Yeah, that situation sucks too. You can play it until you die, but pay for it the whole time. Companies are realizing that future retrogaming will be a big deal and they want to monetize it. Sigh.
As for PC game preservation, yes, it's hard but at least it's possible. And preservationist communities have done a lot in the way of trying to make PC emulators turn-key.
Something I think some people are not realizing about this problem with cloud gaming is that it really is different than preserving other media. Someone pointed out that NetFlix exclusive shows can't be bought on Blu-ray or ever preserved. True, but at least someone could try to record it, even if it's just a lower-quality screen scrape. But, cloud games, there is no way to copy them at all even if you wanted to settle for lower quality.
Imagine being a kid right now. Some game releases in the next few years, via cloud only, that you play and absolutely love. It becomes part of your childhood.
Fast forward 20+ years, and you start thinking about that game. You can't have it. It's gone. There is no digging it out of your mom's attic. It will just be completely gone. There may be videos of it, but those are just videos. You can never play it again, ever.
Leave it that way. Likely not directly connected to the Internet so it's secure. Or, if it is, not running anything that anyone remembers how to hack or are targeting these days.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, that situation sucks too. You can play it until you die, but pay for it the whole time. Companies are realizing that future retrogaming will be a big deal and they want to monetize it. Sigh. As for PC game preservation, yes, it's hard but at least it's possible. And preservationist communities have done a lot in the way of trying to make PC emulators turn-key. Something I think some people are not realizing about this problem with cloud gaming is that it really is different than preserving other media. Someone pointed out that NetFlix exclusive shows can't be bought on Blu-ray or ever preserved. True, but at least someone could try to record it, even if it's just a lower-quality screen scrape. But, cloud games, there is no way to copy them at all even if you wanted to settle for lower quality.
Imagine being a kid right now. Some game releases in the next few years, via cloud only, that you play and absolutely love. It becomes part of your childhood. Fast forward 20+ years, and you start thinking about that game. You can't have it. It's gone. There is no digging it out of your mom's attic. It will just be completely gone. There may be videos of it, but those are just videos. You can never play it again, ever.
Leave it that way. Likely not directly connected to the Internet so it's secure. Or, if it is, not running anything that anyone remembers how to hack or are targeting these days.