Comment on Bill to block publishers from killing online games advances in California

iamthetot@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Not being able to sell in California is a huge loss though. I agree January 1st is a little too soon, but better to have a little bit of pain now to make things better later.

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  • iamthetot@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Is your first sentence responding to my second paragraph? If so, I’m not sure I understand.

    The opposing stance to this makes the argument that licensing makes this law not feasible. But if a company’s license runs out, they can’t sell the game anyway, in California or otherwise, regardless of if this law passes. So what does it even have to do with the idea that companies should leave a game in a responsibly playable state? Which is what the core of Stop Killing Games wants.

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    • ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      No, I was commenting on just the first paragraph. January 2027 is too soon for any game that’s currently in development to be reasonably expected to pivot by then, and the same goes for any game that’s already available and expects to have a long tail on its sales, so it’s sort of like lighting the fuse on a bomb. The licensing argument is stupid nonsense, and they know it.

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      • Khanzarate@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        What pivoting?

        It changes the plans of shuttering a server, not offering a new one. Any such independent play patch soils only be released when a company is ready to end servers.

        A new game previously intended to be released December 31st of this year, caught off guard with just one day of warning, could still release without changing a thing. The game will have servers for years to come, presumably.

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• chameleon@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Funny thing is this particular bill also applies semi-retroactively. The original version was worded

  The following shall apply only for server-connected games published for sale on or after January 1, 2027

  but in the April 6 revision that ultimately advanced, that was changed to:

  The following shall apply only to a digital game available for purchase on or after January 1, 2027

  I'm heavily in favor of SKG, but this particular bill isn't workable on this schedule. It's not what SKG has been petitioning for.

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  • iamthetot@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that if a game is available for sale, it should be in a reasonably playable condition. So if a company wants to continue selling their game beyond 2027, they should begin making end-of-life plans or face penalties. I think that’s the goal here.

    It’s important to remember that this bill isn’t trying to enforce endless support, rather that game companies end support in a responsible way that doesn’t essentially brick the game.

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  • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Should change it to apply to any and all games published after the bill is passed.

    Realistically, its a big ask for publishers to retroactively apply to their older games, but I do think they should still legally be required to do so for old games they don’t sell anymore. Its not realistic to ask that though, so it is understandable that it wouldn’t be included.

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    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      crying onto a wad of money I c-can’t believe sniff they want me to pay developer’s sniff after the release date. It’s not fair, IT’S JUST NOT FAIR! THINK OF THE C-SUITES!! PLEASE! WE CAN ONLY AFFORD 14 NEW ROLLS ROYCE VEHICES THIS YEAR! THEY MIGHT LOSE THE NEW-CAR SMELL WHILE THEY STILL OWN IT!

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      • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        The older a game is, the more work it would take to retroactively fix them. Its not realistic to expect this especially when some publisher catalogs span more than a decade. Getting the old server code to work and then verifying that it isnt going to delete system files when uninstalling it or something by accident takes time and money away from new development.

        Instead, if they plan End of Life into the product from the beginning, the time and cost of doing it is drastically reduces to basically nothing. A few weeks of forethought and planning to avoid potential years of development work fixing old bromen games is a trade I am willing to accept.

        Again, I wish they would release old server files and let us figure out how to get them running, but I understand there are limitations that prevent that.

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