PS5 and PS4 players, good news, Sony has decided to backpedal on one of the thorniest subjects of recent weeks. PlayStation users are already delighted.
The year will have had its share of dramas and controversies once again, and one of them is quite recent in fact. Recently, PlayStation announced the outright deletion of thousands of content purchased “for life” via Discovery TV by its PS5 and PS4 users. A licensing problem was then cited by the company. Very quickly, the players stepped up to the plate and rightly so. The voices were raised and it worked.
You can keep your Discovery TV content purchased on PS5 and PS4… for now
While the removal of all Discovery TV content was to take place on December 31, Sony has just announced that this is no longer the case. You have won ! Sometimes raising your voice a little helps get things moving and that’s clearly the case here. Undoubtedly pushed by the angry crowd, Sony and Warner ended up finding common ground allowing licenses to be renewed until further notice and therefore allowing users to keep the digital content they had purchased. Note, however, that Sony specifies that the agreement currently has a duration of 30 months. After this time, we will see.
“As with other services, we do not hold the licensing rights to content (TV, movies and series) that was previously available for purchase on the PlayStation Store. However, we have worked with Warner Bros to update our licensing agreements, ensuring that consumers will be able to access their previously purchased content for at least the next 30 months. » says Sony. Reassuringly, this should calm down PS5 and PS4 players who had checked out. This affair greatly stirred users who questioned the question of the ownership of digital content at PlayStation.
What we buy doesn’t belong to us?
The truth is, when you buy digital content, it’s often more of a rental or right of passage. A right that can ultimately be lost at any time at the discretion of the platforms, but the charters of giants like Xbox, PlayStation and Steam are very clear on this. Steam even speaks of “subscription to content and services” to which other charters can be added, those of each studio/publisher. And you shouldn’t think that buying a physical game will give you a greater advantage. In reality, more and more games require mandatory logins and/or validation of certain registrations. The PS5 slim player itself requires a brief internet connection to function.
Even if you can still play your game offline or whatever, when online services stop, developers decide to completely change the game you originally purchased, agreements between platforms and publishers are failing (this is the case with Discovery TV content in this case) or anything else like that, there’s nothing you can do about it. It is written in black and white each time on the long charters that you validate without reading when you first launch a game or when registering on a platform.
In the end, while they of course have obligations, companies above all have a moral duty towards their users. To avoid offending them, reassure them and ensure that they will stay on their platform, among other things. But yes, digital licensing issues are a real problem and ultimately we have little, if any, recourse in the event of a dispute. From now on, you must always have this in the back of your mind when making a purchase to avoid unpleasant surprises, especially at a time when games and services are constantly evolving, sometimes in very different directions from what you expect. was waiting at the start.