We've all been there right? You paid for a game, it required an active internet connection and a couple of years later the publisher decided they're done with it and shut it down leaving you with a broken game. Annoying.
I want to point out that the reason The Crew is being pointed out and focused specifically is because it was a large game sold to 12m people and it’s a game from France, a country with fantastic consumer protection laws.
It’s being focused because it’s the game with the best shot of having legal action success NOT because it’s the most loved game of all time.
12 million sales isn’t actually all that much relative to major games. France definitely is nice (even if the track record of EU rulings having meaningful impact is very hit or miss).
But it still undermines this as “a movement”. When the first response is “no shit that game got delisted?” you immediately give ammunition for why this is untenable.
As a formal complaint/lawsuit to bring to the government (I actually don’t know how a semi-functional government works because 'merica)? I would still be wary of something that could be deemed as “reasonable” to drop. But it is probably one of the better examples. But that is still more the kind of thing that you have people say “Wait… we are complaining about fucking The Crew?” rather than starting from that standpoint.
Why should any game (a piece of art with thousands of hours of work from developers and artists) have to ever vanish… Literally ever… I can’t think of a single reason no matter what the game is. It doesn’t matter if it was a big success or a small game on itch.
Not at all what I am arguing. I am actually all for preservation and strongly feel that all games/movies/tv/books/whatever needs to either be actively available for purchase at a reasonable price or is fair game for the Internet Archives of the world. Either get your shit together and sell it on GoG or deal with people downloading the ISOs.
But this is not that. This is “Developers need to add features in when they sunset a game”. Which is a much stronger discussion and increasingly has the issue of those developers being increasingly out of a job.
Which… is why I am very curious if even France would rule in favor of this (after the obligatory smoke break or twelve). Because yes, consumer rights are good. So are worker’s rights. And this would disproportionately impact indie devs and corporate studios being shuttered.
Which is why a game that had like ten fans might not be a good rallying cry.
As for why something might deserve to vanish? The cliche example is an actor or actress who did porn when they were just starting out and needed to make rent. Consent is incredibly murky in those situations and, if it resurfaces, tends to go really shitty, really fast. Same with directors and writers who decide “maybe that edgelord movie about how pedophilia isn’t any worse than engaging in capitalsm since you are raping people either way wasn’t the best thing to put my name on…”.
Similarly? While I wouldn’t be TOO surprised either way since he seems pretty cool during interviews, I would be shocked if Elliot Page wouldn’t prefer that Beyond Two Souls never existed considering how much sexual harassment was involved in the making of it (not to mention the anatomically accurate nude model that was clearly just for david cage to masturbate to). Yes, a large team worked hard on that and a lot of people love the game (albeit, more in a “let’s clown on this for Content” kind of way) but… yeah.
And that doesn’t even get into shit like Traci Lords’ early work that is outright illegal to possess. Preserve that shit in the Library of Congress but there is zero reason that should be publicly accessible. Is it The Guy Game or whatever that is the video game that includes underage porn?
I want to point out that the reason The Crew is being pointed out and focused specifically is because it was a large game sold to 12m people and it’s a game from France, a country with fantastic consumer protection laws.
It’s being focused because it’s the game with the best shot of having legal action success NOT because it’s the most loved game of all time.
12 million sales isn’t actually all that much relative to major games. France definitely is nice (even if the track record of EU rulings having meaningful impact is very hit or miss).
But it still undermines this as “a movement”. When the first response is “no shit that game got delisted?” you immediately give ammunition for why this is untenable.
As a formal complaint/lawsuit to bring to the government (I actually don’t know how a semi-functional government works because 'merica)? I would still be wary of something that could be deemed as “reasonable” to drop. But it is probably one of the better examples. But that is still more the kind of thing that you have people say “Wait… we are complaining about fucking The Crew?” rather than starting from that standpoint.
Why should any game (a piece of art with thousands of hours of work from developers and artists) have to ever vanish… Literally ever… I can’t think of a single reason no matter what the game is. It doesn’t matter if it was a big success or a small game on itch.
Art matters and should be preserved.
Not at all what I am arguing. I am actually all for preservation and strongly feel that all games/movies/tv/books/whatever needs to either be actively available for purchase at a reasonable price or is fair game for the Internet Archives of the world. Either get your shit together and sell it on GoG or deal with people downloading the ISOs.
But this is not that. This is “Developers need to add features in when they sunset a game”. Which is a much stronger discussion and increasingly has the issue of those developers being increasingly out of a job.
Which… is why I am very curious if even France would rule in favor of this (after the obligatory smoke break or twelve). Because yes, consumer rights are good. So are worker’s rights. And this would disproportionately impact indie devs and corporate studios being shuttered.
Which is why a game that had like ten fans might not be a good rallying cry.
As for why something might deserve to vanish? The cliche example is an actor or actress who did porn when they were just starting out and needed to make rent. Consent is incredibly murky in those situations and, if it resurfaces, tends to go really shitty, really fast. Same with directors and writers who decide “maybe that edgelord movie about how pedophilia isn’t any worse than engaging in capitalsm since you are raping people either way wasn’t the best thing to put my name on…”.
Similarly? While I wouldn’t be TOO surprised either way since he seems pretty cool during interviews, I would be shocked if Elliot Page wouldn’t prefer that Beyond Two Souls never existed considering how much sexual harassment was involved in the making of it (not to mention the anatomically accurate nude model that was clearly just for david cage to masturbate to). Yes, a large team worked hard on that and a lot of people love the game (albeit, more in a “let’s clown on this for Content” kind of way) but… yeah.
And that doesn’t even get into shit like Traci Lords’ early work that is outright illegal to possess. Preserve that shit in the Library of Congress but there is zero reason that should be publicly accessible. Is it The Guy Game or whatever that is the video game that includes underage porn?