Hi there, We removed Dark and Darker from sale on the Epic Games Store on March 5 in consideration of a court decision in Korea between Nexon and the game's publisher, IRONMACE. On November 1, 2025, we will be removing Dark and Darker from your library, at which point it will no longer be playable via the Epic Games Store.
Effective immediately, players can no longer purchase Redstone Shards or the Legendary Status upgrades via the Epic Games Store. Players can continue to use the Redstone Shards that they have previously purchased until November 1, 2025.
We will issue a refund to all players who have purchased the Legendary Status upgrade. Refunds will be issued to the player’s original payment method, and where that’s not possible, players will receive a refund to their Epic account balance. We are unable to provide refunds on Redstone Shards.
If you have not received a refund by July 1, please contact player support.
Thank you,
The Epic Games Store team
What? That's explicitly false. Grab nearly any instruction booklet for physical media, at least for any from 1990 or later. There are explicit sections laying out that you have licensed the content. 35 years ago.
In another comment on this post, someone pointed out that IBM began software licensing in the 50s. So... 75 years ago.
How far back are you going here?
For stuff like game carts/discs, VHS, and DVDs they simply had no way of enforcing the license terms, and the terms much more often included clauses for transference (lending, resale).
By law, it was almost always a license. That was the entire push behind the old attempts to criminalize backup devices and emulation (the bleem! case is good to read up on).
No arguments about how things worked out in day to day life, but a lot of shit was far more of a legal grey area that no one cared to persue. It wasn't as much of a difference of legal rights.
Edit: Well shit, I might be wrong about this. A quick search of the Pokemon Blue Instruction Booklet on the Internet Archive has a section toward the end about copying/backups and not being allowed to rent the game out wirhout approval, but nothing about the license for use.
That said, I'm certain I've seen licensing terms in multiple instruction books from that decade. Maybe it was in the secondary black and white booklet that was generic but came with every GB cart? Don't know where mine are, or if I even still have those.
Ok, checking my physical stuff. Ape Escape for PS1 has no licensing terms in the manual. Just warranty. Great game btw, I'm due for a replay.
Bubsy 3D is next in my collection of PS1 games still CIB, and it does though. Last page forbids transference or resale. Somebody better call that retro game store I bought it from for the lols.
By the way, Bubsy 3D isn't even worth it for the laughs. Not "so bad it's good". Just "so bad it's bad". It cribs the weird control style from Jumping Flash, but does such a worse job with it.
So it looks like the licensing thing may just be case by case. That would explain why some people insist there was licensing terms, and others insist there wasn't.
Books can't say "by buying this book, nuh uh, you secretly agreed to blah blah blah."
That shit got thrown out a century ago. Fuck off making excuses for corporate bastards in a new medium.