I guess this comes under both technology and economics.
But yeah I don’t get it. You pay money for a game, you now own that game. That’s how a transaction works. If I don’t own it what on earth did I pay all that money for? How can companies get away with this?
In: Technology
No, that’s not how transactions work. For example, you pay to see a movie, you don’t own that movie. You’ve paid for the right to see it once.
You walk into an apartment and pay the landlord for an apartment, you don’t own the apartment, you’re renting it.
It used to be you could go to the game store, buy the game and it was yours. Now (and especially with streaming and digital games such as you get with Steam) there are a whole hosts of terms and conditions you are agreeing to when you download the game.
For a non-game example, I used to have a copy of a drafting software. I could load it up and use it whenever I wanted. It was, for all intents and purposes, mine. Well, it soon became out of date so I looked into purchasing a new version. Except the company that made it wasn’t selling a new version, they were selling a license to use the new version for a monthly cost.
And they get away with it because that’s how things work. It’s their software and they can sell, rent, and distribute it however they want. You aren’t entitled to be sold something if they don’t want to sell it to you. And when you see that big block of text and click “I agree” you are, in fact, agreeing to the terms and conditions under which you are accepting the software, which may include the fact that they are only giving you permission to use or play it, not that you outright own it.
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