‘Retake control!’ of… video games: French presidential hopeful backs property rights for physical game copies

PARIS, July 4 — France’s hard-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Melenchon, who supports nationalising basic services, came out strongly yesterday in favour of property rights... to video games.

Sony announced earlier this week that it would stop issuing new PlayStation games on discs beginning in 2028, shifting exclusively to digital downloads for its games consoles, sparking dismay among gamers who like to own a physical copy of a game.

Melenchon said by shifting to a digital-only model, video game publishers would be able to limit access at a later date.

“Buyers’ rights will be denied”, he warned.

“Don’t allow them to confiscate our cultural heritage. Retake control!”, he wrote, circulating a petition to save physical copies of video games.

Sony’s announcement came shortly after the publisher of “Grand Theft Auto VI” — which is predicted to become the biggest-selling cultural product of all time — said the release would be digital only.

The video games market has shifted to mostly digital in recent years, but a considerable portion of gamers remain attached to having a physical copy, which allows for trading games as well as second-hand sales.

Meanwhile the increasing disappearance of older online games — for which people have paid for access — has created consumer rights concerns as well as the disappearance of the cultural heritage the creations represent.

The European Union declined last month to act on a petition signed by more than one million Europeans on the issue, warning measures risked violating the property rights of game creators. — AFP