The gaming industry has been evolving for as long as it has existed. From board and card games to Xbox and Playstation. More challenges A few weeks ago, one of the top managers of the international games company Ubisoft stated that gamers must get used to not owning their games themselves, at least if Ubisoft’s subscription solution is to be a success. In the wake of the statement, the question of what happens to gaming culture if physical computer games disappear has arisen. The fear is that one may lose access if games are removed from a possible streaming platform. Rune Fjeld Olsen points out that Ubisoft’s statement does not mean that players should not be allowed to own their games themselves. If the company’s subscription service is to be a success, however, the players will have to get used to the idea. Gambling expert Rune Fjeld Olsen in news believes it could be problematic. – The challenge will be how are we to take care of cultural history if everything only exists on servers. We have no guarantees that those servers will survive, he says. – In a thousand years, we should have the opportunity to look back at what we played at the start of the 2000s, he adds. “Netflix for games” Streaming games is not a new thought in the gaming industry. Google has already tried its hand at the Google Stadia service, which was referred to as “Netflix for games” when it was announced. The service was shut down in January 2023. Users were refunded the money they had spent on the game library when Google Stadia was shut down. Photo: AFP Apart from Google’s attempt at game streaming, Sony and Microsoft have been more successful with their services Playstation Plus and Xbox Game Pass. The aforementioned Ubisoft also has its own variant which goes by the name “Ubisoft+”. Not worried Youtuber Dennis Vareide says he understands the problems surrounding game streaming, especially that gamers can lose access to games. – When you’ve bought something, at least a game, you want to have the option to come back to it. – It’s hard to pay for something, and then not get to touch the game after five years. For example, if a gaming company goes bankrupt, he says. Dennis Vareide, for his part, thinks that the market will control the games industry so that you will not lose access to games you have bought. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix Furthermore, Vareide states that he is not concerned that streaming games may mean that one loses access. – I am not particularly worried, I think the market will manage itself. I think there will be mass lawsuits if the game producers deprive people of games they had bought, he believes. Several games have disappeared news’s game expert, Rune Fjeld Olsen, points out that the entertainment media’s transition to digital distribution and digital platforms is inevitable. Streaming games is the future in the same way as it has been for film and music, he believes. At the same time, he does not fully trust that preserving gaming culture is at the top of the priority list for the biggest gaming companies. news’s gaming expert believes that there is no getting away from the developments that seem to be taking place in the gaming world. Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix – I probably fear that we will have quite a few cases where important cultural publications will be difficult to obtain, says Fjeld Olsen. – The way things are now, something must be done. We see a lot of games that disappear and are impossible to get again, he says. At the same time, he thinks that someone else will take the task seriously: – You have seen how LP records came back as a kind of collector’s item. It will probably happen with games too. I think a market will develop that is forced by the fact that everything is digital, he says.
ttn-69
Streaming of games can be bad news for cultural history – news Culture and entertainment
