3 ms·

> Importantly, this means that some specific versions of these games will be gone, even from those who already bought them This needs a citation, because for a

> Importantly, this means that some specific versions of these games will be gone, even from those who already bought them This needs a citation, because for all steam games this is untrue. Once you by a steam game, even once taken down you can still redownload it indefinitely.

lp0_on_fire 3y ago
Steam is a great platform, albeit with flaws. While that may be true over there, it's not on every digital distribution platform.
- metalcrow 3y ago
  Ah, yeah you're correct. The article also mentions console marketplaces, and those will actually really delete stuff.
kevingadd 3y ago
This is more nuanced than you might expect. A given product on steam is split up into many "depots", which can be things like "windows beta version 1.33" or "mac version 1.07", and a developer has a lot of freedom to do things to depots even if the product is still in your library. They could also push an update to all of the games they plan to pull that makes them unplayable, and potentially delete the older versions, making it hard to get a playable version of the game even though it's still in your library. It needs to be possible to do stuff like this so that a game developer (or Valve) is able to comply with things like DMCA notices or legal judgments requiring them to stop distribution of a game.
- metalcrow 3y ago
  While i'm familiar with depots, i didn't think that you could delete those at will assuming a user had purchased them. Is there just one "master" depot that is locked from being deleted? And yeah, while you could push an update that bricks the game that is a pretty good way to get valve really angry at you, plus it takes actual malice instead of disinterest. And Valve can definitely delete stuff if needed by the DMCA or whatever, but that's locked to their side, not the publisher as i understand.

3 ms·

> Importantly, this means that some specific versions of these games will be gone, even from those who already bought them This needs a citation, because for a

by metalcrow 3y ago

lp0_on_fire 3y ago
Steam is a great platform, albeit with flaws. While that may be true over there, it's not on every digital distribution platform.
- metalcrow 3y ago
  Ah, yeah you're correct. The article also mentions console marketplaces, and those will actually really delete stuff.
kevingadd 3y ago
This is more nuanced than you might expect. A given product on steam is split up into many "depots", which can be things like "windows beta version 1.33" or "mac version 1.07", and a developer has a lot of freedom to do things to depots even if the product is still in your library. They could also push an update to all of the games they plan to pull that makes them unplayable, and potentially delete the older versions, making it hard to get a playable version of the game even though it's still in your library. It needs to be possible to do stuff like this so that a game developer (or Valve) is able to comply with things like DMCA notices or legal judgments requiring them to stop distribution of a game.
- metalcrow 3y ago
  While i'm familiar with depots, i didn't think that you could delete those at will assuming a user had purchased them. Is there just one "master" depot that is locked from being deleted? And yeah, while you could push an update that bricks the game that is a pretty good way to get valve really angry at you, plus it takes actual malice instead of disinterest. And Valve can definitely delete stuff if needed by the DMCA or whatever, but that's locked to their side, not the publisher as i understand.