They’re saying the only way you can get the games legally is by buying them. But since the products aren’t made anymore, if it’s unavailable for purchase, it will be impossible for you to play (legally).

They were essentially trying to preserve vintage games with a library style check-out system of digital copies of the games you can play with an emulator. The ruling concluded that was not legal, since the preserved games were used for recreational use. As it stands, if the last physical copy of a game is lost, the only one that would legally have the game files would hypothetically be the original publisher (assuming they kept the original files) and it would be entirely up to the publisher how they shared it. If they decided to keep it to themselves, it would be lost to the public (by any legal means, at least).

Their argument doesn’t really make sense to me, though. I guess we should also ban any books that are used for recreational purposes. If a book is not a non-fiction textbook, someone might read it for fun, which is unacceptable. I think we should get rid of 1984 from all the libraries, since people might read it for enjoyment.

Gamer*

I, too, thought it was interesting they considered programming as the IT industry. I mean, sure, you may use scripts once and a while, but that’s very different from a software developer, or someone else who works with/writes code for a living.

if it’s useful to you, then why not use it?

I think arguments can be made to avoid using something even if it’s useful to you. For example, burning fossil fuels is useful for humans, but it will destroy our ability to live on this planet. Of course the pros and cons have to be weighed in every situation. But in regards to the (granted, rhetorical) question about why not to use it, I’m sure valid answers could be given.

To be fair, they did say you can buy it discounted if you wait. To me, as far as the original question goes, pre-ordering the game or buying a marked up “deluxe” version isn’t worth it when you can get it a year later for 50% or more off. If you’re willing to wait a few years, you can easily get them often 80% off or more, and they’re often less buggy because they’ve been patched already. Dark Souls 3 has already gone on sale for 50% off a few times, as has Return of the Obra Dinn(never heard of this, btw), and Baldur’s Gate 3 has already gone on sale for 10% off despite having been released August 3rd.

Well monitor stands need to keep up

The secret: at the end of the game leave a key combo (like a cheat code) that skips the tutorial. Anyone familiar with the game could just find it online any time they want to replay it, but new players wouldn’t know it exists.