On “Forever Physical” and the Nature of Ownership

On “Forever Physical” and the Nature of Ownership
Love means never having to ping a server to verify license permissions.

By the LRG Team

It looks like the question of digital ownership (or rather, digital “ownership”) has circulated its way back into the discourse this week... again. We’ve been kicking this topic around forever, and nothing’s really changed. Whether you love games, movies, or music, there’s something discouraging—and more than just a bit infuriating—about spending your money to buy something only to discover that your access to that purchase is tied to an account, a storefront, a license check, or the reliability and maintenance schedule of a server thousands of miles away. Plus, whatever new obstacles the future decides to throw at us.

Sure, some of this runaround is just the cost of keeping things going in the modern, interconnected world. We get that the companies that manage digital platforms have to be mindful of licenses, prevent fraud, keep their storefronts secure, protect their customers’ personal information, and still be able to pay their team at the end of the day. They aren’t necessarily villains, and digital licensing isn’t inherently the scheme of some evil mastermind. OK, some of them are villains, but we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt: content restrictions and access management are just a part of doing business in the world of the internet. But they’re also a great reminder of the fact that physical matters.

Is anything in this world quite so beautiful as a simple cartridge on a shelf? Or a disc? A diskette? A box whose corners have been worn to fuzzy cardboard stubs from years of a favorite game being taken out time and again to be played by a loving fan? A manual foxed by young hands eager to read about an exciting new purchase on the way home from the store? A movie on Blu-ray may have internet-connected features, but it’s never going to tell you that you’re no longer allowed to watch your disc because the relevant streaming service has shut down. That old vinyl copy of your favorite ’80s album may have a little surface noise from years of enjoyment, but it’s never going to be delisted or have ads injected between tracks. An NES cart will always work as long as your console does, with no DRM! (Well, except StarTropics. You kept that letter from your uncle, right?)

The point is: with physical media, once you buy it, you know it’s yours. Or at least it should be. No asking permission, no dialing headquarters to confirm your ownership. That’s the heart of the Limited Run motto: FOREVER PHYSICAL. Not because digital is bad. We offer some digital titles, too! And not because technology should stop moving forward. We publish new and old games alike. It’s simply that we think games are worth preserving. Collecting. Sharing, lending, and trading. Replaying! And eventually, rediscovering, long after the hype cycle moves on.

We love games enough to want them to stick around. That’s our whole deal, really. That’s the future we’re here for: the wonderful, chunky, shelf-consuming world of physical media.