When This Generation is Over, Will D/L Games Still Work?

[BurningDoom]

For example, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night from XBox Live Arcade can only be played while the console is online. So when this generation is over, will games like still work for us if we hang on to our consoles?

The next-generation isn't too far off, either, with Vita, 3DS, and Wii U all out or coming out. It won't be long before these consoles are left in the dust.

[ZenLogikos]

Symphony of the Night and any other game you downloaded to that specific Xbox (or an Xbox you used Microsoft's license transfer tool on) is perfectly playable when you are offline, now and forever. Online features, of course, may cease if/when MS pulls the plug on servers.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Support/LicenseMigration/Home

[isiolia]

There's little reason they couldn't, or couldn't work on multiple devices for that matter. It'll depend on the actual structure of the service. Of them, Nintendo's plan seems to be the worst, given that Virtual Console purchases key to the actual piece of hardware.

PSN and XBL purchases, like Android Market, Apple App Store, Steam, etc are added to the account.
PSN titles can already be played on multiple devices - PSOne classics work on PSP, PS3, and are slated for Vita as well (which will also play any PSP software offered on PSN). If you get a new Android phone and log in, you can download your purchased software. Same with Steam (a fair number of titles will even install the respective Mac or PC version, even if you didn't originally purchase it for that platform).

It's hard to say for sure. Obviously, if a company completely abandons the market, then it could mean no downloaded games at all. They could put up a universal unlock code.
Or it could go the opposite direction, with you being able to play that XBLA SoTN on a Windows Phone, Windows 8 tablet, and so on in a few years (both of which can/will log into Live), in addition to an XBox.

[BurningDoom]

Symphony of the Night and any other game you downloaded to that specific Xbox (or an Xbox you used Microsoft's license transfer tool on) is perfectly playable when you are offline, now and forever. Online features, of course, may cease if/when MS pulls the plug on servers.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Support/LicenseMigration/Home

When your offline, you only have access to the game trial. You have to be connected to play the full version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on XBox Live.

[ZenLogikos]

When your offline, you only have access to the game trial. You have to be connected to play the full version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on XBox Live.

You are incorrect. Either your hard drive or Xbox itself is not the original device you downloaded Castlevania to initially. Follow the directions at the aforementioned link, and be sure to re-download Castlevania (it won't actually download the whole thing again - just the license key).

[BoringSupreez]

I don't know about companies like Ubisoft, but I remember Valve said that if they ever go under, they are capable of making a patch that makes it so you don't have to connect to Steam to play their games anymore. I imagine this is what most other companies will do when the time comes. Either that, or they just won't stop fan-made patches that do the same thing from being distributed.

[Inazuma]

A lot of stuff won't work or won't be available after the servers are taken down. That's a big reason why they do it. And that's why people like me can't support any of it.

You may be able to hack your systems to get around this problem but that's a shitty solution. I think we should be able to legally acquire and play old games normally.

If idiots would stop buying DLC and DRM'd download games, the game companies would stop doing it, and everything would be fine. But gamers in general aren't smart enough to realize that they are killing video games. Game companies know that we are a bunch of idiots, so they take full advantage of us and will continue to fuck us over and destroy video games until someone or something forces them to stop.

[christopher85]

This is a great question and I totally agree with Inazuma says. This is one of the main reasons I refuse to purchase any game you have to download. To me it seems like a waste of your hard earned money. It's crazy to think that the game not really being yours even though you purchased it and all. They should create some way to make the game download-able to us the players, so we can store it in our own private hard drives or burn them onto disk. I liked what they did with the whole xbox live triple hits thing that came with Limbo, Trials, and Splosion Man. Hopefully they make more of these in the future.

[Jrecee]

Yep I don't mess with this crap for the most part. If your hdd crashes, and microsoft is no longer hosting the files, you're game is gone. How long can we expect them to keep that stuff available after they've moved on?

Down the road there will of course be hacks and ways to download these games easily like the snes roms of today, and no more updates means they won't be bricking your system if you've modded it. But there's still no true ownership of DLC.

I'm all for the environmental benefits of eliminating packaged products, but not enough to lease all my future possessions from corporations.

[vlame]

Is the 360 done with updates?