CA: Protect Our Games Act

how amusing that i see this today, after what happened yesterday.

So a long while back i had bought a digital version of FF7 of the PSN so i could play on the psp. Iv also bought/owned a few physical copies of the game over the years.

Recently a friend gave me his old ps4. Which was pretty cool since the last system i could get was my ps2. Which i was still using at the time. :)

I set up the ps4 with the same account i used on the psp. But when i was looking for the digital ff7 in the ps4, i noticed that my digital copy was not listed on my library or in purchase history.It was just gone. Non-existent.

After a few weeks of trying to get a hold of support at PlayStation, i finally got a hold of them yesterday. They wanted my purchase recipet, probably assuming i didnt have it since i mentioned it was maybe ~13 years ago that i bought it. But i found it. Turns out it was even longer then i remember. I bought it in 2009. I keep everything lol.

They said that copy of ff7 was only tagged for psp and ps3. (Thats all that was out back then.) - The ff7 for ps4 is a separate tag/download. Therefor it counts as an entirely separate game. Even tho its completely the same game... But as such, i cant download what i bought from the psn to the ps4.

I asked if they could jsut add the ps4 compatible version to my account since i already proved that i had purchased the digital version of ff7 of the psn. Needless to say, they refused. They view it as two completely separate games. Then they claimed its impossible for them to add a game to an account. The only way it can happen is through purchasing it. (Which sounds like bs.) So i asked em to credit my account the cost of the game (since i already bought it) and ill use that to buy the ps4 version. Long way around, but it would work. Again, they refused.

To my way of thinking... i bought this digita1 game on the playstation network. I should be able to download and play it on the playstation systems! Especially a system like ps4 that was specifically designed to download games off the PSN.
... They disagree.

Iv already owned 2 or 3 ps1 physical copies of this game over the years/decades. I already purchased a digital version of ff7 off the PSN. Im not buying it again just because a new system is out. Im not repurchasing my entire gaming catalog every time a new system comes out. Thats pure ***. Especially when its all the exact same digital copy anyway! Not doing it.
- They said they understand why this seems unfair, but they will not do anything about it. If I want to play ff7 using the ps4 system then I need to purchase the game, yet again. .... Then hung up on me.

--

So yea... that seems completly understandable. And truly sad that its come to that..

Not really relevant, I'm afraid. If you still had your PSP, you could still play that version you bought.

i never said i was unable to play it in any form. I said its a BS system when you buy a digital DL game from PSN to play on ps hardware but they try to make you buy it over and over again for each ps system even tho its the exact same thing. - Its an old game. Nothing's changed. It's not like there are new updates coming out for it and its actively being worked on. The dl from 09 is the exact same as the dl now. Its not like there is new disks or overhead or anything. Nothing. If a digital download for an old game is ps3 compatible then it should be for ps4, 5, 10 etc. And so should my purchase of that digital download.
It would be one thing if you buy a disk for a specific system. Then there might be issues with another system. I get that. But a digital download that is completely the same and completely compatible with the system, being purposely held back to make ppl buy the same download over and over... hell no.

So i have to agree, at least in this case

I don't know enough about that version of the game, but there are basically zero PS3 games available on PS4/5 because the architecture was so different. I highly doubt that the file you download is identical between systems even if it plays the same version of the game.

I suspect if you dive deep enough into the EULA for the PSP license it will explicitly state that it is for that hardware only, but who knows.

I dont know about the ps3 content. I was never able to afford one. Hence, my still playing the ps2 until just recently. And only then its jsut because a friend game me his ps4 after he got ps5.
But even if there is a little adjustment from the ps3 version to make it work on the ps4, they still shouldn't be trying to force those that already bought the games digital download, to buy the digital download again. That just comes off as greedy and insulting. Selling the ps4 version to new players or those that never had the download is fine. But making those that already bought the digital dl, buy it again.... thats just wrong. They should have offered a voucher or something to those that already purchased it so they could dl it to the ps4.

And on a side note, unrelated to what i mentioned above and before, i still think its worth noting that they jacked up the price on the ps4 version as well. It went from 9.99 to 15.99. Thats a 60% increase on a 30 year old game. - Im sure a lot of that was because they thought they could jack it up before announcing the ff7 remake to squeeze the players out of a little more money.

dunno what to tell you other than that there is nothing illegal about this or anything within the scope of what SKG or this CA law is intended to protect consumers against.

you aren't entitled to a blu-ray movie because you bought the vhs years ago, they are distinct products and purchases.