Will we get a warning for license expirations?

[Baltimore Jones]

It seems like within the next year or so we may have to start dealing with table licenses expiring. It's likely that in most cases FS will have renewals in place, but then there's going to be stuff like Star Trek or T2 or TZ which will be trickier. My question is, will we get some kind of warning on this?

I've been holding off on buying tables until I get a PS4. However, if some tables are coming close to expiring with no renewal, I'd just bite the bullet and buy them for PS3.

 

[superballs]

Are you thinking that we will not be able to play the tables after the license expires?

That's what I'm taking out of your post, so correct me if I misunderstand.
But if you purchase a table you will have it in perpetuity, the license will not expire on US per se, they just might not be able to sell it, which I also doubt will happen

 

[Espy]

I think he's saying that they won't be for sale once the license expires.

I wouldn't worry about it for a few years. Given how long Farsight want TPA to last, they're unlikely to have such short contracts.

 

[Bowflex]

I think he's saying that they won't be for sale once the license expires.

I wouldn't worry about it for a few years. Given how long Farsight want TPA to last, they're unlikely to have such short contracts.

Twilight zone and Star Trek are three years and t2 was 2 years

 

[Richard B]

Are you thinking that we will not be able to play the tables after the license expires?

That's what I'm taking out of your post, so correct me if I misunderstand.
But if you purchase a table you will have it in perpetuity, the license will not expire on US per se, they just might not be able to sell it, which I also doubt will happen

I know with XBox Live, there were a few games they lost the license to, or were otherwise unable to continue providing, such as Smash TV, Double Dragon, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled (maybe the arcade original too?). Anyone who bought them still has them in their lineup, and if you delete them, you can re-download them, but no one who doesn't already have them can buy them. Not sure what other providers (PSN, Steam, IOS, Android, etc) rules are though.

One critic of the Steam version said TPA is set up so that access goes away when FS pulls the plug, rather than the usual contract, where games remain available even if the maker decides to discontinue support. Is that true? If so, is that still the case, or has FS made changes so that is no longer true?

 

[DarkAkatosh]

So many people are going to blow gaskets in the next couple years it won't even be funny, that is, if access is completely revoked. I don't think that is going to happen because if it does, the employees at FS are going to be looking for new jobs.

 

[Mark W**a]

Yes, there will be a warning and ample time to get the tables you want on any platform you want before that happens.

And even when it does, Season 1 (and maybe 2, 3 etc?) are on Disc for PS4, that will be around forever...

T2 will be the first and it'll happen around this time next year.

 

[canuck]

In the digital age, once something is released, you can't just make it disappear. That is to say, it will always be around in one form or another.

 

[DarkAkatosh]

In the digital age, once something is released, you can't just make it disappear. That is to say, it will always be around in one form or another.

No it won't. Look at what happened to the original Xbox they shut the servers down and all purchases are lost forever. If that same thing were to happen to psn or xbla, then all of your purchases will be gone and there will be no way to back them up unless you can somehow hack the system. If you're using a PC there are certain programs you can use to back up data.

In fact it's already happening but to a lesser degree. The Donkey Kong Country series on Virtual Console was taken down from the shop after the licenses expired. You could still download the games had you purchased them beforehand. I haven't heard of any cases where access has been totally revoked but we need to bear in mind that companies have the ability to do that, but they don't because like I said earlier, they won't have jobs if they do.

 

[Megahurtz]

I know with XBox Live, there were a few games they lost the license to, or were otherwise unable to continue providing, such as Smash TV, Double Dragon, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Reshelled (maybe the arcade original too?). Anyone who bought them still has them in their lineup, and if you delete them, you can re-download them, but no one who doesn't already have them can buy them. Not sure what other providers (PSN, Steam, IOS, Android, etc) rules are though.

One critic of the Steam version said TPA is set up so that access goes away when FS pulls the plug, rather than the usual contract, where games remain available even if the maker decides to discontinue support. Is that true? If so, is that still the case, or has FS made changes so that is no longer true?

I think some of the confusion with Steam comes from purchasing DLC via the store vs purchasing it in game with Steam wallet funds. IIRC, if you purchase it from the game by using the wallet, it doesn't list those purchases as DLC in your Steam library. When TPA launched on Steam, the wallet was the only way to purchase extra tables.

This has come up with some free to play titles. If I remember the discussions, those titles would be removed from your library if they were pulled from the store, even if you had downloaded and played them. The only way to lock in continued access to them was to purchase at least a single piece of DLC from the Steam store. Once you had purchased something, the game would stay in your account even if it was pulled.

There was a lot of talk about this on the Steam forums when TPA launched. There were also a lot of people who bought stuff via the wallet, and then wanted that converted into store DLC purchases. Farsight would not help those people, unfortunately. Those topics were eventually locked to shut people up.

 

[Firefox2000]

^^That is quite interesting, just checking my steam account and the 3 season passes i bought via steam are listed, but all the extra custom ball i bought from inside PBA are not.

 

[Baltimore Jones]

Yes, there will be a warning and ample time to get the tables you want on any platform you want before that happens.

And even when it does, Season 1 (and maybe 2, 3 etc?) are on Disc for PS4, that will be around forever...

T2 will be the first and it'll happen around this time next year.

Yea sorta blanked on the fact that there's a disc, although that might get prohibitively expensive on the second-hand market if I didn't snatch it up right away if and when it becomes unavailable.

T2 is what I'll worry about first I guess if we don't hear of a renewal.

In fact it's already happening but to a lesser degree. The Donkey Kong Country series on Virtual Console was taken down from the shop after the licenses expired. You could still download the games had you purchased them beforehand. I haven't heard of any cases where access has been totally revoked but we need to bear in mind that companies have the ability to do that, but they don't because like I said earlier, they won't have jobs if they do.

Is DKC still gone from Virtual Console??? I'd been hoping to nostalgize myself with DKC3 at some point in the future.

 

[Bowflex]

Yea sorta blanked on the fact that there's a disc, although that might get prohibitively expensive on the second-hand market if I didn't snatch it up right away if and when it becomes unavailable.

T2 is what I'll worry about first I guess if we don't hear of a renewal.



Is DKC still gone from Virtual Console??? I'd been hoping to nostalgize myself with DKC3 at some point in the future.

I had been hoping for DKC 3 as well. I have DKC on cartridge and 2 on VC. They never did disclose the actual reason for why it was taken down. Just unofficial speculation by everyone "in the know". With any download service, even after something is available it will be re-downloadable for those with a certified purchase as long as the service is up and running.

 

[Worf]

No it won't. Look at what happened to the original Xbox they shut the servers down and all purchases are lost forever. If that same thing were to happen to psn or xbla, then all of your purchases will be gone and there will be no way to back them up unless you can somehow hack the system. If you're using a PC there are certain programs you can use to back up data.

Actually, there weren't really any purchases for the original Xbox. Xbox Live back then was purely a online gaming service.

Xbox Live Marketplace was a new feature for the Xbox360, where they introduced Microsoft Points as they payment mechanism.

The only thing that happened during the Xbox shutdown was thus the online gaming part. Which was to be expected because the original Xbox architecture was limiting adding features for Live on the Xbox360. At the time, there were only really around 1000 users still playing original Xbox games online (most of them were played on Xbox360s, and the vast majority of those were Halo 2 - all the other top 10 games were having only 10-100 players while Halo 2 was topping 1000 daily.

Now, when Microsoft cuts off the Xbox360, that would be interesting. So far, they haven't even when they shut down services - i.e., if you have Games for Windows Live purchases, you can still get those purchases even though GfWL is long gone.

For other platforms, it depends. For Apple, make sure you let iTunes download a copy of the app - as long as you have the file backed up locally, it can be installed to you. Android is a bit trickier - you may need to root your device so you can manually back up the APK.

 

[Espy]

One of the disadvantages of digital distribution. When things were all on disc, no-one would have to worry about this kind of thing at all. Just get a second hand copy.

 

[Sean]

True iTunes allows you to back-up your app, but what about in-game purchases? It does seem to me that there's some kind of online handshake happening to determine what tables I own and though I've not had issues playing my pinballs offline, the kickstarter rewards definitely need an authentication with Farsight servers before they register as owned every time there's an app update. That's why I ended up buying the Star Trek and Twilight Zone tables despite having them as rewards from backing those two campaigns.

 

[Lord Boron]

I had been hoping for DKC 3 as well. I have DKC on cartridge and 2 on VC. They never did disclose the actual reason for why it was taken down. Just unofficial speculation by everyone "in the know". With any download service, even after something is available it will be re-downloadable for those with a certified purchase as long as the service is up and running.

Emulation on the Ouya is your friend......

 

[soundwave106]

If you're using a PC there are certain programs you can use to back up data.

Yep. I think the PC version will be around "forever" too. Whether or not Farsight / Steam / etc. wants to force the hacking community to make it so is the question.

To be honest, I imagine they know this, and I doubt they will fully revoke access. My guess is that tables in which the license runs out simply won't be available for purchase after a certain date... those that have already purchased the table will be fine. This would make the most sense.

 

[McGuirk]

Twilight zone and Star Trek are three years and t2 was 2 years

I still have a T2 360 table owed to me via the Kickstarter, let's hope that sticks around for when these tables do finally get released...

 

[Biff]

Emulation on the Ouya is your friend......

Why do you come up with the Ouya? Emulation on the PC is your friend. More power, more software, more everything.
It might be cheaper if you don't have a desktop PC / notebook / tablet ...
but who doesn't have one of these devices today ...