Log in member
Blizzard makes a shocking change to its user license agreement.
"Hello, welcome to another GRTV News, I'm Alex as usual taking you through the latest and greatest in gaming, gear, tech, entertainment, whatever you like, whatever you love. We've always got it here for you at GRTV News and in the wider Gamereactor network as a whole, so if you like gaming reviews, movie reviews, gaming previews, exclusive content, hardware reviews and so much more, as always, be sure to check out Gamereactor wherever you get it from. But without further ado, let's get to today's news piece, which is, not a happy one to be honest. It's a bit of a concerning sign for the future of gaming as it seems like Blizzard's new user agreement is telling gamers that they don't own the games, they are merely purchasing a license to play them, which implies that that license can be taken away at any point. This is something that sort of seems like it was bound to happen to a lot of analysts who were sort of working or observing the digital future as it happens I suppose and as we sort of own less discs in games and games are sort of less on discs anyway, we're more and more moving towards the idea that maybe you just genuinely don't own your games anymore and the company is just sort of letting you play them as an idea."
"I'll just read what Blizzard put in the new update in it's new user agreement. Your use of the platform is licensed, not sold to you and you hereby acknowledge that no title or ownership with respect to the platform or games is being transferred or assigned and this agreement should not be construed as a sale of any rights. That means basically that they can revoke your license to play the games at any point. This is probably more, it's not really going to be concerning I don't think for the average consumer. If Blizzard just decided that no one can play their games at any point they would just flop as a business."
"Instead it might be concerning to people who get banned on things like Overwatch, Diablo, for toxicity, World of Warcraft as well obviously for toxicity and other sort of bad behaviours because it seems that Blizzard is sort of now implying that because you don't own the game therefore it can not only take away, say ban your account but also take away your existence as playing the game whatsoever. I don't know about this one. It's quite concerning and it seems like Blizzard after sort of a bit of a redemption arc I guess in recent times, not really with sort of the content of their output but as a business seeming to sort of be a slight bit better than the 2021 days when all the sexual allegations came out against Blizzard, it sort of stepped its foot in it yet again. Then again we also recently heard that 7.25 million people are subscribed to World of Warcraft right now by the way. That's even not in the peak of the game and so they're clearly still making a lot of money and people still are clearly playing their games. Overwatch, Diablo, World of Warcraft etc etc. So it's one of those where I think if people are really really mad about this, the best thing that you can always do and I always say this is the best thing you can do is just sort of, even though it might hurt because Diablo might be your favourite franchise of all time or you might love playing World of Warcraft, the best thing that you can do is not play. The best thing that you can do is not give them the money, the time of day, yada yada yada. If you see an Overwatch skin that's priced at $40, don't buy it. If you see a user agreement that doesn't seem to have your best interest in mind, try not to play those games. That's the only thing you can do and it might be hard and it might be impossible for you but it's something, it's the only real way that you as a player can tangibly make your voice heard apart from obviously speaking to people online through social media. But anyway, let me know what you think about this. I've ran over a bit on time today but it is an interesting topic and I'll see you in tomorrow's GRTB News."
