cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1248556/fair-playstation-sony-is-facing-a-lawsuit-seeking-more-than-eur400-million-in-damages-on
Lucia Melcherts, chair of Stichting Massaschade & Consument statement:
The end of physical discs removes the last place where a PlayStation game could still be bought and sold at a competitive price. No discs means no second-hand market and no alternative to the PlayStation Store, so from 2028, Sony alone decides what a game costs and even how long you are allowed to use it. That is exactly the harm our Fair PlayStation claim is about: a price can never be fair when the buyer is left with no ownership and no alternative.
All of my games I bought were 2nd hand. Without that market, Sony would never have gotten me to pay for online services.
Many people will buys cheaper games or discover ones they liked and end up buying subsequent games or services.
This is all just really stupid.
The answer to stopping these practices regardless of company is to vote with your wallet. But people won’t ever do that. They keep giving these companies money hand over fist. Why would you, as a company, lower your revenue on “good faith”.
Until people actually stop buying the console and games, Sony and others have absolutely no reason to change their business model.
Regulation is the answer not voting with your wallet which never works and does absolutely nothing.
Not voting with your wallet doesn’t work? Someone aught to tell Disney that after many people ended their Hulu and Disney+ subscriptions once Kimmel was fired.
Regulation is the answer, full stop.
Whataboutism isn’t saving your argument.
I don’t disagree that there needs to be regulation. I fully agree there needs to be regulation. Companies can and will fuck customers over with little to no concern. See for example the enshitification of pretty much everything.
All I am saying is that there are times when voting with your wallet has successfully bullied companies into complying with the will of the people.
This is true, there are some very very rare occasions where that has worked, but I do not see that Sony or anyone else intent on ripping away the secondary market for games is going to do anything unless they are forced to do so by some strong regulations which dictate that consumers have a right to either physical copies of games they buy, or some alternative method.
Even if it is an answer, is your suggestion to wait for a theoretical solution that hasn’t appeared so far and doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, to the exclusion of doing anything else?
Idealism isn’t strengthening your argument.
How about doing multiple things, you know, just in case, on the very small (minuscule, really) off-chance you happen to be incorrect or even not fully correct ?[1]
As unlikely as that scenario is , i mean ↩︎
Blah blah.
Sony isn’t going to do anything unless forced. Public backlash might move things along a bit, but at the end of the day they’ll need to be forced to do something by some tough regulations and laws, hopefully out of the EU.
Meanwhile they’ll fleece you and all your wallet voters, and if it’s not Sony, it’ll be everyone else that is doing the same thing.
Sure, didn’t say they would, capitalist companies gonna capitalise.
In the same way capitalist governments are gonna capitalise…by serving the interests of capitalist companies.
Hit me up when these magical regulations of yours get applied and enforced for a value more than the profits produced by ignoring them.
I mean it, I’m all for the regulations, I just don’t think it should be the only basket in which to place eggs, but you do you.
Meanwhile , i’ll also be not spending money on products that don’t serve my interests, it’s not the definition of “being fleeced” that I’d use but you seem confident enough that I’ll look it up and check.
And by all means, you can buy your PlayStation’s (not the disc ones obviously, that would be stupid, unless the regulations for that are also imminent?) , ready for the day when those regulations come in to force (in the near future, I assume).
Because NOT buying user-hostile products is for chumps who don’t believe their government has their best interests at heart… or something?
Hey look, this one guy voting with his wallet may inspire ten more people who will each inspire ten more. Of course that is where it stops and these hundred and eleven people won’t move the needle at all. Not even a little.
To put it how Senal said it, “you do you!”
Otherwise known as not doing shit and hoping someone else will actually regulate the market or perhaps a mystical invisible hand of their will power will do it. Who knows.
I know a lot of old crotchety elders that tried this strategy as well. It didn’t work out very well for them, buuuuuut you do YOU!
Lol, I love that. Thanks Senal.
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People keep buying things because they don’t know what they’ve lost and think the product is good as-is. There is no idea of what was before or how things used to be because they were never a part of them. Those practices were from long ago, many console generations, and people will always choose convenience over cost, even non-monetary costs.
I yearn for the PS3 days…
I remember when you could play online for free.
