Gamers Don't Get to Keep OnLive Purchases

[Covarr]

The tl;dr version is as follows: Valve is under no obligation to release the games from the DRM should they go bust. Of course, that doesn't mean they won't.

It does mean, though, that subscribers do not own the content they purchase on Steam - they're renting it.

Officially, perhaps, but at least we have a promise, which is better than nothing. Onlive doesn't even have that.

P.S. Thanks

 

[soapyshooter]

I still don't understand why I'd have to pay a subscription fee and then almost a full price to own a game. WTF? It might be good for people playing on PC that can't afford a gaming rig but if you have the money buy a console, they make more sense than this shit.

 

[JohnSmith]

As if they needed to further cut down on their target group i.e. people who live in "the contiguous united states", who have 5Mbps internet connection that they aren't sharing with anyone or anything and they must not be using WiFi and their screen should be 1280x720, and they will need a dual core cpu. I mean most games have requirements that are less of pain than that particularly for anyone who doesn't live in the united states

 

[Racthoh]

I kinda thought it was a good idea, but then again my PC is about five years old now and I don't have the funds to upgrade it anytime soon.

 

[soapyshooter]

I still don't understand why I'd have to pay a subscription fee and then almost a full price to own a game. WTF? It might be good for people playing on PC that can't afford a gaming rig but if you have the money buy a console, they make more sense than this shit.

Because you're paying for the privilege to play the game, AND for all of OnLive's overheard. Servers, Bandwidth, Licensing Fee's etc... remember, it's just streaming the information to your TV, it's doing all the high-end processing for you. Not that I agree with it, not in the slightest, but that's your reason.

Ok but that still doesn't excuse them having the ability to take away your purchases at will. Its ridiculous. Its like throwing away money and then having someone slap you in the face.

 

[Cyrax987]

I've played the beta of OnLive and I've got to say the service didn't look appealing at all. It launched games pretty fast and for the most part ran pretty smoothly on max settings on Crysis. But everything looked muddy on the screen.

 

[Dexiro]

That sounds terrible. I knew about the subscriptions thing, but deleting everything if you don't use the account for a year?

I like services like steam because my games are all there for as long as the service exists. I could come back after 4 years of no gaming and find all of my old games safe and sound.
It's like OnLive is forcing you to maintain a subscription though, if you stop paying for a year it just throws away your games.

 

[DTWolfwood]

wait who thought they were gonna own the games? i've always thought of this as a rental service like Netflix/Gamefly. so not much of a surprise there.

 

[DamienHell]

This is why I don't do digital distribution, if I have a disk they are gonna have a much harder time taking it away from me.

 

[ratix2]

It's shit like this why digital distribution won't work.

really? because steam, impulse, xbox live and psn are all making boatloads of money, yet it doesent work you say?

 

[syltman]

Well...

No linux support for this = me no getting it

 

[Kanima423]

The more I read about this the more I want to destroy it.

 

[thiosk]

It's shit like this why digital distribution won't work.

This isn't even digital distribution. Its glorified browser flash gaming.

 

[afaceforradio]

It's shit like this why digital distribution won't work.

I'm pretty sure Steam is pretty successful digital sales. As far as losing your content, it doesn't seem any different than losing a character in an MMO when you get banned.

But you'd still have your MMO game, so you could make a new character. I may be reading it wrong, but I think the point is, they take your games away full stop.

 

[Ridgemo]

It's shit like this why digital distribution won't work.

I'm pretty sure Steam is pretty successful digital sales. As far as losing your content, it doesn't seem any different than losing a character in an MMO when you get banned.

But you'd still have your MMO game, so you could make a new character. I may be reading it wrong, but I think the point is, they take your games away full stop.

It is kind of the same. To make a new account you'd effectivly have to buy a new game, although nowadays ofcourse you can just buy the CD code online.

 

[afaceforradio]

It's shit like this why digital distribution won't work.

I'm pretty sure Steam is pretty successful digital sales. As far as losing your content, it doesn't seem any different than losing a character in an MMO when you get banned.

But you'd still have your MMO game, so you could make a new character. I may be reading it wrong, but I think the point is, they take your games away full stop.

It is kind of the same. To make a new account you'd effectivly have to buy a new game, although nowadays ofcourse you can just buy the CD code online.

I've never really played an MMO - so, if your character got banned from, say, WoW, you'd have to re-purchase your game to play it?