Lucas DeWoody over on the Wii channel at the Advanced Media Network has flagged up one of the potential problems of the digital distribution model: who will own your games once they live on someone else's server?
I'm afraid he tells it more concisely than I can, so I'll leave it to DeWoody to tell you all about it:
When you buy a video game from a store, that disc is yours. Yes, in Microsoft's mind, that $50 has merely given you the rights to use this piece of software and they retain full rights to its ownership, and those Sony instruction manuals claim that it is explicitly illegal to resell any PlayStation software, no matter what the Better Business Bureau says. Regardless of what Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft claim, that disc is yours. You can put it in a console or use it as a coaster. Place it on a shelf, or flush it down the toilet. They have no claim on that disc outside of breaking into your house and taking it back. With Virtual Distribution, it's a whole different story altogether.
Virtual worlds fanciers have been debating this ownership issue a long time. If you don't believe me, check out the archives at Terra Nova. But now that Digital Distribution is set to become a reality, console gamers are starting to pay attention. DeWoody explains why:
Remember Xbox Live Arcade on the original Xbox? Yeah, few do. It was a test, of course, but it was still a premium service that you payed money to access. When the original Live Arcade (or shall I say Live Arcade test beta) service went kaput in favor of the streamlined interface we have on Xbox 360, all your purchases on the original Xbox went with it.
Are we in danger of throwing money down the pan?
