PlayStation Network server crash highlights biggest problem with games today

After a busy week, you take advantage of Friday afternoon or early Saturday morning to switch on your PlayStation console and enjoy some well-deserved rest. Hours of fun ahead, or so you thought, but the PlayStation Network server has been down since Friday afternoon. It is a worldwide crash that is preventing us from enjoying a huge number of games, both multiplayer and single player, and is once again reigniting the debate about the biggest problem facing games today.

To what extent do we own what we own? DRM (Digital Rights Management) is anti-piracy software that requires an Internet connection to play, even if the title is single-player and has no online features. Connectivity is its biggest drawback. The indignation of some users is total, expressing their dissatisfaction for not being able to access the service, as well as for titles that in their digital version do not even allow access to the campaign mode, as in the case of Gran Turismo 7, or for the impossibility of playing Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Physical or digital?

There are all kinds of examples: there are users who say that they have been able to play their digital games without any problems, mentioning games like Lego Horizon Adventures, among others. Physical or digital? Currently, in some cases, even having the game itself in physical form does not change the fact of DRM, so you have to download the full title as if you were buying it in the digital store and suffer the same disadvantages when there are general service outages, such as the current one, or other actions in the future. What do users own today? DRM raises many questions, and although the physical format is a much safer option to ensure that something is ours, in many cases it can become a paperweight in the future or in situations like this.

Physical or digital - should we really give up both formats? In the world of computer video games, this change came about when Steam became popular, and a big fuss was made about Half-Life 2 and the requirement to have a Steam account and internet connection to play it, and that was more than two decades ago. Today, platforms like GOG, owned by CD Projekt, are well received by many gamers because they sell their titles DRM-free and playable despite being digital, which shows that the problem is not the format, but the way these products are sold and managed today.

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