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1) They're literally still selling the game that will be completely turned off today for $20. They've been selling each and every one of these games far more recently than 9 years ago.

2) Really? 9-12 years is too long for you? I can still play the entire version of virtually every single game I bought prior to 2010. (Okay, that's a lie, I've lost a lot of the discs and keys. But if I hadn't I could.)

What does that have to do with multiplayer servers?

> Obviously yes, and it was as obvious when those games were launched and sold.

It was obvious that they'd become a pile of junk bits in less than a decade?

> Many game companies are not aspiring to build some everlasting cultural artifacts, but to provide entertainment today. Preservation is not some intrinsic moral obligation

Okay? That might apply if they were simply, say, no longer selling the product (although at that point there's no reason for them to retain their copyright and other parties should be free to rip, crack, distribute, etc). But that's not the case here. They're taking something which users may have already preserved and saying you can't fully use it anymore.

There is a lot of ambiguity in practice when realistically (almost) every consumer thinks they're purchasing an item but they're actually only licensing it.

I also accept a license to use my toaster when I buy it, and the intellectual property rights are still owned by the manufacturer, etc. I wouldn't call burying it in legalese that no one ever reads and even fewer understand, "pretty explicit".

It's really frustrating to me that "say one thing on the page and another thing in the terms" has been steadily creeping from "that's a scam" to "that's a completely normal business practice", and it's even more frustrating that some people defend it.

Which is why we need legislative change to force them not to sell a designed-for-obsolescence product in the first place.

ubisoft be like "you know that game we released 3 years ago and are still selling for $20? yeah you won't be able to play it after September"

Also... can we talk about the fact that they're killing off these old games because of, supposedly, the maintenance burden... but they're keeping the remastered versions. Wouldn't it have been simpler to just use the same game server in the first place?!