Happy twenty-first birthday, Pirate-Community!

[Reese Riverson]

It's also a reason I am not a fan of the digital only future these companies want, be it games or content you watch like movies and TV. Let alone live service games.

Look at games that get shut down and you can't play them again, the only exception I've seen so far was Knock Out City where they allowed you to download everything to host the server yourself. Now that is okay in my opinion since they provided a way to keep the game playable and alive for the communities that still enjoy it.

[DaveRattlehead]

Even the people working for Ubisoft hate Ubisoft, so that wouldn't be strange at all

[Mortamon Saturn]

It's also a reason I am not a fan of the digital only future these companies want, be it games or content you watch like movies and TV. Let alone live service games.

Look at games that get shut down and you can't play them again, the only exception I've seen so far was Knock Out City where they allowed you to download everything to host the server yourself. Now that is okay in my opinion since they provided a way to keep the game playable and alive for the communities that still enjoy it.

That's why, if things have to be digital, I'll always be happy to support iniatives like GOG as it provides DRM-free games, so you actually get to keep and freely use what you buy.

And that's indeed what I despise the most about online-only games and why I tend to avoid them like the plague. Anything that you purchased will be permanently lost the moment it closes... Some people are going to grow up with games which they'll never be able to experience ever again, no nostalgia will be allowed for these products except a fading memory of experiencing it when it was still live...
That's why indeed we should always alternative solutions for such cases, otherwise nothing will remain.

[Reese Riverson]

Especially when a lot of multiplayer games now days are live service games where you dump a ton of money into them as well....

[The Jonster]

Oh no no, we're not Rayman fans remember? We're Rayman stans

[Steo]

I believe a lot of people were kind of mad about the whole NFT thing and quick angry at Ubisoft for the decision. I guess that it is what it is though, they will still do what they want at the end of the day.

[Hunchman801]

The main thing about digital distribution is that you can no longer avoid it. At first, I hoped that buying physical copies of my games would mean that, when the service shuts down (because it will shut down), I would still be able to play my games, but now that nobody releases finished versions of their games, and that updates are usually available from day one, you'll still be stuck with a glitched and incomplete version. I'm not even getting into DLCs...

Maybe buying "gold" versions that have all updates and DLCs is still a solution? Not sure that all games have one, though.

[Reese Riverson]

Sadly you're very much right on that one, Hunch. Splatoon 3 for example, the physical game doesn't actually have the multiplayer data on the cart, it was put in as an update since they were on a time crunch with the release. So that's one game that would suffer from lack of updates, unless you can acquire them by other means when the Switch is no longer in service like the Wii U.

[Mortamon Saturn]

If I'm remembering correctly, most editions of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy only contain the first game on the disk (which was also done due to the game getting rushed if I'm not mistaking)... People of the future are going to experience one hell of a "trilogy".