Thieves! Just cause I don't play those games, doesn't means I don't own them.
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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No, you don't own them. You have a licence for usage, which is revokable. One of the many problems within eaas (everything as a service).
Why was it ever allowed for companies to make unilateral contracts with no representation or limits? The entire ecosystem of digital platforms is full of absolutely ridiculous terms and agreements.
Not only there is no reason why digital media shouldn't be treated as a regular purchase, they want it both ways. Digital storefronts don't say "license" or "rent". They say "Buy", because they know people want to buy it, and many of them wouldn't pay if they couldn't buy it. It's downright deceptive that they label the transaction as a purchase then put a wall of legalese on some corner saying "actually 'buy' does not mean buy".
That's the funny part, they aren't allowed to. But they know no one is gonna bother to sue then over it.
Those ridiculous terms of service are null and void when challenged in court.
All the games I have linked to a ubisoft account were physical purchases that came with a key. As long as the key for my physical copy will work again if I so choose to, then I'm fine with them deleting my account.
"How to make sure i will never return again"
I'm not sure what other uses their strategy has - storage for account data is dirt cheap?
I assume that they already decided that such accounts aren't profitable anyways and that management and migration isn't worth the hassle.
I would never buy from them anymore. I am fairly certain that explains why I could not access my games from years ago.
If I was nearly as in to gaming as I was back in the day I would dust off and raise my jolly old flag.
Thanks for the heads-up! Turns out my account wasn't deleted, but the email address I used for U-Play did get deleted for inactivity*, and so now I'm locked out of my Ubisoft account 🤡 Meh. I'll deal with this tomorrow.
* deleting accounts after only 6 months of inactivity, Tutanota? Really?
remember when buying something with money meant you owned it and no one could take it from you?
I'd buy a dirty cheap Ubi game on Steam, so they won't ever remove the account since it would be a fraud to Steam
Is this legal?
It's entirely legal, yes. As people have been saying for years, you don't own the games, you own a license to them.
Depends, in US (and now UK maybe too) I'd agree on yes, but in EU I wouldn't know, since even selling 2nd hand licence is allowed and perfectly legal, and also any shit written in an EULA doesn't make it legal no matter how small is written and how many times someone might have signed it.
Anyway for any EU citizen here just get in contact with your regional consumer centre for dispute resolution:
And in Australia I’m sure a complaint to the ACCC would go a long way
Let me know when you know.
I mean if we are using that argument a disc copy is the exact same (in a legal sense*). You never own a game "legally", you only own the license. Just with the disc you have an ability to crack the contents inside it.
Ya I wasn't really making an argument.
Law is a sham that only enables corporations apparently.
Is it legal to revoke the purchased license just because I don't use it in a while?
something like: "we can revoke a lisence at any time for any reason" buried in the EULA
Let's say they decide to revoke a game I newly purchased for no reasons. Shouldn't that be illegal even tho the EULA says they can do it? If so, where do we draw the line?
It’s going to take a court case to iron this shit out. It’s coming.
You agreed to the terms of the lisence (Ofc they still don't have full control in actual legal sense, they just have it written like that so they have their freedom to choose and they might not have to provide much of a reason)
The line is wherever the company wants it like in most things because people don't have any power (especially willpower to boycott)
I love how nintendo every couple months creates a big hassle by taking down or claiming videos and other content related to their IP and then a month later Nintendo hits a new sales record
Companies have free reign as long as people keep giving them money because no one is going to sue over a lost copy of assassin's greed
They can revoke the license whenever, but you can sue them for it. Whatever illegal garbage is written in the EULA won't hold up in court.
They will always have a reason. "Our office cat looked at it wrong"... there, a reason /s
It's legal to end a license at your own arbitrary discretion if that's under the license terms (it is)
They probably have something buried in the terms and conditions that nobody reads that says they can.
Fun fact: NFTs would be a perfect use case for this, "you got an NFT for it, then you can use the game"... but they got used to "sell" GIFs instead.
Man, I really love the videogames nowadays but I just do not like at all the companies behind them in the modern videogame industry, especially in the digital age of gaming where nowadays the most convenient option for people is to simply just download them. Nowadays it's very difficult to trust companies to not enact pain in the butt policies like these that are very anti-consumerism.
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