Will we get a warning for license expirations?

[Baltimore Jones]

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 ...

You know, even on a good solid laptop that I bought in 2008 (don't think I've tested it on anything more recent yet), measly NES emulation still does not come out right. It's choppy.

 

[Lord Boron]

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 ...

Because it's it's a pain in the ass to disconnect and drag my PC downstairs to hook up to the TV in my living room. For under a hundred bucks I have all my games on a cube smaller than a rubrik's cube that I can bring anywhere.

 

[DokkenRokken]

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.

I agree, which is why I'm not a fan of digital downloads of games.

 

[Biff]

@Boron&Jones

I was a little confused that you only mentioned the Ouya, like you need this device for emulation.
And well, I don't want to start a flame war, but let's just say the hardware specs of this little cube aren't so good.

Emulation can be choppy on the PC. Yes, it depends on your hardware, but also on the software.
You have many emulators to choose from. Some of them need tweaking to perform faster.

 

[rehtroboi40]

I agree, which is why I'm not a fan of digital downloads of games.

TPA is available on disc for the PS4-pulbished by Alliance. Since they just got the publishing job for the 360, I wonder if they will bring the seasons on discs to the 360 as well. (or the Xbox One)

 

[superballs]

You know, even on a good solid laptop that I bought in 2008 (don't think I've tested it on anything more recent yet), measly NES emulation still does not come out right. It's choppy.

If that's the case either the laptop is not as good and solid as you thought it was or you are doing something very wrong. I could emulate anything from nes to c64 to snes/genesis to n64 on a system I had built on a shoestring budget in 2003.

We're talking a 32-bit amd athlon xp 3000 with 2gb memory and a 512mb agp graphics card.

Any machine built in 2008 should be able to handily run nes games

 

[DokkenRokken]

TPA is available on disc for the PS4-pulbished by Alliance. Since they just got the publishing job for the 360, I wonder if they will bring the seasons on discs to the 360 as well. (or the Xbox One)

Yes, I know, but sadly only the first season is on disc. I'm not sure why they just didn't bite the bullet and pay extra to put the second season on there, esp if they knew the T2 license was coming to an end very soon. I'm assuming that cost was the reason, otherwise nothing else makes any sense.

 

[grashopper]

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

That's not right. A few games had pay for DLC like Project Gotham 2 and Halo 2 before it was given free with the Mountain Dew sponsorship (edit: I guess the Dew sponsor thing was the first pack and always was free. They did release 3 more packs that they charged money for the first couple months. One was actually 12 bucks...more than I remember). They even had a Xbox Arcade disc for the original Xbox that connected you to a storefront where you could buy games like Bejeweled, Book Worm and so on.

 

[Biff]

I'm not sure why they just didn't bite the bullet and pay extra to put the second season on there, esp if they knew the T2 license was coming to an end very soon. I'm assuming that cost was the reason, otherwise nothing else makes any sense.

They just didn't managed it in time to add the new lighting to season 2.
Season 2 is still not available on PS4, about 7 months after release now ..
(and won't come out until 30 days after xbone release)
TPA was planned as a launch title but (as usual) got delayed and came out couple weeks later.

 

[Kratos3]

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.

I'm pretty sure you can buy them now if you have a PS account if you're that worried about it. Of course you could just buy the disc...

 

[Gorgar]

Yeah, I was going to buy them through the website for ps4, even though I only have a ps3. I believe I just got my PS3 in 2011, so it is going to be a LONG time before I get a PS4. And hopefully it will remember my purchase. I have no idea if this will work and I could be throwing away money.

I might get a PS4 earlier than expected if future table packs are discontinued for PS3.

 

[Eaton Beaver]

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 have bought the Double Dragon Trilogy app and Smash TV is an in game app purchase on Midway Arcade on iOS. Probably part of the reason Double Dragon or Smash TV are no longer available on XBox Live.

 

[Eaton Beaver]

Yeah, I was going to buy them through the website for ps4, even though I only have a ps3. I believe I just got my PS3 in 2011, so it is going to be a LONG time before I get a PS4. And hopefully it will remember my purchase. I have no idea if this will work and I could be throwing away money.

I might get a PS4 earlier than expected if future table packs are discontinued for PS3.

I have already bought The Pinball Arcade for PS4 without owning the console yet. I picked it up last week for about $35.00 for a used copy at a game store at my local mall. I plan on buying the PS4 on eBay some time this month or next month. I have a bid on several already on eBay but I have been out bid on all of them lately. I have seen used PS4 with extra controllers and games go for about roughly $330.00 with free shipping!

 

[Megahurtz]

I have bought the Double Dragon Trilogy app and Smash TV is an in game app purchase on Midway Arcade on iOS. Probably part of the reason Double Dragon or Smash TV are no longer available on XBox Live.

Both Double Dragon and Smash TV are no longer available on Xbox Live because their respective publishers went out of business. DD was Empire Interactive and all the old Atari Games arcade games and Williams/Midway games were put out by Midway.

 

[Kratos3]

There's no way people just lose the tables they've paid for.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

There's no way people just lose the tables they've paid for.

Never say never, it CAN happen. Heck, if Valve went out of business and nobody picked up Steam we would lose EVERYTHING. That is the "beauty" of digital distribution.

Its why I hate the idea of an online only future. I love Netflix but its a PITA when the license expires when you are half way through a season. There have already been a few sites (one was comics as I recall) that closed down leaving people without the content they paid good money for. This is why they always say "you pay for a license to use the content" and ALWAYS give themselves the right to revoke the content at any time. Its just no company would dare to do it while still in business as they could be sued, but if they close the business you are so out of luck.

Nintendo are the only company I am aware of that do their DRM in such a way that if the service is taken offline it still works on the console you bought it for, because it locked to that console rather than a transferable license. Of course that has its own problems too if your console breaks or is stolen its a PITA to get your license back.

 

[Espy]

Never say never, it CAN happen. Heck, if Valve went out of business and nobody picked up Steam we would lose EVERYTHING. That is the "beauty" of digital distribution.

Its why I hate the idea of an online only future. I love Netflix but its a PITA when the license expires when you are half way through a season. There have already been a few sites (one was comics as I recall) that closed down leaving people without the content they paid good money for. This is why they always say "you pay for a license to use the content" and ALWAYS give themselves the right to revoke the content at any time. Its just no company would dare to do it while still in business as they could be sued, but if they close the business you are so out of luck.

Nintendo are the only company I am aware of that do their DRM in such a way that if the service is taken offline it still works on the console you bought it for, because it locked to that console rather than a transferable license. Of course that has its own problems too if your console breaks or is stolen its a PITA to get your license back.

Pretty sure if the PS Store shut down all my content would still work on my PS3.

Nintendo's licensing system is not a good thing overall. I've spent three or four figures on 3DS eshop games (it's how I entertain myself on the long bus to work), and if my 3DS gets lifted... game over. Literally.

From what I understand they are slowly moving away from this model, though. I think some people have managed to transfer their purchases after they lost their 3DS.

 

[Redrazorback64]

Pretty sure if the PS Store shut down all my content would still work on my PS3.

Nintendo's licensing system is not a good thing overall. I've spent three or four figures on 3DS eshop games (it's how I entertain myself on the long bus to work), and if my 3DS gets lifted... game over. Literally.

From what I understand they are slowly moving away from this model, though. I think some people have managed to transfer their purchases after they lost their 3DS.

Yep, Xbox is the same way. Whatever you've bought will work on your xbox even if you aren't online. I'm extremely leery about purchasing digital titles from Nintendo though because of the chance of losing everything if the system is stolen or destroyed. I still do of course...it just worries me.

 

[Zaphod77]

valve has said that it steam ever goes down there will be a back up plan, as i recall. they claim to have measures in place. but no one knows what they are.

 

[JPelter]

valve has said that it steam ever goes down there will be a back up plan, as i recall. they claim to have measures in place. but no one knows what they are.

If I remember right from what they were saying a few years back they're just going to default to offline mode and prevent games from calling home when launching permanently. It might break online capabilities in quite a few games though, so I don't know if they have a solution available for that.