other side of this controversy, Xbox’s leadership has made multiple statements asserting that players do own their purchased digital content through the implementation of the disc-to-digital program.
According to VP Jason Ronald, the new disc-to-digital program was designed with the sole purpose of bringing “the benefits of digital to physical discs” and “make it easier for those [game] libraries to move forward with players.”
This includes digital ownership of games and has made digital games transferable from console to console.
So far, these changes have been implemented only on the Xbox One and Series X for Xbox Insiders. The Xbox Insider program lets players test early releases and content as well as preview system updates like the disc-to-digital program.
These changes have yet to hit the larger market, so it’s unclear what the larger player base thinks. However, PlayStation fans have taken to social media to voice their concerns. Highly anticipated titles such as the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will only be released digitally, leaving consumers at the mercy of Sony’s regulations.
The reality is that after the release of GTA VI and other highly anticipated titles at the $80 price point, we as consumers are paying more for video games than we ever have before across all platforms.
And yet, whether we own these games is somehow in question, and our only other option, buying the physical disc, has been taken away as many games move away from physical releases.
The question we must ask ourselves is: how much are we, the honest consumers and passionate gamers, willing to put up with before we make an effort to defend what we rightfully own?
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You may not own what you purchase: Licensed content vs. digital ownership
Since the dawn of digital media, one question has persisted: what do consumers actually own when we purchase digital products?
Gaming giants PlayStation and Xbox answered.
As games continue to move towards digital transactions and away from physical disc sales, many gamers have questioned what they actually purchase when they buy a digital game.
Sony answered this question by altering their terms of service. According to the changes to PlayStation’s terms of service in section 10, when a consumer purchases a digital game through the PlayStation Store, they are purchasing a digital license to the game.
In fact, the terms of service explicitly state that you do not actually own any part of the game.
“Use of the terms ‘own,’ ‘ownership’, ‘purchase,’ ‘sale,’ ‘sold,’ ‘sell,’ ‘rent’ or ‘buy’ in this agreement or in connection with the content does not mean or imply any transfer of ownership of any content, data, software or any intellectual property rights from SIE, its affiliates, or its licensors to any user or third party,” it reads.
Furthermore, section 10.2 of the terms of service states that “all content” is “revocable,” insinuating that Sony can terminate access to licensed content at any time. Sony, like many mothers around the world, maintains that it can take back what it has given to consumers, with the added caveat that we actually pay for it. At least you get cookies in both cases.
On the other side of this controversy, Xbox’s leadership has made multiple statements asserting that players do own their purchased digital content through the implementation of the disc-to-digital program.
According to VP Jason Ronald, the new disc-to-digital program was designed with the sole purpose of bringing “the benefits of digital to physical discs” and “make it easier for those [game] libraries to move forward with players.”
This includes digital ownership of games and has made digital games transferable from console to console.
So far, these changes have been implemented only on the Xbox One and Series X for Xbox Insiders. The Xbox Insider program lets players test early releases and content as well as preview system updates like the disc-to-digital program.
These changes have yet to hit the larger market, so it’s unclear what the larger player base thinks. However, PlayStation fans have taken to social media to voice their concerns. Highly anticipated titles such as the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will only be released digitally, leaving consumers at the mercy of Sony’s regulations.
The reality is that after the release of GTA VI and other highly anticipated titles at the $80 price point, we as consumers are paying more for video games than we ever have before across all platforms.
And yet, whether we own these games is somehow in question, and our only other option, buying the physical disc, has been taken away as many games move away from physical releases.
The question we must ask ourselves is: how much are we, the honest consumers and passionate gamers, willing to put up with before we make an effort to defend what we rightfully own?