And they want us to feel bad for pirating media

He isn't wrong. The last game I pirated was Escape from Butcher Bay, because it wasn't on steam.

You wouldn’t steal a car.

I would if the manufacturer had the right to come take it from me at anytime without any compensation.

Don't know why you're quoting Gabe in this instance, Valve is selling the same "licenses" Sony is, revokable at the whims of the publisher.

I remember when Sony joked at Xbox's expense for disallowing secondhand games.... they've basically done the same here. Fuck Sony.

Digital storefronts are fine. The actual problem is the lack of consumer protection in console (and mobile) ecosystems.
On PC, the classic mitigation is piracy.
But on consoles that seems to be not an option, so there is no way to fight back console company overreach.

As a consumer, just sticking to PC gaming is the obvious solution.
Valve is better than Sony because it can't just prevent consumers from going somewhere else. Gabe Newell is just as much a greedy bastard as other big corp CEOs. But judges forced him to allow refunds (btw, GOG has a 30-days-no-questions-asked refund policy without being forced to). And he cleverly price-gauges the game devs with his massive cut rather than the consumers. Combined with the threat of delisting games that are available cheaper in other shops, he secured his quasi monopoly.

As usual, vote with your wallet - while you still can.

Oh the irony:

...Yes I could open it in my browser to avoid this (and the ads)

Piracy is a responsible, meaningful response to ongoing investor-driven enshittification. Investors are hell bent on reverse robin hooding the economy and they’ll keep at it until it’s no longer profitable to do so…

I agree that it's not a price issue because I wouldn't mind paying inflated prices if that money went to the workers. It would be worth it, in fact. But the corporate entities that get that money while the workers get laid off.

I think a thing this highlights is a moral line. With piracy now being easier and ubiquitous, and a clear alternative to orgs monopolizing and ignoring their user base. I think the one thing they are overlooking is the moment someone does it once. The moment they install something like stremio and realise how effortless it is the org has lost a user. Not even because of cost, but because they have taken advantage of the user...so its fair game to take advantage back.

I used to eat MacDonald's...usually took the kids say fortnightly, and one day i just didn't because it got crap and expensive. One you step over the line and they lose you, they lose you.

Fuck Sony.. Period.

Vote with your money and time. Don't give them any.. if you do.. then can't complain.

if buying something does not give ownership then piracy is not stealing

As it has been for all of time: as long as Tom is trying to eat Jerry, Jerry will find new inventive ways to kick Toms teeth in.

The ps5 debacle is a bigger problem, alongside the Stop Killing Games Initiative.

Edit: SKG is a good thing*

I hate to say it. But the general sentiment will lead to crackdowns on VPNs because they are the only thing between us and corperations for ownership.

Legislatures are already trying to stop us from having privacy, but the corporate lobby tied to the privacy lobby is a deadly situation.

I am lucky enough to have my media where i want it to be, but i am so nervous now that the general public is getting involved - i have a number of friends who would never have asked about this kind of stuff buying hardware.

Im not really sure where that leaves us.

But fucking god damnit. Im sad that it has gotten us here.

I mean let's be real, it's both

A few years ago I bought Star Wars squadrons in steam. It hasn't worked in years (I never made it through the single player story.) I never understood why. It was not my antivirus, it was not my VPN. It wasn't even my OS. I used Windows 11 briefly (I originally had it on windows 10) and it still didn't work. I am on Linux mint and it doesn't boot up.

Now recently I bought RoboCop Rogue city on steam. I originally had it pirated, but on Linux mint it had a hard time booting up. I thought buying it would fix that.

Nope. It did not. Now I spent 40$ on a digital paperweight.

If we pay for something. We have a reasonable expectation for it to work.

It's closed platforms the issue. You buy an expensive machine, pay extra for the disk drive and now they will stop making disks, you have no option.

If someone would make a gog/bandcamp for TV and movies, I'd use it. But the only way to view either is through DRM-encumbered physical media or rent-like payments (e.g. streaming and DRM-encumbered "purchases"). I don't want my files like that, thanks very much.

So I actually pay for far more music and games than I do TV shows and movies. Funny how that goes.

I don't get it. Steam doesn't sell disks, right? The popular meme is that everyone is shooting themselves in the foot while Valve is doing nothing and winning. But now Sony is just saying they will do what Valve does. Why is everyone so pissed about it? Suddenly everyone loves disks?

For me it's also a price issue, after my streaming more expensive year on year at some point I just stopped and paid for VPN and Usenet.

Been feeling this lately with HBO, there app has gone to shit and I'm debating just pirating "the wire" instead of going through the service that we (my partners parents) already pay for