GTA, Movies, What You Own

What am I buying?

Imagine if you were enjoying a videogame, let’s say Mario 64. You got it at Christmas 3 decades ago or so, and you’ve still got that Nintendo 64 and you still like to plug in into a TV every once in a while and play some classic games. Then imagine if your phone rang and the voice on the other end of the line says ‘this is Shigeyru Miyamoto’, and this voice tells you to throw away any N64 games you own because you on longer have a right to operate them. Besides being a bit confused, or maybe you’d think someone you know was trying to have a laugh, I doubt you’d seriously entertain getting rig of your games. How about if you got a knock at the door and Hideo Kojima was standing outside. Mr. Kojima tells you that your licence for Metal Gear Solid has been revoked, so no more Liquid shouting Snake dramatically. You might be dumbfounded, you might need to sit down, but I don’t think you’d be conceding to Mr. Kojima’s demands. But that’s what we’re seeing happen—not that Miyamoto or Kojima are paying visits to stop our fun, but that people are paying for things and then seeing them taken away again, as if they didn’t own them in the first place.

It’s all about digital-only games, movies, music and just about anything else, and how it they leave you expose to the whims (and more commonly the financial interests) of videogame publishers as to whether you can enjoy them or not, regardless to the money you’ve parted with.

Sony is doing it with movies right now, with over 500 films being removed from fans libraries by September of 2026. These are films that people have paid for, but because Sony’s licence with Canal Studios has expired they will no longer be available to watch. Is this really any different from the absurd, imagined scenes I gave you above? Oh, I’m sure there’s a mention of some provisional statement in the obnoxious mumblings from the cynical obscurantist that we call ‘terms and conditions’, but it don’t that could be reasonably contended to be a justification of such practice. And signs are terrible for those of us that want to go back. Grand Theft Auto is supposed to be a digital-only game, meaning what will almost certainly be the biggest release in the history of videogames, the example that shakes the heads of a thousand executives, has placed a first stake in the ground for the digital downgrade. Then, in ten or twenty years, when Rockstar want to release the next GTA, I suspect GTA 6 will fade fast

The truth is that companies have stolen away the control of the fun fans used to own, and they didn’t even need to break into your home to do it. The tables were turned with contracts and squishy legalities, and the poisonous promise of convenience was all it took to convince so many. I’d like to think things will get better, but then I’m reminded of the people playing videogames today that have never even set foot in a shop to buy a one; time at some point those people will be the only audience for videogames, and they couldn’t lose what they didn’t have.

Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Taking the Multisystem 2 for a spin.