Unfortunately I have a strong feeling that courts and regulators are gonna go, “not our problem, vote with your wallet.”
You could make the argument that the consumer can’t make an informed decision about purchasing a product if they have no idea how long the publisher intends to keep it functional. But at the most I only see this leading to some fine print on the box/site saying “publisher only guarantees game services will remain available through <arbitrary date 2-3 years in the future>.” Better than nothing, sure, but it’d still be on the consumer to pay attention to that.
I have this feeling too. But any game that requires an internet connection to work will eventually end up being bricked when its servers are shut down.
I recently played Helldiver’s 1 on the PS vita, and realized the servers were disabled. despite those servers being down you could still essentially play the game, even though its not as fun.
Unfortunately I have a strong feeling that courts and regulators are gonna go, “not our problem, vote with your wallet.”
You could make the argument that the consumer can’t make an informed decision about purchasing a product if they have no idea how long the publisher intends to keep it functional. But at the most I only see this leading to some fine print on the box/site saying “publisher only guarantees game services will remain available through <arbitrary date 2-3 years in the future>.” Better than nothing, sure, but it’d still be on the consumer to pay attention to that.
Edit: forgot a word
I have this feeling too. But any game that requires an internet connection to work will eventually end up being bricked when its servers are shut down.
I recently played Helldiver’s 1 on the PS vita, and realized the servers were disabled. despite those servers being down you could still essentially play the game, even though its not as fun.