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this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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For single player games, I absolutely agree. If you're going to stop supporting the game, send out one last patch turning off any always online DRM and let people keep playing their game.
For multiplayer games, it seems like it's a bit more complicated. Who should be shouldering the cost to keep the game servers alive?
In the olden days, online games didn't have servers run by the publisher, they came with a separate program users would run to host their own server. Things like Minecraft still work that way, although I think there are servers run by Microsoft too now. For some games, this will be more complicated than others, but it's not impossible.
And if it were impossible (or infeasible), they shouldn’t be able to sell you a perpetual license knowing that it will expire when they take down the servers. If they are selling it as a service, there needs to be a minimum length of service specified. If the game is rendered unplayable before that date, the customer should be entitled to a refund.
As it is right now, you buy these games with a hidden expiration date. You could buy The Crew as late as December 14th, 2023 with no way of knowing you only had 4 months to play it. Those people don’t receive a refund.