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Merge of Discovery and Warner Bros. renders PlayStation licensing agreement worthless. (Up: new licensing agreement, shows will not be removed)

StereoVsn

Member
Buy physical if you really care. That's all there is to it. I'll be able to watch Battlestar as long as I live. Somebody will have to pry the discs out of my cold dead hands!
Yep, I get the movies and shows I really like on physical blu-ray, preferably 4K. Same with games and on PC GoG is great and most of games on Steam are easy to crack as well (as long as it’s not Denuvo crap).

But yes, keep cheerleading all digital future, people, it’s totally grand.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
Shit happens, but this is why you buy digital content on a real proven service not a game console.

Apple isn’t going anywhere and don’t take stuff away. Vudu was sold by Walmart to Fandango and like 10 years of my purchases stayed.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Shit happens, but this is why you buy digital content on a real proven service not a game console.

Apple isn’t going anywhere and don’t take stuff away. Vudu was sold by Walmart to Fandango and like 10 years of my purchases stayed.
Apple takes apps away. I lost half of my bought and paid for mobile app library when they stopped allowing people the choice of running 32-bit apps on devices. Then they delisted all 32-bit apps and removed the ability to download them even on devices that hadn't been updated. I have an old iPod that I will never update because it's the only way I can stil play some of my games. RIP when it dies. I have the digital files on an old iTunes backup.

To this day they will prevent you from re-downloading delisted apps even if you paid for them. I don't know if they remove movies or tv shows. The ones I bought from them I downloaded and stripped the DRM from and put them on my Plex server. I don't trust them at all any more.
 

Three

Member
Shit happens, but this is why you buy digital content on a real proven service not a game console.

Apple isn’t going anywhere and don’t take stuff away. Vudu was sold by Walmart to Fandango and like 10 years of my purchases stayed.
Hate to break it to you but Apple takes bought movies away without even informing you.
 

RavageX

Member
At least everyone is getting an automatic full refund, right?
liyN1HD.gif



Actually, I dont know but I wanted to use that image, lol.
 

Laieon

Member
Yup. That's why my ass is back to buying physical movies.

Yep. My physical movie collection has grown quite a bit over the past year or two.

Sadly disc rot is a thing. It's very rare for DVD, CD or Blu-ray but it can happen. It did happen to many HD-DVDs :/

This is true too though, which is why at some point I plan on ripping all of my UHD and blu ray discs to create digital copies that I can then use over Plex or Jellyfin or something. That'll be hell to figure out storage-space-wise and I'm sure it's not legal, but morally I feel like I should be able to do whatever I want with media I've purchased.
 
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Phase

Member
And that's why I'm done with all these gaming platforms and streaming services.

It's become very clear that I've been buying into a future where I didn't actually buy anything.

It's GOG for games, and torrenting, until the market figures out some sort of profitable NFT situation where I can freely trade, sell, and give away the digital goods I've purchased.

I'm done with other people having and exercising power over me.
Tonight Show Comedian GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon


That's exactly the mindset to have. It's especially important if you care about preservation of games, because you know these companies don't give a shit about that unless they can sell it to you again. You bring up a great point about buying and selling digital goods. I feel like that's a real possibility despite the push back from above (WEF and all that). The technology is there.
 

radewagon

Member
when this happens, Sony needs to step up and refund people who bought it. heck, do it with store credit - people will spend it. I don't see how this is allowed.
The smartest move for Sony would be to refund the customers that were burned and then sue Discovery in an effort to recoup the damages. Something like this makes Sony look stupid and greedy, so they need to do their best to ensure that their customers see Discovery as being the real bad guy here.

Sony would naturally word it to make it sound like it's Discovery's fault, wouldn't they? But honestly, what do Sony and Discovery care for? They've already got the poor saps' money.
While I agree that Discovery doesn't care, Sony will absolutely care. Discovery is run by idiots that can't see past their next stupid move and don't care about their brand's reputation. It's no loss to Discovery, if people lose faith in digital purchases of Discovery content since Discovery's end goal at the moment is likely to sell a subscription service. So, even less permanence than a digital purchase. Sony, on the other hand, absolutely cares. Even if Sony "got the poor saps' money," Sony is in the business of continuing to get said poor sap's money. Sony needs their customers to trust that their digital purchases are reliable and dependable. This is a huge problem for Sony since it erodes trust in a huge part of their current digital business model.

If I were Sony, I'd be getting all the lawyers on this.
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Sadly disc rot is a thing. It's very rare for DVD, CD or Blu-ray but it can happen. It did happen to many HD-DVDs :/
I haven't experienced that yet and I've had some CDs for 25 years or more at this point. Does it depend on how you store them? I'm not denying it can happen I've heard of it before I'm curious as to how it happens.
 
This is why I will always purchase my games or movies or shows physically. The digital pipedream can piss off as far as i’m concerned. So many mindless sheep will still support digital and the sad part is many of them dont even care if this happens to them. People are so weak minded today they will find some reasoning to agree with companies who screw them like this.
 

Quantum253

Member
That's pretty shitty. But that's the problem with digital content. You don't own it and only purchased the right to access it as long as you comply to the ULA. Sony can pull the rights, lose the licensing, etc and there's nothing you can do about it
 

Quantum253

Member
I witnessed it, Saturn JP games that are very old became unreadable and there are signs of rot. Happens also on tape games like old C64 games.
I haven't seen it on discs, but I had a set of Tritan Pro xbox360 headphones I just threw away because the rubber started to decompose and turned like glue. I can imagine that discs will start breaking down too leaving the carts to rule
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Was this a thing that was taken to the courts over or was that just loot boxes? If not, this is going to be the next thing debated in the courts I think. It's completely wrong and immoral and should be illegal for companies to just bar you from using content that you paid for. Whether it's shows or movies or it's video games where if the games are tied to an account and they ban your account you lose access to all your games. That's wrong and I can't imagine if heavily challenged it would hold up legally. At the very least they should offer everyone full refunds of what they spent when stuff like this happens.

Need someone in congress to speak up against these kinds of practices.
 

rapid32.5

Member
I can't believe people actually buy tv shows on their console.
Why does it matter where and what digital content you buy?
If you paid for it, it's yours to keep and it should transfer from one gen to the next.
I have tons of TV shows on Xbox, because it was on sale and it's convenient to play old content on one box.
 
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Crayon

Member
Let's see what discs are on my shelf over there. Bloodborne, astrobot, NierA, Yakuza 0, Armored Core 6, FF7R, HFW, Death Stranding, wipeout oc, re village, elden ring. These aren't just good games, they're nice games like nice books. I like having them. Got em right over there. gg, bitches.
 

Three

Member
People keep saying it's not Sony's fault but it is. It's up to Sony to hammer out the details of their licensing agreements on behalf of their customers BEFORE selling them something.
Nah, the ones who own the content almost always have a clause saying they can end licencing, if you don't agree you simply don't get the content. Some companies like Studio Canal and now Discovery can decide to be shitty and it's usually because they've just recently launched a streaming service and want to make their content exclusive on it.
 

chlorate

Member
Honestly, I’m surprised Sony is doing this, it feels like the sort of thing Lina Khan’s FTC will throw a shit fit over.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Won't these still be available for download? I have a few movies I bought on Xbox 360 (don't ask me why, what the hell LOL) that still show up under my account, even though they haven't been available for purchase in ages.
 
Sadly disc rot is a thing. It's very rare for DVD, CD or Blu-ray but it can happen. It did happen to many HD-DVDs :/

Disc rot is a thing, but since it's legal to backup your physical copies - there is no real downside.

Hate to break it to you but Apple takes bought movies away without even informing you.

True, but Apple is a better steward most of the time. And while some things get delisted, they actually upgrade you if you bought an earlier copy. For instance, people who bought SD movies got upgraded to HD versions, and I hear some even got 4K automatically. Not saying Apple is off the hook, but I at least see value elsewhere that would make me trust the platform more.
 

Stitch

Gold Member
I haven't experienced that yet and I've had some CDs for 25 years or more at this point. Does it depend on how you store them?
No, it just seems to happen over time. It's super rare, but most (Warner) HD-DVDs seem to be effected. My Slither DVD also stopped working after some years. First few minutes work and then it starts skipping and then just stops and I tried on several players. Had to replace it with the BD. Happened to another DVD too, but I can't remember which movie... But it was a cheap Hongkong DVD lol.

It's a super, super, super rare thing, especially if you know that I have thousands of Movies and TV shows lying around :p but I just wanted to mention that sometimes these Discs can self-destruct
 
you mean Discovery are removing it, its not PS fault - probably cause they want people to use Discover+ or w/e.

Don't buy shows/movies digitally unless its downloadable and saved on a hard drive, common sense

WB/Discovery, where shows go to disappear into never existing in the first place.
 

demigod

Member
Why does it matter where and what digital content you buy?
If you paid for it, it's yours to keep and it should transfer from one gen to the next.
I have tons of TV shows on Xbox, because it was on sale and it's convenient to play old content on one box.
Newsflash, you don’t own any digital stuff. They are just selling you the license to view/play it. Once that license is up, like this one, kiss your digital goodbye.

And before anyone says its the same with physical, its not. Goodluck coming to my house and pry it away from me unless you have a death wish.
 
“Due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library,”

I mean that sounds like it’s Discovery’s fault? though Sony should have never negotiated a contract that required this to happen once it expired
No, it's sounds like Sony are not willing to pay more to extend the agreement.
 
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StueyDuck

Member
I know people aren't going to see beyond the very surface level "grrr Sony bad"

But this seems entirely out of their hands, so all of you cheering on videogame consolidation and publisher buyouts... realise this is the future we are heading towards.

Games just being ripped from switch because Sony owns X, MS just ripping all the COD games off PSN etc etc...
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
That’s my main issue with all digital future. I am buying most of my media digitally movies, games etc. But I am always have the above(what Sony is being forced to do) in the back of my head.
Rightfully so. It’s a matter of time. If not this law then other law. If not this management then other management will f you.
Physical don’t lie.
Games are not deleted like that yet but there were instances of games changing or having mandatory launchers added. For example gta4 had music removed and added rockstar launcher which didn’t work for me
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Sony is definitely to be blamed as well for not signing a better deal that would protect their customers in a situation like this. Normally when something's delisted due to licencing issues those who already paid for it should still be able to use it.
 
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