Californian Law Dictates Storefronts Be Honest About Digital Game Ownership

A license to kill your purchase

by · Nintendo Life
Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

A new Californian law will come into effect in 2025 that will effectively force digital storefronts to disclose that buyers don't actually own their digital puchases, but rather simply licensing the content.

Naturally, we suspect that most of our audience will already be aware of this, but it's entirely possible that more casual gamers will not be privy to the way that digital storefronts function. Effectively, then, as reported by The Verge (thanks, Time Extension) digital storefronts will be restricted from using the words "buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good or alongside an option for a time-limited rental."

Unless, that is, that they expressly disclose that users are licensing the content. This disclosure includes ensuring customers are informed that licenses can be revoked at any time and that certain restrictions to purchases may apply. Any violations of this law may result in fines for false advertising.

California Assembly member and bill author Jacqui Irwin stated:

"As retailers continue to pivot away from selling physical media, the need for consumer protections on the purchase of digital media has become increasingly more important. I thank the Governor for signing AB 2426, ensuring the false and deceptive advertising from sellers of digital media incorrectly telling consumers they own their purchases becomes a thing of the past."

Of course, publishers can still revoke access to content at the drop of a hat if they so desire, but this law at least ensures that customers are aware of this potential outcome ahead of time. We can't be certain if this law will have ripple effects to other regions, but we suspect that if companies like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are forced to change the wording in their respective storefronts, it will be done on a global scale.

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What are your thoughts on this new Californian law? Do you welcome it? Let us know with a comment in the usual place.

[source theverge.com, via timeextension.com]

About Ollie Reynolds

Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry.

Comments 55

Good, so we can own the digital games forever without worrying about being deleted by their server anytime.

It's an interesting development. Be interesting to see how quickly and how far it ripples out and whether it shakes up the digital download experience.

They should just force them to change it to saying we own digital purchases and those purchases are equivalent to physical media.

It's why I won't buy online only games. If it doesn't have a single player mode and goes down with the server, it ain't worth it.

@Anti-Matter I'm not sure you've read it right. This doesn't change your lack of ownership, it just makes it clearer to you that you don't own. Might have a knock-on effect of increasing the use of the Gog-model, but who knows.

Let’s hope this makes some big and positive changes in the digital market. We’ve seen what these massive tech companies have done in the past by shutting down their servers and content being stuck in digital limbo… (cough looking at you Sony cough barring and removing access to movies and games previously purchased on their PSN storefronts cough)

I can't believe I'm forced to agree with the state of California, but at least I now have a legal precedent for calling digital games fake and cringe

I mean... it's a win for consumer transparency, at least.

But this is a major loss for those fighting to ensure we can keep what we pay for in the first place.

@VHSGREMLIN coughcough deleting Concord from ppl's systems coughcough

And this is why I won't get a digital-only console.

@Zeebor15 what’s with folks like you, disparaging California? It’s a rock solid state, provides ample produce and resources for the rest of the country and it’s pretty stable compared to the rest of your country. What gives? You just riding the hate train for no reason?

Nintendo's the only company that's taken away my ability to redownload a game so far. They gave me Tropical Freeze for free via Nintendo Rewards and were like 'nah we want you to buy this on Switch, yoink'. Most companies just don't want new people to buy the old version and delist that version, but that wasn't enough for Nintendo.

It’s all a license. Physical too.

Edit: (Don’t @ me about this. It is a simple statement. Don’t need to be preached at about Physical. Been gaming since ‘88. My physical game library takes up two rooms. I don’t care. 😑)

@CaleBoi25 exactly, that game may have been awful but to remove it from our consoles without our consent is really frightening to be honest.

@Ryu_Niiyama physical can’t be taken away from you unless pulled away by seizure or recall. Once purchased and in your possession, they can’t forcibly take it from you…

@VHSGREMLIN not yet, anyway.
i wouldn't be surprised if corpo AAA publishers are working on that next.

Removed - off-topic

@batmanbud2 erm… California isn’t communist, fella.

@Ryu_Niiyama True, but with physical games it doesn't matter. That physical item is yours and no company can barge into your home and take it away by force.

@Tempestryke that's why I love Splatoon. They actually take time for the singleplayer, especially in the latest two games.

@VHSGREMLIN I didn’t say anything about that. I simply said physical was a license. Which it is.

Remember that for many modern games, buying physical media is not the solution:

  • The box only has a digital code to download the game.
  • There's a disc, but it only has a few files, the actual game must be downloaded and the disc is only a key.
  • Sometimes, only parts of the game are available on disc, you can play without internet, but not the full game.
  • You can play the game without internet with just a disc, but not the good version of the game, because at launch, the game is full of problems and you need to download a patch later or there's a patch since the launch day.
  • Sometimes, the patch is so big that you are almost downloading the whole game.
  • You still need to connect to the internet to buy and download DLC.
  • To play online, you need to download the most recent version.
  • Many games are online-only, require a constant connection to the internet, even on single-player, and to make things worse, the servers often close, making your physical copy a paperweight.

@VHSGREMLIN it was a joke.

California still needs to get their act together, though.

I bought a ton of digital games on my Vita and 3DS back in the day (and later on my my Switch and Steam Deck), but I've never had any issues re-downloading any of them.

Is it mainly an on-line games only issue where servers are shut down when there very little traffic on them? I sincerely hope so.

@VHSGREMLIN everything is overpriced and Silicon valley is the source of everything that has gone wrong in the past 60 years

@batmanbud2 making weird, baseless accusations like that is no joke, fella. You do know many innocent lives and careers were ruined in the past because of guys like yourself falsely accusing them of such things…?

@batmanbud2 Spacious attic space for rent - your head.

@Zeebor15 I wouldn’t blame the state for that. Blame the individual people working on said projects, perhaps.

If you want some real sick pups to blame, start with the greedy ones in the New York stock exchanges and or the political/corporate elite in each state, yes?

I assume once you download a game they can’t really stop you from playing it because it’s on your console.

@Don I imagine it depends how much data is stored in your console or terminal or devices and if there’s steady/consistent access to a dedicated server somewhere?

@VHSGREMLIN Its to be assumed I hate the government when I'm referring to an area by a government name. California looks pretty yes, but being 70% markup over the rest of the country is evil and insulting. 99% of all creative unioj disputes would be solved by cartoonists and voice actors being able to work from some place affordable. And on to your next point, I can hate many things at once. I'm a multi-facited individual. Especially New York City.

@Zeebor15 so much anger and contempt in your heart it seems. Yikes.

@Don Not really, as Steam requires online connectivity every so often to be able to play games and offline mode requires reconnecting to the servers after a certain amount of time.

As for the consoles of today? as long as you don't delete your content from the console, you should be fine. But, future updates and consoles may come with the ability to delete content remotely as Google has done for malicious apps in the past.

A lot of people are talking about "I get to own the content forever". That is not true. What the law mentions is that it tells digital storefronts to tell people upfront that what they are buying is a "license to use" and not a "license to own". This is the whole reason so many people buy physical games, and why Limited Run and similar operations are becoming more popular.

This is something I hope gets changed in the future. I feel like if I purchase anything physical or digital that I have bought it outright and nothing should have the right to take it away. Of course this is idealism, dunno how realistic this is, but I'm old school: my money, my item.

Remember that even with physical media, technically you're not buying the game, you're just buying a license to use it, if buying a Mario game meant you own the game, it not only meant you could make your own copies and sell them, but you could also make your own Mario games.

Internet just allowed ways for the companies to actually take the game away from us after they were sold, and now, while they can't get into your house and take away the physical copy of your game (yet), they can press a button to make your physical copy useless.

they need to get rid of this. digital games arent f2p mobile games

@VHSGREMLIN Im on the internet. Of course I'm full of hate.

@Ryu_Niiyama No one is preaching anything you. They were just being nice and replying. You left a comment in an open comment section. People are free to reply to whatever you said.

What point were you trying to make by stating it anyways?

@Zeebor15 Good. Good. Let the hate flow through you.

Isn’t this just logic? Of course it should say if you own the game you buy. This shouldn’t even have to be a new law lol, surprised California of all states was the first to do this

Nowhere near good enough. The law needs to specify that ownership of the digital product is with the consumer, and must mandate that any removal of digital products from storefronts requires a full and complete refund to all owners of said products.

@GooseLoose1 The point I was making was that it was a license. Physical or Digital. Which is what I said. If I had intended to elaborate further I would have made a longer initial comment, and use language that invites conversation rather than a short statement of fact. However since that didn't work and now I have folks tagging me about something I don't really care to hash out (as it is what it is...a license and there is nothing to discuss) I updated my initial comment requesting not to be tagged about it because I don't care. And yet here you are, tone policing. And since it is a "public forum" (it's actually a privately owned website comment section governed by a TOS but anyway) I can say what I said so long as I don't violate the TOS. Anything else?

@Don tell that to Ubisoft (The Crew) and Sony (the aforementioned Concord), who removed games from people's consoles without their consent. Even if they had a physical version, they most likely delete the programs as soon as the console connects to the internet.

I really don't know how it works with physical games, but I'm guessing it's like that. The fact there's precedent of companies making physical games useless or unplayable is worrying.

Even if it's officially unplayable now, I can still download Super Mario Bros. 35 on my Switch and boot it up (or at least I could last time I checked in 2023).

@Zeebor15 Silicon Valley created the harware and infrastructure that you are using to post on this website.

Though, considering what the internet has done to us, you're not totally off base here.

A Claifornia law we can all agree on! Hopefully this trickles down to other jurisdictions sooner than later🤞

Certainly won't complain about more transparency as that's always a good thing, but personally if I went out of my way to make a law then it would be to ensure that digital games (and technically physical ones as well like some mentioned, but good luck taking those away from consumers unless they require online connectivity when you boot them) are actually owned.

I never knew we didn't technically own any of our games, so far no company has abused the system that I know of but that doesn't mean we should be complacent with it

@silverdamascus Thank you!

“I try not to whine but I must warn ya
‘bout the lack of digital storefront shenanigans in California!”

— The Red Hot Chili Peppers, probably

This is the end of quality gaming! The constant release of unfinished content, it makes it easier to say- if you wanna play this, it’s at your own risk if you wanna play an unfinished content, and you agree to saying I am willing to play this in any shape or form and it can be taken down anytime… this is a disgusting practice and I won’t buy any content labelled as such.

@judaspete HEMCE

Hey this is a step in the right direction!
California can't force publishers to grant ownership to the buyers of digital products, but they can and should force companies to be honest about what they are selling. I hope other jurisdictions follow suit, and the games industry is forced to be up front and speak plainly about these licenses and not bury the facts in impenetrable legal small print.

I played home video games for decades without knowing what an EULA was, and I dislike the whole concept. It still feels icky when Bandai or Ubisoft mandates consent before they let me play Gundam, Fenyx Rising, etc.

I like to "purchase" and "own" games, not just "license" them at full retail price, while the publisher reserves the right to revoke my license for whatever reason. It's why I always buy physical editions for games I care about, and only "purchase" (oops, "license") digital games when they are suitably cheap.

I've always felt that digital games have less intrinsic value than physical editions, and should be priced (and advertised) accordingly.

@Ryu_Niiyama You only said a couple of words. Silver on the other hand explained what I guess you were trying to say better.

But I do think you are taking it a bit too personally. No one attacked you or anything. Just replied.

If are one of those individuals who struggle conveying thoughts in written form that's totally fine. A lot of people are like that. But try not to get frustrated at people who are just talking to you, not down at you.

@LadyCharlie no, it isn't? This is forcing them to admit the obvious.

The next step is pressurinthem to make ownership a reality. The only way they can try to dunk on this is malicious compliance, but it would be their own fault and choice in that case too.

The law should be that once you buy the game its license can't be revoked and that it must be available for free redownload (as long as proper credentials are provided) for a reasonable period after the sale. It's nice that they have to let us know they can revoke the license, but that doesn't really make things better at the bottom line.

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