Tech Tangents

In my recent video about DRM on physical games rendering them useless, I mentioned that I kept seeing Wildstar for sale *years* after the servers were offline. I not so subtly indicated this is probably fraud, but I just realized something about this particular case...

This was fraud against Walmart.

The publisher's destroyed all value of the product before the retailer could sell it, and I bet Walmart didn't know about that risk when they bought these.

Apr 16, 2024 at 9:49pmWeb
Show threadCorduroyApr 16, 2024
@TechTangents nah i think its just Walmart and the distributors duping customers. Retailers are just contract to keep them on shelves for certain periods before returning unsold units.
Show threadShutterBuggedApr 17, 2024
@pluralistic
Show threadRobotApr 18, 2024
@TechTangents Lucky's Tale had a console release??
Show threadTech TangentsApr 18, 2024

@robot That is a boxed copy for PC.

I wouldn't try to hunt one down though since it says right on the box that it needs an internet connection to work...

Show threadRobotApr 18, 2024
@TechTangents ah, i was just suprised to hear about it having a physical release given i last heard of it as a free download oculus cv1 exclusive
Show thread🦋 Dana The Elf 🦋Apr 18, 2024
@robot @TechTangents It did get a physical release, at least on Switch, as *New* Super Lucky's Tale!
Just be careful buying online, as I believe it had a "code in a box" reprint.
Show threadnano's old account's rotting corpseApr 18, 2024
@robot @TechTangents it was actually an xbox game originally. it only came to windows as part of xbox play anywhere
Show threadRobotApr 18, 2024
@nano @TechTangents really? even before the CV1 version?
Show threadnano's old account's rotting corpseApr 18, 2024
@robot @TechTangents heh, you're thinking of lucky's tale. super lucky's tale is an xbox/windows sequel
Show threadRobotApr 18, 2024
@nano @TechTangents yeah, i noticed the difference in title. just was really suprised regardless. I hadn't even known it was a sequel. I thought it was one of those paid updates to a free title with extra features and story. Like baldi's basics plus (i hate that this is the only example i can think of off the top of my head lol)
Show thread🦋 Dana The Elf 🦋Apr 18, 2024
@TechTangents This is a real good angle - fraud against consumers is kind of a freebie for dodgy businesses, but if you're defrauding a multi-billion dollar corporate entity, that's the kind of crime that actually has consequences!