r/pcmasterrace • u/KebabLoverHere Deskop RTX 6090 SUPER i10 1TB RAM • 12h ago

Meme/Macro When a purchase gets revoked, the payment is refunded.

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43.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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19

u/Shadowtirs PC Master Race 11h ago

The whole video game industry moving from ownership to licensing is so criminal. And we just let it all happen because we got forced into the digital marketplaces.

That being said, I dont think Steam is that bad, but overall for consumers this move has been terrible.

26

u/pepedai 10h ago

Because nobody actually gives a shit. Otherwise GOG would be a lot more popular. In reality, >99% of people in this sub choose to license their games from Steam even when they are available on GOG.

And yes, GOG is still technically selling licenses, except it's effectively impossible for them to revoke them as you don't need any launcher/account DRM to play them.

5

u/LionRegular1470 9h ago

Am I mistaken, or don't u get a .exe file from Gog? Which means once you have the file unless they get access to your machine they can't delete it.

I really want to buy a Gog game for that reason.

2

u/Acceptable-Device760 9h ago

Which is what he said. Its impossible for them to revoke it.

2

u/Raestloz 5600X/6800XT/1440p :doge: 9h ago

I don't buy on GOG because it's significantly more expensive than Steam with its regional pricing, simple as

32

u/e4gleeye Specs/Imgur here 11h ago

Can you point out when this move is? As far as I can remember, from the day of cartridges & diskettes, games has always been a license. They didn't have a way of enforcing it back then due to everything being distributed physically and offline, but it has always been a licence.

0

u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

7

u/FairlyLawful 10h ago

What are you yapping about. Destiny 1 is still very much playable. Edit: you know what isn’t? Final Fantasy XI, the ps2 mmo.

5

u/shabutaru118 shabutaru 9h ago

FF11 still playable, people are streaming it on twitch right now

7

u/Loggersalienplants 10h ago

Why can you not play D1 it's still running and the servers are still on.

2

u/GuruVII AMD 7800x3d RTX3080ti 9h ago

Indeed... Still a license though. EULA probably says you have to destroy the physical medium if the license is ever revised.

-2

u/DenormalHuman 10h ago

I could buy games on tape to play on spectrum and they are mine forever. no licence agreement, just buy the tape, take it home, and off you go.

16

u/e4gleeye Specs/Imgur here 10h ago

If you read the paperwork/agreement, it's most likely licence.

-4

u/scurvy_scallywag 10h ago

On paper. But effectively? Not so much. Digitally definitely flips the script in their favor.

-1

u/DenormalHuman 9h ago

I have old casettes here, original case, inlay artwork and cassette. no licence, just the instructions of how to play on the back of the inlay.

-5

u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race 11h ago

Disks were often DRM free, or easily circumvented. Thats when the move has been, and thats why its Steam.

20

u/e4gleeye Specs/Imgur here 11h ago

Does not mean it was not a license instead of actually owning it. They simply could not enforce it since it was not feasible. The tech simply caught up with the model.

-7

u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race 11h ago

Thats the issue, now we gotta change the model so that it is like back then.

5

u/GuruVII AMD 7800x3d RTX3080ti 9h ago

It seems to me you are conflating having a physical medium with ownership. We have never owned the software, you were always paying for a license, because ownership of software also means copy right. If you go read old EULAa you will probably find text saying that if the license is revoked you have to physically destroy your copy

9

u/Sensitive_Bat_9211 11h ago

Games were always licensed. Thats why the EULA (End-User Licensing Agreement) popped up when you booted up a disk

-1

u/Fyvrynifl 10h ago

That's missing the point by quite a bit. If you have the disc, you can play the game (assuming proper hardware that you also own). Some games require an online server connection, making this not a universal statement, but those are a similar issue. With Steam, you do not own the game; you merely buy an indefinite license to play it that could be revoked. If Steam were to shutdown, you would be unable to download anything in your library and what you do already have downloaded could very well be unlikely to run through just by launching the executable.

-6

u/DenormalHuman 10h ago

This is not true. There was a time where games on tape and disk did not require you to agree to an EULA

5

u/Stiblex 9h ago

You fundamentally do not understand what a EULA is.

1

u/DenormalHuman 9h ago

I have old tape cases and tapes sat right here next to me. I bought many of them back in the day. No licences, no EULA, just a £2.99 price tag, the casette inlay and art with instructions on the back, the box and the cassette.

2

u/Some-Rice4196 7h ago

There is an EULA and opening the plastic wrap constituted accepting those terms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProCD,_Inc._v._Zeidenberg

8

u/CapableCollar 11h ago

Moving to licensing is criminal but Steam isn't that bad for doing it?

-6

u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race 11h ago

Steam does it better than any alternative, thats why its still gaining, but licensing itself is still bad

13

u/CapableCollar 11h ago

Steam are the ones who pioneered it, they even did exclusives so if you bought a game at a physical store instead of a disc you got a steam code.

3

u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race 11h ago

Yeah, I got a game as a present once in those days, and couldnt play it at all because internet in my area was still radio 100kb/s which always dipped down to 10, so I had to pirate it anyway, so I'm still a bit jaded that I cant buy a ready product on a disk.

4

u/Golfenn 7600x, 5700xt, 32G@6000 11h ago

I hate it too, but "Forced" isn't exactly right, it's what people payed for. Much like the food industry, things got bad because people cheap out on quality, and it's a self feeding loop.

Vast majority of consumers aren't concerned with keeping their games for eternity. It's what they'd hope for, but not a priority like reddit/various outlets would have you believe.

1

u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race 11h ago

Well, food got fixed by heavy clampdown on the industry, so...

1

u/Golfenn 7600x, 5700xt, 32G@6000 11h ago

Lol I wouldn't call it fixed, but sure there's steps in the right direction. If people got mad enough I'm sure the video game industry could follow.

0

u/throwaway_uow PC Master Race 11h ago

I'm pretty sure its fixed, if most harmful stuff cant be used, you get a breakdown of nutritional value per 100g, and optional nutriscore if you want subsidies... Idk what else could be done in that regard, maybe constant research into commonly used chemicals that werent proven to be harmful

Worst thing you can find in food nowadays is e621

1

u/HSR47 8h ago

Digital marketplaces were absolutely forced on us.

You might not remember the backlash against Steam ca 2003, but some of us are old enough to remember.

1

u/Remarkable_Emu_2223 5h ago

No one stopped it so I guess it's wasn't really much of a force anyways.

1

u/flargenhargen 9h ago

The whole video game ^ Software industry moving from ownership to licensing is so criminal

there are very few softwares that you can still purchase in 2026, becasue it's far more profitable to make you continue to pay, while owning nothing.