The digital era and its licences: what rights do you get depending on what you buy?

"Buying" a dematerialised game can cover very different realities. Behind one and the same purchase button lie several types of licence, which do not offer the same rights at all. Knowing how to tell them apart means knowing what you are paying for.

Perpetual licence

This is the model closest to a traditional "purchase": you pay once and keep access with no theoretical time limit.

• For you: long-term security.
• Limits: access remains dependent on the survival of the servers and the platform; resale is almost always prohibited by the contract.

Subscription licence (catalogue)

A "Netflix-style" model: you pay a subscription (such as Game Pass or PS Plus) that gives access to a rotating catalogue.

• For you: lots of games for a moderate monthly cost.
• Limits: you own nothing; a game can leave the catalogue; ending the subscription ends access. No preservation, no resale.

Live-service game

The game is inseparable from a continuous online service (regular content, seasons). It lives, and dies, with its servers.

• Limits: when the service shuts down, the game can become completely unplayable, as with The Crew in 2024. This is where the question of preservation is most acute.

Free-to-play and micro-transactions

The game is free, but monetised through in-game purchases. You buy neither the game nor, often, any real "goods": most of the items purchased are themselves merely usage licences, non-transferable and revocable.

What all these models have in common: the duration of access and the actual rights are rarely displayed clearly at the moment of payment. That is precisely where transparency ought to apply.

See also: the resale of dematerialised games.