PlayStation fans who preferred to own their own content instead of just relying on online services have found themselves dealing with a rude awakening. Following the confirmation that 551 films and TV Seasons produced in part by StudioCanal will no longer be available even to consumers who purchased digital copies of the films, Sony announced that it will also stop producing physical discs for its upcoming games. It’s a big blow to players who prefer to have their own copies of the entertainment that they consume.
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It’s also the latest salvo in the battle over media ownership, a conflict that has only become more pronounced in the increasingly digital landscape. While online games and digital storefronts may have largely replaced the home video and physical video games of past generations, the ability for those companies to simply pull access to that art underscores why some people are actively campaigning against digital-only media. There’s also a big question about what protections consumers have from companies cutting off the media that people have purchased — and how that could impact the future of commercially available art.
Sony Customers Don’t Have Many Protections For Their Digital Content
The issue of digital ownership has jumped back to the forefront of many players’ minds after the announcement that Sony has lost the license to over 550 movies and TV shows connected to StudioCanal — especially because it also highlights just how easily companies like Sony could do something similar with gaming releases. Many irate consumers are now demanding refunds or compensation for the movies being pulled from their libraries. However, Sony (which has done similar moves in the past) actually already planned for such an eventuality, with The Gamer reporting that the fine print of the PSN customer purchase agreement clarifies that consumers never actually bought digital copies of the film — only the license to watch them.
Sony discontinuing the licensing agreement with Studio Canal means any customers’ licenses will also be pulled, without any need to refund the consumers. While there could theoretically be a lawsuit, the fine print on the purchases makes it nearly impossible to force Sony to refund the purchases. With Sony cutting back on physical copies of their games, this could become the norm for regular game releases too. Games could be on the digital storefront and purchased, but if the license is pulled, the game could become inaccessible even if the game was saved to an external drive.
Other digital platforms like Steam also use similar fine print, claiming they sell game licenses instead of the actual title. This is the justification studios and publishers can use to pull online games with little warning, regardless of whether players spent money on the title or not. While some companies have issued refunds in these situations, there isn’t a firm rule in place that forces companies to do so — and Sony has confirmed there won’t be refunds in this case. In essence, if you purchase a film or a game whose license has expired, there are few consumer protections for recourse.
Sony’s Recent Moves Highlight The Importance Of Consumer Protections In Mass Media
A common refrain in the primarily digital age of media has been that consumers no longer own the works they purchase but that they are merely “renting” them. While players may spend money and buy the product, companies have the ability to shut down access to that content in certain situations. This is the entire impetus for the “Stop Killing Games” movement, which suffered a setback in the United States when a bill targeted to ensure games players paid for remain accessible in some form. Therein lies the real struggle that average consumers face in the digital media age.
The kind of protections that would ensure players retain access to the media they purchase simply aren’t there right now, and efforts to contend with that have been facing struggles in courts. With more publishers leaning heavily into primarily digital platforms instead of releasing physical copies, the culture of used games and shared media is at risk of becoming extinct. This is a big deal in an age where a small number of companies increasingly have the publishing rights over most of our commercial art, allowing them to push some and pull others for the sake of cost-saving.
This is something impacting art across several mediums. In the film and television industry, cost-cutting over distribution rights and licensing deals has led to plenty of shows and films being pulled from streaming services — which means content that is out of print physically or never received a physical release due to their status as streaming originals can become next to impossible to engage with. In gaming, that means companies could decide to pull a game and take all the purchases players went through with it, which can disappear with little warning. With physical games seemingly on the way out, the next few years will be crucial in determining the future of media ownership.
If gamers want protections and to retain the right to access the media they purchase, then there need to be industry-wide protections put into place. It can be incredibly frustrating to see the art you love blocked off by the companies that control the license — especially if you paid money to “Buy” the content only to realize you’d just been buying access to it so long as the company offers it. Sony moving away from physical discs only raises the risk that future content on PlayStation consoles could be at the whim of the company instead of the consumers who have purchased them. While consumers don’t have a huge amount of protection now, public opinion could push lawmakers to introduce new regulations that protect consumers. That might be a necessary battle in the future if players want any chance of retaining the rights to the media they consume.
