Because a game is not a chair, nor is it a DVD.

Any piece of software requires periodic maintenance to keep it functional as operating systems, drivers etc. run away from it in compatibility. Demanding that any game developer spends money in perpetuity to keep a game “playable” is completely absurd which anyone understands if they just think about it for a second.

This becomes even worse when you take examples like you mentioned, where the entire software is built around the premise of connecting to centrally controlled servers.

What do you suggest should be done for example if World of Warcraft is permanently shut down, should Blizzard be forced to release the entire source code? Should they be forced to spend man hours to release something publicly that was never meant to be released? Should they be forced to document it?

When you buy a game that requires a connection to play, you’re not even buying a game, you’re buying a service. If you don’t want to agree to the terms that probably already outline this pretty clearly, don’t buy the game.

As nice as it would be to force companies to open source their code when they stop selling it, it will never happen because there are too many implications that are completely untenable, one of which is trademarks.

the response just shows they have no idea what they’re talking about. demanding that games are “playable” in perpetuity is completely unreasonable and probably not even what anyone is asking for.

this article is from feb 26