The confirmation came from the Steam support staff earlier this month when Resetera forum user delete12345 asked Steam support if he can put his Steam library in...
it’s a product when running on my computer (i.e. the game)
it’s a service when running on their computer (i.e. providing the hosting for downloading, multiplayer client-server hosting).
The issue preventing one practically enacting on software is that copyright defaults to preventing you redistributing it, and you need the source code to be able to modify (fully). Thankfully some games are free software/open source when you can act on your ownership.
So that should be “I purchased a game” when you got a detached product that is functional forever… unless the makers make a deal with Microsoft to fuck it up on the next illegally forced update or with Nvidia to change the next card such that it is unplayable.
And it should be “I purchased…I subscribed to this online game” when you know that shit is not yours, so don’t expect it to last.
That would at least be more honest… from my perspective anyway. The games industry has done this for so long that this is the norm for generatations who grew up with consoles being online - this is “purchasing” to some as words have usages and not inate meaning.
It would be better if they just stopped doing that but you get more money that way.
Software can be both a product and a service:
The issue preventing one practically enacting on software is that copyright defaults to preventing you redistributing it, and you need the source code to be able to modify (fully). Thankfully some games are free software/open source when you can act on your ownership.
So that should be “I purchased a game” when you got a detached product that is functional forever… unless the makers make a deal with Microsoft to fuck it up on the next illegally forced update or with Nvidia to change the next card such that it is unplayable.
And it should be “I purchased…I subscribed to this online game” when you know that shit is not yours, so don’t expect it to last.
That would at least be more honest… from my perspective anyway. The games industry has done this for so long that this is the norm for generatations who grew up with consoles being online - this is “purchasing” to some as words have usages and not inate meaning.
It would be better if they just stopped doing that but you get more money that way.