This is literally already the case with GeForce Now - you're NOT allowed to play your whole library because the publishers sued nVidia for allowing you to play the GAME YOU OWN on the machines YOU PAY FOR in their cloud.
I think it's interesting - this is the opposite of "games trapped in the cloud", it's games trapped on your computer away from the cloud. I don't mean it as a simple quip, but what should be take from people protesting about this opposite thing too.
A man walks into a store, picks up a game, pays for it, and takes it home; he never agrees to a license or signs a contract.
He puts it in the game console, it starts up, and he plays it, and still hasn't agreed to any license or contract.
I'm not declaring that you're wrong, but I suspect these "publisher's wishlist" licenses and terms may not hold up in court in the event of someone violating those terms.
Just because someone writes something down doesn't make it true, and that describes a great many EULAs, too.
We may be mixing up our terms, when you say "license", I don't generally think of the same kind of "license" as would be implied for e.g. a paperback. I think it's implied we're talking about software-style licenses.
I think of a long, rambling contract with made-up terms and obligations you never agreed to at purchase time, EULA style.
So yes, you get a license-to-use-and-lend-and-resell with your purchase as you do with books, music, and movies, but the EULA and TOS type stuff are probably fiction, I think. I'm no expert, but afaik it's not well-tested legally, and first-sale doctrine counts for a lot.
I own a game called "Project Rito". It's a VR prototype where your arms are wings and you use them to sail on updrafts, occasionally allowing yourself to drop freely to fire your bow.
I just need to improve the graphics a bit as it's mostly place-holder stuff for now.
It's not a great game(yet), but god's damnit it's mine!
.... Wait, it's made in unity, I don't really own that game either, do I?
You're also using concepts and tradmarks from Zelda and the Youtube channel for "Project Rito" appears to be for somebody else's cosplay, so it sounds like you own a little slice of a game.
I'd like to play it though. Maybe "Project Birdperson"? Nobody would name a character "Birdperson".
Heh, yeah, the name, much like most of the game, is place holder stuff at this point. I hope Nintendo won't sue me until I publish, if I ever even get that far!
I have no idea why you are being downvoted. As much as I wish otherwise, what you say is entirely correct.
In some limited sense it is kind possible to own some games, the ones that exist on physical media and play on devices that do not require online connectivity. But even in the case of GOG, which sells DRM free games you can download, you aren't really the "owner" of anything tangible - you have a license to use the software. The fact that you may have a copy of the files is not the same as owning anything.
Indeed, but on non-connected pieces of physical hardware that use physical media, the experience is similar enough to "owning" something that generally thinking about such things in terms of "ownership" makes sense (even if it's just a convenient fiction).
In the modern era though, with DRM and phoning home etc, it's much more obvious that you "own" nothing.
