Michael Breaker
Hey guys, I'm back to talk about the future of gaming, and it's all about digital preservation.
Digital Preservation?: Many of the games we buy these days are only available in digital stores. That's fine as long as the store is open, but it's a problem when the store closes. When it closes, you can't keep playing the games from the digital store. The unique aspects of ownership of some video games mean that many titles are no longer playable. This became crystal clear to many players last year when the Wii U and 3DS stores closed. For the first time, some gamers learned that they didn't actually “own” some of the titles they had purchased digitally.
For example: There have been quite a few, especially in the last year, but some of the main ones include Pokémon Snap, Pushmo World, Dr. Luigi, etc. Pokémon Snap is probably the most famous game to suffer this fate. Pokémon Snap was so popular that the hosts of GiN Lounge spent an entire show talking about how much fun it was back then.
What can we do?: Well, personally, there is not much I can do other than pressuring publishers and digital store operators to create or allow individuals or companies to run servers where you can buy titles. But to do that, we would need to pass laws, which is not easy. The laws would need to be fair, and that takes time and effort.
The only other thing we can do is be mindful of this issue when purchasing titles from digital stores. If the game relies on an online digital store or servers being up and running, consider not purchasing it, or try buying it in a physical format that will continue to run even if the digital store is closed. Not all titles have that option, but some still do.
This may be an issue we need to be aware of in the coming years, because we're likely to hear a lot more about digital preservation as this issue becomes more and more prevalent.
That's it for this week's Video Game Tuesday.
