Do You Actually Own Your Games?

When you buy a physical game, a cartridge or a disc, you own the object. You can sell it, lend it, or store it in a closet for twenty years and it will still work. When you buy most digital games, or physical games tied to digital services, you are not buying the game. You are buying a license to access it, and that license can be modified, restricted, or revoked by the publisher or platform. This is enforced through Digital Rights Management (DRM), and it has real consequences: games have already been made permanently unplayable after their servers shut down, even single-player games with no online features. The industry is moving further in this direction, not away from it. Sony has announced the end of physical disc production for PlayStation by January 2028, and Grand Theft Auto VI will ship on code-in-box media that contains no game data at all. This matters for preservation because a license can disappear. A physical copy, historically, could not.

Key Terms

License: What you actually receive when you buy a digital game. Not ownership of the game itself, but permission to access it under conditions set by the publisher, including conditions under which that permission can be withdrawn.

EULA (End User License Agreement): The contract you agree to when you install or launch a game, almost always without reading it. EULAs typically give the publisher broad rights to modify or terminate access, sometimes simply because the publisher has decided to stop supporting the product.

DRM (Digital Rights Management): The technology that enforces license terms. It governs how many devices a game can run on, whether it needs an internet connection, and whether your ownership gets re-verified against a remote server every time you launch it.

Always-on DRM: The strictest form. The game requires an active internet connection to run at all, even if it has no online features. If the authentication server goes down, for maintenance or permanently, the game stops working.

Always-online: A related but distinct issue. The game needs a connection because saving, matchmaking, or live content is hosted remotely, not because of copy protection. The end result for the player is the same either way once the servers go dark.

Game-key card: A cartridge format used for some Nintendo Switch 2 titles. It holds no game data. Inserting it authorizes a download of the actual game, and the card must stay inserted to play afterward. It's an improvement over a printed download code, since it can be resold or lent, but it is not a self-contained copy of the game.

DRM-free: A game sold with none of the above attached. You download the files, and they're yours to keep and run offline, indefinitely, with no dependency on a server or a company staying in business. GOG.com is the largest storefront built around this model.

Pictured: Nintendo Switch 2 Game Key Card

(Credit: Nintendo)

License Model Enforcement

Under U.S. copyright law (17 U.S.C. § 106), the copyright holder keeps exclusive control over reproduction, distribution, and display of their work. A game purchase is a limited, non-exclusive license, not a transfer of ownership, and the license terms are set by the publisher.

Ubisoft's EULA is a commonly cited example. It states that a license can be terminated by notice, by account termination, or simply because Ubisoft decides to stop offering or supporting the product, with no obligation to compensate the buyer. Steam, Epic, and Origin operate on the same basic structure. GOG and Humble Bundle are the notable exceptions, selling DRM-free copies that function closer to actual ownership.

DRM enforcement creates several distinct risks for a paying customer:

Server shutdown: if a game needs a server to verify your license and that server goes permanently offline, the game becomes unplayable. This isn't hypothetical: it has already happened to Darkspore and the Mac version of The Settlers 7.

Account-based ownership: libraries on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox are tied to a single account. A ban, a hack, or a billing dispute can cut off access to the entire library.

Installation limits: some DRM systems cap how many times a game can be installed across hardware upgrades, which can eventually lock a legitimate owner out entirely.

Piracy prevention: mostly affects paying customers: cracked, DRM-stripped copies typically work offline without issue, while legitimate buyers are the ones locked out during outages.

Case Study Examples - Limiting and Restricting Access

SimCity (EA, 2013) and Diablo III (Blizzard) both required always-online authentication at launch, and both suffered server problems that locked out paying players from single-player content.

The Crew (Ubisoft, 2014): A full-priced racing game with a single-player campaign that still required a permanent online connection. Ubisoft shut down its servers in April 2024, and the game became entirely unplayable for every owner, digital or physical. Ubisoft declined to patch in an offline mode and removed the game from customer libraries. This case is widely treated as the moment mainstream players started paying attention to the issue.

Concord (Sony, 2024): A live-service shooter pulled offline just eleven days after launch, leaving anyone who bought it with no means to access.

Battlefield 3 (EA): Used a one-time "online pass" tied to new copies only, which blocked second-hand buyers from multiplayer access.

Other titles that have been delisted from digital storefronts and are now difficult or impossible to obtain legally include Spec Ops: The Line, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, the Deadpool game, and Super Mario Maker.

(Credit, Sony)

(Credit, EA)

Legality

Physical media carries the the legal right to resell, lend, alter, or destroy your own copy of a copyrighted work without the copyright holder's permission. Courts have not extended this same protection to digital purchases, which is the legal foundation for why digital licenses can be restricted in ways a physical disc cannot.

Section 1201 of the DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent DRM, including for otherwise legal purposes like preservation. In October 2024, the U.S. Copyright Office's ninth triennial review declined to expand exemptions that would have let libraries and archives remotely share out-of-print games with researchers, despite research from the Video Game History Foundation showing that roughly 87% of games released before 2010 in the U.S. are out of print. The Office did grant a narrower exemption allowing circumvention of shut-down authentication servers so single-player games can keep running locally. The next triennial rulemaking is expected to begin in mid-2026.

At the state level, California's AB 1921 would require digital storefronts to disclose that purchases can be revoked, and would extend some protections for discontinued games. Steam has already updated its purchase language nationwide in response. The gaming industry has pushed back against the bill.

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