So it has happened. One of the digital download stores I was using (Alienware) is closing down, and any possibility of re-downloading my purchases will be gone forever a month from now.
It has always been at the back of my head. Every time I made a digital purchase, I would think "I'm not really buying anything physical, what if the store goes out of business?" But every time, I thought that it wouldn't be happening in the near future, that by the time anything closes down, I'll probably have a system incapable of running those old games anyway.
Now, one obvious solution is to download copies of all my purchases and keep them. But with the store closing down, license activation also goes down. Which means I have to download my games, install them, and never remove them. System failure or switching to a new PC will deprive me of my purchases. And the e-mail I received from them contains nary a hint that they would be removing DRM so that, you know, people can actually install and play their purchases.
Luckily, I only had two games from them, and bought on a sale. But still. I guess I'm bitter because now it feels like I only rented the games from them, rented at full retail price, the money I could have used to buy a disc version.
I should have seen that coming, but I still feel somewhat cheated.
Discussion value? Yes, there is. The DRM issue. Because as much as I understand that the servers go offline, I really don't see why they won't remove the license activation feature. Keeping a physical copy of your games is easy. But I tend to get irked when it turns out the only way I can actually play my game is by cracking it. Thoughts on that?
It has always been at the back of my head. Every time I made a digital purchase, I would think "I'm not really buying anything physical, what if the store goes out of business?" But every time, I thought that it wouldn't be happening in the near future, that by the time anything closes down, I'll probably have a system incapable of running those old games anyway.
Now, one obvious solution is to download copies of all my purchases and keep them. But with the store closing down, license activation also goes down. Which means I have to download my games, install them, and never remove them. System failure or switching to a new PC will deprive me of my purchases. And the e-mail I received from them contains nary a hint that they would be removing DRM so that, you know, people can actually install and play their purchases.
Luckily, I only had two games from them, and bought on a sale. But still. I guess I'm bitter because now it feels like I only rented the games from them, rented at full retail price, the money I could have used to buy a disc version.
I should have seen that coming, but I still feel somewhat cheated.
Discussion value? Yes, there is. The DRM issue. Because as much as I understand that the servers go offline, I really don't see why they won't remove the license activation feature. Keeping a physical copy of your games is easy. But I tend to get irked when it turns out the only way I can actually play my game is by cracking it. Thoughts on that?
