Just got one step closer to being a digital download advocate

[RARusk]

There is one problem with digital downloads - unannounced delistings. A couple of weeks ago I went to the PS Store on my PS3 to look at how much to purchase both of the Monkey Island games. Back then they had the Purchase button and cost. My plan was to use my gift card to purchase Hitman 3 then use the remainder to purchase both MI games. Last night I did the Hitman 3 purchase on my PS4 then hooked up the PS3 to get the MI games. Unfortunately, when I tried to acquire them the Purchase button was gone and I can no longer acquire them from the Store. There was no warning they were going to do this or I would have done this sooner. The good news is that both games are on disc but is Europe only - the bad news is that the disc is pricey but it something to look out for in the future.

[YoshiM]

I ran into this just last night. I was setting up my Xbox to just be a, well Xbox and not a be all emulation machine. When I modded my original system years back, I backed up my data but since then the drive that data was on died. Not a huge deal except I was getting Karaoke Revolution Party set up and I used to have the DLC (which was expensive). Well, don't anymore and no way to redownload it officially.

Thankfully kind folks who archived that stuff had it available, so I could get it. So if anything stuff is "out there" like aliens and Tommy Chong, but no longer in the legit way.

[Gameguy]

Thankfully kind folks who archived that stuff had it available, so I could get it. So if anything stuff is "out there" like aliens and Tommy Chong, but no longer in the legit way.

Thankfully most content will still be available in some way, much like abandonware was available unofficially around 15 years ago. It's fans that make old content still available, when companies can't be bothered as it's no longer profitable.

I just don't want to reward companies with practices I disagree with so I won't be buying digital content. It's like paying to rent a digital movie, you don't even get to keep the file and it's almost as much as a used DVD or Bluray anyway.

[SpaceHarrier]

As much as I have been adopting digital downloads lately, even over readily available physical counterparts where there is little or no price difference, anti-consumer issues pop up from time to time to remind me why physical media is still relevant.

Case in point, news is making the rounds that the PS3 and PS4 essentially contain a 'suicide battery' of sorts. The CMOS battery keeps your internal clock going, but is also tied to your digital purchases. If the battery is dead, or changed, the system must 'check in' to the Playstation network server to re-sync the clock and reactivate your digital purchases. If the server can not be reached (either due to lack of internet connection, or if the Playstation server is no longer active in the future) your PS3 or PS4 digital purchases will return an error message (80010601). I'm unsure of the rules for posting video links here, but if you search Youtube for CMOS PSN, the first video will show this process. Again, this is speaking to the future when both the battery has died, and also presuming that the Playstation server responsible for re-sync might be deactivated.

Just a reminder to us that by design we don't own anything but a limited license to play a digitally purchased game, and within all the legalese of the agreement we are forced to accept is a statement that no guarantees are made as to the continued functionality of those games whatsoever. It's a shame that I should have to reconsider technology that is both more convenient and makes hoarding more physical objects obsolete because of publisher/manufacturer greed and control.

[YoshiM]

As much as I have been adopting digital downloads lately, even over readily available physical counterparts where there is little or no price difference, anti-consumer issues pop up from time to time to remind me why physical media is still relevant.

Case in point, news is making the rounds that the PS3 and PS4 essentially contain a 'suicide battery' of sorts. The CMOS battery keeps your internal clock going, but is also tied to your digital purchases. If the battery is dead, or changed, the system must 'check in' to the Playstation network server to re-sync the clock and reactivate your digital purchases. If the server can not be reached (either due to lack of internet connection, or if the Playstation server is no longer active in the future) your PS3 or PS4 digital purchases will return an error message (80010601). I'm unsure of the rules for posting video links here, but if you search Youtube for CMOS PSN, the first video will show this process. Again, this is speaking to the future when both the battery has died, and also presuming that the Playstation server responsible for re-sync might be deactivated.

Just a reminder to us that by design we don't own anything but a limited license to play a digitally purchased game, and within all the legalese of the agreement we are forced to accept is a statement that no guarantees are made as to the continued functionality of those games whatsoever. It's a shame that I should have to reconsider technology that is both more convenient and makes hoarding more physical objects obsolete because of publisher/manufacturer greed and control.

Holy hell....that's news to me. I wonder if the Vita might be in the same boat? The upside in my case is I don't have a lot of digital stuff for PS3 and I haven't played much of anything on it. But still-that totally sucks.

[gbpxl]

reminds me a lot like how GM says when you buy a car, youre not actually buying the car. no youre buying the right to drive that car and thats it. you cant perform any maintenance on it yourself or modify it somehow

[RARusk]

The modding community is probably already hard at work finding ways to overcome these problems. I'm not too worried. The floodgates will open once the last PS3 update is jailbroken as Sony will have abandoned the model and won't stop people from modding it.