4 ms·

Steam can delete a game from your account, they can't delete a cd that I physically have with me. Why does this even need to be spelled out...

taeric 2y ago
Do they have a record of doing this? Paranoia here is largely warranted. But people had fewer rights than they realized before. And finding a way to play older media is often a rather expensive endeavor. Edit to add: I also find picking on Valve awkward here. Microsoft? Sony? I would be far more inline. Even Nintendo. Valve seems to be much more on favor of empowering users, though.
- Uvix 2y ago
  Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have physical releases for most of their games that they can't take from my cold dead hands. Valve has singlehandedly killed that market for PC games.
  - taeric 2y ago
    Nintendo has some where you can't rent anymore, because the save data is on cartridge. They all have limitations on regions. Again, Steam /could/ do this. Has it? The others have done the things.
    - opan 2y ago
      3DS saved to the cart and had region-locking. Neither applies to Switch. You can get a JP copy of Splatoon 3, play it on your NA Switch, swap to the NA version of the game, and not lose anything.
      - taeric 2y ago
        Ah, that is good to hear. May pick up a switch game for the kids while in Japan, then.
newdee 2y ago
> Why does this even need to be spelled out... Indeed. Why did you bother?
ethbr1 2y ago
This should be so trivially apparent to anyone on HN using Steam that pointing it out is like noting the sky is blue.
ruggeri 2y ago
Not contradicting your point, but adding tangential interesting information. Blu-Ray UHD discs can no longer be played on modern computers as Intel has removed the trusted execution environment needed to decrypt them. Blu-Ray UHD players do a handshake that verifies the use of Intel SGX. One might have always been skeptical of these discs, especially as AMD had never implemented those TEE instructions. But I believe the interesting takeaway is that even physical media is becoming something you can’t count on using without the continued permission/assistance of some outside party. Without regulation I would expect that all new media will eventually require players to be always-online.
- Halian 2y ago
  Why hasn’t the requisite software been updated to perform a non-SGX handshake? That seems like a yawning oversight. o_O
  - jsheard 2y ago
    The UHD DRM scheme requires some kind of secure enclave for key management, and SGX was the only suitable system for that on PCs. There is no non-SGX system they would certify.
    - Halian 2y ago
      That seems less than optimal.
wkat4242 2y ago
True but a lot of games require an online launcher to even start, even if they are also distributed on physical media I buy most of my games on GOG for that reason. At least you can download a DRM-free copy that can never be taken away.

taeric 2y ago

Do they have a record of doing this? Paranoia here is largely warranted. But people had fewer rights than they realized before. And finding a way to play older media is often a rather expensive endeavor. Edit to add: I also find picking on Valve awkward here. Microsoft? Sony? I would be far more inline. Even Nintendo. Valve seems to be much more on favor of empowering users, though.

Uvix 2y ago
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have physical releases for most of their games that they can't take from my cold dead hands. Valve has singlehandedly killed that market for PC games.
- taeric 2y ago
  Nintendo has some where you can't rent anymore, because the save data is on cartridge. They all have limitations on regions. Again, Steam /could/ do this. Has it? The others have done the things.
  - opan 2y ago
    3DS saved to the cart and had region-locking. Neither applies to Switch. You can get a JP copy of Splatoon 3, play it on your NA Switch, swap to the NA version of the game, and not lose anything.
    - taeric 2y ago
      Ah, that is good to hear. May pick up a switch game for the kids while in Japan, then.

newdee 2y ago

> Why does this even need to be spelled out... Indeed. Why did you bother?

ethbr1 2y ago

This should be so trivially apparent to anyone on HN using Steam that pointing it out is like noting the sky is blue.

ruggeri 2y ago

Not contradicting your point, but adding tangential interesting information. Blu-Ray UHD discs can no longer be played on modern computers as Intel has removed the trusted execution environment needed to decrypt them. Blu-Ray UHD players do a handshake that verifies the use of Intel SGX. One might have always been skeptical of these discs, especially as AMD had never implemented those TEE instructions. But I believe the interesting takeaway is that even physical media is becoming something you can’t count on using without the continued permission/assistance of some outside party. Without regulation I would expect that all new media will eventually require players to be always-online.

Halian 2y ago
Why hasn’t the requisite software been updated to perform a non-SGX handshake? That seems like a yawning oversight. o_O
- jsheard 2y ago
  The UHD DRM scheme requires some kind of secure enclave for key management, and SGX was the only suitable system for that on PCs. There is no non-SGX system they would certify.
  - Halian 2y ago
    That seems less than optimal.

wkat4242 2y ago

True but a lot of games require an online launcher to even start, even if they are also distributed on physical media I buy most of my games on GOG for that reason. At least you can download a DRM-free copy that can never be taken away.