Gaming

The problem is that online storefronts all lease (edit: it's actually license) you the games you own until your account is terminated. I miss actually owning media.

I agree, this is such a dangerously stupid move by Ubisoft.

I can only hope that this is just a mistake with an intern on their social account misinterpreting the ToS and that this isn't something Ubi plans to enforce. But damn, is it a bad look for them. Which is a shame, because they've been doing some decent work at improving their image as of late, too.

Data Protection shouldn't be a relevant issue - at least not in the sense that it forcss them to delete accounts. When you process data under the GDPR, you have to identify a lawful basis.

I assume that transactions through the eStore would be handled under the contract basis, with the hosting of the game in the library forming part of the contractual relationship. That would enable them to maintain an account for as long as the contractual relationship persisted.

That basically means GDPR doesn't force them to close an account, they close an account based on their policies because they choose to. That'll be based on their T&Cs, so things will fundamentally circle back to whether their T&Cs are legitimate and lawful.

It is possible that a data subject could potentially raise a claim for damages under the GDPR, on the grounds that the deletion of their account is a breach of contract that amounts to an availability data breach.

@TheTrueLinuxDev They briefly gained my support with the community outreach they used to do with Rocksmith 2014...
Then they launched the shitty subscription service Rocksmith+ and fired most of their community team and I remembered that yeah this is still fucking Ubisoft I was dealing with

@Chozo

I'm not as familiar with Itch but it works the same as GOG in that you can download the installer and keep it, no special activations or DRM required. Right? Because I definitely love that aspect of GOG. I just wish it had a larger library.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they can even let it expire by simple deciding to no longer support it.

That's one thing, and that's an acceptable risk everyone takes when buying from an online storefront, IMO. Eventually, they're going to stop supporting that, and we all kind of accept and agree to that. But this is them cutting off your access because you haven't played recently. They're not dropping support for the games in question, so this feels a bit unwarranted. What does it actually cost them to store your game license and save file? Is that cost really offset by the price of the games, themselves?

And what do you think will happen if their license servers ever go offline?

If Google Stadia is to be considered precedent, they refunded every purchased game and DLC when they shut down their service earlier this year. I should hope that a similar offering is made from other storefronts should they ever decide to cease operations.

At least with Spotify, you don't specifically buy any songs.
GOG is the only good egg in your list. Shame their Linux support is awful...

I've like GOG since whether they disappear they provide installers for users, so it's the best of both worlds of easy launcher management and installer for those that want to archive and self host everything they buy.

Yes that, or skip the paying part.

It's crazy (sad) how much we are all starting to have to rely on the EU to save us from the BS.

Ubisoft appears to have just raised the white flag to all of the seafarers. Yarrrr.

I think it's more of a "they have to host your shit somewhere" even if it's just cold storage think about having to task employees with backing up 7 year old drm onto cold storage. The man hours are better spent elsewhere. I don't love it, but I get it.

Honestly I think I just have black flag on my goobysoft account and I haven't plaid it for so long I don't care if I loose my account, but if I ever want to play that game again and it's gone, I will pirate the shit out of it