So can we get our money back?

[Blue Five]

I know this is gonna die since there's no actual legislation to support it, but seriously this is borderline criminal. Some people paid real world dollars for this, and while "removing support" is fine and expected, yanking away the entire infrastructure and leaving players with ZERO ways to play a game they purchased is extortionate and shameful.

I look forward to Ross Scott discussing the same thing to no avail.

[CipherΞHawk]

I never purchased lawbreakers so I would have no valid claim in that instance, but someone who did might want to also go the same route.

Edit: The game probably does show in my library, but I downloaded it when it was free to play, in addition to this I never made any other purchases (i.e. from their game store) just to be clear.

[Fomin]

Originally posted by ⊂ipher廾awﻸ:

I never purchased lawbreakers so I would have no valid claim in that instance, but someone who did might want to also go the same route.

Edit: The game probably does show in my library, but I downloaded it when it was free to play, in addition to this I never made any other purchases (i.e. from their game store) just to be clear.

I bought the "full game upgrade" because it was advertised as including a single-player story mode not found in the PVP-only free version. Then I bought ALL the DLC for the game. Now they are telling me that I can't even do the single-player story offline.

This is just about the most evil way possible to handle the death of a game. Even Brink is still playable offline if you want the story. Even Hellgate London is available now as a single-player game.

To kill this game's story and characters even for offline play is a crime against art as well as the players. The only reason this game needs to connect to the internet to do single-player is to prevent people from hacking their save games which doesn't matter unless you have Pay-to-Win PVP. (It wouldn't even matter for honest PVP since honest PVP doesn't give upgrades and stat advantages to more experienced players.)

Battleborn could easily be patched to make it playable offline but I think at this point 2K would prefer to FORCE you to move on to other games such as Borderlands 3 (boycott that.) I say this because they tried some REALLY weird shenanigans in an attempt to FORCE people to move on from 2K19 to the broken mess that is 2K20 (such as making it so that people who had bought 2K20 would NEVER be able to upload 2K19 screenshots EVER again.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5-LN_LHU2I

Games as a service is fraud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUAX0gnZ3Nw

[mcnichoj]

If you didn't get your monies worth in the four years its been around, then that's on you.

[Fomin]

Originally posted by mcnichoj:

If you didn't get your monies worth in the four years its been around, then that's on you.

I bought it (and all the DLC) less than a year ago. On a related note, there isn't any other industry in which the people who sold you something can take it back can take OR come to your house and destroy it so that they can sell them a new one.

[CipherΞHawk]

Originally posted by mcnichoj:

If you didn't get your monies worth in the four years its been around, then that's on you. :balloonicorn:

Let's suppose they wanted to pull every single license for each game you own tomorrow, just because they felt like doing so. I mean presumably it's their property, it's just digital property, they would be within their right to do so. Would such an action be ethical in your opinion? Would you be fine with their decision considering the investment made in said property or would you fight their decision?

Let's take it a bit further with a hypothethical: you go to the store, and you buy yourself a top of the line system, but recently there was a law introduced that PC hardware, is now placed under some form of new anti consumer licensing agreement (PCEULA). You get a letter from the manufacturer stating that they are forcibly retiring said system because of xyz reasons (i.e. we don't care, we're just going to do this, but because that licensing agreement did not have a clause protecting your investment they say tough luck. In your opinion, would this action be considered ethical? Would you even buy from them again?

If this title had been F2P not a problem, but they charged full price for this game. A game not listed as a live service, or online only. Had this been clearly outlined, I'm certain many of us would not have opted to not make this purchase. If you pay for a product whether be it physical, or digital, you should be able to retain that product and make full use of it as you see fit.

You can feel free to agree or disagree with this. But this sort of action only leads to a flow of cascading, anti consumer, company led decisions. Where what you get are clear one sided benefits geared towards benefiting developers and publishers.

Clear anti consumer actions like these, should not be tolerated in the first place. So, in the end, if you are really ok with this title being removed, then presumably you must be ok with them deleting your entire steam library, because this is what clearly could come next.

[hup]

Originally posted by mcnichoj:

If you didn't get your monies worth in the four years its been around, then that's on you. :balloonicorn:

So if steam remove all your games
And say sorry the license has expired

You are fine with loosing all your 3300 games?

[Rideout]

I played almost 200 hours of this game when it came out, and haven't really played since due to the insane cue times for PvP back then. Even so, I got 200 hours in the game which is well worth what I paid for it. While it would be nice if there was an offline patch released before the servers go down, I wouldn't ask for a refund since I got plenty out of it.

[Fomin]

Originally posted by Rideout:

I played almost 200 hours of this game when it came out, and haven't really played since due to the insane cue times for PvP back then. Even so, I got 200 hours in the game which is well worth what I paid for it. While it would be nice if there was an offline patch released before the servers go down, I wouldn't ask for a refund since I got plenty out of it.

If you value the game, then you should realize that it is a terrible thing to destroy it and make it completely unplayable.

[hup]

Same for the game called giant

[hup]

Add
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - First Assault Online

To the list

[hup]

1 more
Global Agenda

[hup]

Loadout

1 more game that was shutdown

[CipherΞHawk]

And this is exactly the point I am trying to make. Battleborn is not the first instance of companies invalidating products you rightfully own, it's just one of many examples where a user pays for a product that is removed from their library. Don't think for a moment this will stop with Battleborn.

This is why it is important to inform others about this issue. Stop purchasing games with a live service model attached to them (buy games where you can host your own server, or have P2P functionality).

Now, this does not include F2P, or clearly "online only" games (i.e. MMORPG's,etc), as these games employ a live service model, because it is the way they operate, however this is well outlined when you buy this type of game. I am referring to games not defined/marketed as live service from the point of purchase.

This complacent mentality that "well I at least got some play time out of it" is exactly how these companies want you think, if you pay full price for a product you should be able to retain use said product.

As users who make an investment in playing and buying games, we should have a vested interested in protecting those assets. If we do not stand up for ourselves as consumers, and we continue to be complacent, this will become a common practice.

[Bryzar]

Originally posted by ⊂ipher廾awﻸ:

And this is exactly the point I am trying to make. Battleborn is not the first instance of companies invalidating products you rightfully own, it's just one of many examples where a user pays for a product that is removed from their library. Don't think for a moment this will stop with Battleborn.

This is why it is important to inform others about this issue. Stop purchasing games with a live service model attached to them (buy games where you can host your own server, or have P2P functionality).

Now, this does not include F2P, or clearly "online only" games (i.e. MMORPG's,etc), as these games employ a live service model, because it is the way they operate, however this is well outlined when you buy this type of game. I am referring to games not defined/marketed as live service from the point of purchase.

This complacent mentality that "well I at least got some play time out of it" is exactly how these companies want you think, if you pay full price for a product you should be able to retain use said product.

As users who make an investment in playing and buying games, we should have a vested interested in protecting those assets. If we do not stand up for ourselves as consumers, and we continue to be complacent, this will become a common practice.

Absolutely right but you are a "customer" for most, NOT a consumer. Companies ideally want you thinking that way too. I've noticed all too much over the years the word customer being replaced with consumer. Along with it just sounding gross and dismissing what you are as CUSTOMER it has it's own different set of profiles, consumers are when companies start applying those gross label like; Whales, Dolphins, Minoes, to peoples spending of micro and now macro transactions within games. Companies want you to consume as much media, product as much as they can get you to without any recourse and yea it's just gross and ultimately not sustainable. They want ravenous consumers not customers.

I know it might seem like a small difference but it really isn't. Be proud of being a customer. You are making purchases that all come with rules and laws (that companies would rather you forget and keep on pushing to see what they can get away with) in place to help protect your rights as a customer.

[Soup Hands]

i know it seems wrong, but this was never offered as a service. youre just gonna have to suck it up and accept that some games fail when they decide to launch the day after overwatch