PS5 and PS4 players, good news, Sony has decided to back down on one of the hottest topics in recent weeks. PlayStation users are already excited.
There have been some dramas and controversies again this year, and one of them is still fairly new. Recently, PlayStation announced the complete deletion of thousands of content that its PS5 and PS4 users had purchased through Discovery TV “for life.” The company then cited a licensing issue. Very quickly the players rose to the top, and rightly so. The voices got louder and it worked.
You can keep your Discovery TV content purchased on PS5 and PS4… for now
While the removal of all Discovery TV content was supposed to happen on December 31st, Sony has just announced that this is no longer the case. You won ! Sometimes it helps to raise your voice a little, and that is clearly the case here. No doubt cheered on by the angry crowd, Sony and Warner eventually found common ground that allowed licenses to be extended until further notice, allowing users to keep the digital content they purchased. However, note that Sony says the agreement is currently for 30 months. After this time we will see.
“As with other services, we do not own the licensing rights to content (TV, films and series) previously available for purchase on PlayStation Store. However, we have worked with Warner Bros. to update our licensing agreements to ensure that consumers can access their previously purchased content for at least the next 30 months. »
What we buy is not ours?
The truth is that buying digital content is often more like a lease or a right of passage. A right that can ultimately be lost at any time at the discretion of the platforms, but the charters of giants such as Xbox, PlayStation and Steam are very clear on this matter. Steam even talks about “subscriptions for content and services,” to which additional charters can be added, provided by each studio/publisher. And you shouldn’t think that buying a physical game will give you a greater advantage. In fact, more and more games require mandatory logins and/or validation of certain registrations. The PS5 Slim player itself requires a short internet connection to work.
Even if you can still play your game offline or whatever, when online services are shut down, developers decide to completely change the game you originally purchased, agreements between platforms and publishers fall through (that’s Discovery TV content in this case the case) or something Otherwise you can’t do anything about it. It’s written in black and white every time on the long charters that you validate without reading it the first time you launch a game or register on a platform.
Ultimately, companies have obligations, but above all a moral duty towards their users. In order not to offend them, reassure them and, among other things, ensure that they stay on their platform. But yes, digital licensing issues are a real problem and ultimately we have little to no recourse in the event of a dispute. From now on, you must always keep this in mind when making a purchase to avoid unpleasant surprises, especially in an era where games and services are constantly evolving, sometimes in completely different directions than expected at launch.