Even with the 'value add' of the update, I no longer play the game. Why? Because I invested in learning and mastering the game as it was when I bought it. The forced update removed all value for me, and I'm the one who made the decision to buy it.
If the product is changed significantly after purchase without my consent, then I feel I should be able to revisit my decision to purchase it. Otherwise, it's a sort of bait-and-switch scheme.
Not having read the TOS of the platform (or even ever having used it), I'll hazard a guess this isn't quite legally true.
You are right in that there probably is a gotcha, you agreed clause in the text that is displayed after I have purchased the item. I also think the idea that is legally binding a farce.
Imagine how popular buying things would be if people actually had to read those agreements.
If you ever wondered why your elders are such sticks in the mud on this sort of thing, that is exactly why. Put a contract in front of most people and off they run for the hills.
This is why the click through EULA was the best thing to ever happen to the legal profession.
I mean, we're actually talking about "buying" games here. That's how insidious these things are. The few people who read this fine print will know that we're not really "buying" anything, we're being offered extremely limited licenses to the content. Can you blame consumers who fall prey to corporate deception? Marketing leads them to believe they're "buying" stuff. It's not really their fault when they become victims of corporate bullshit like remote content deletion. Nobody should have to consult lawyers before consuming.
Let's summarize all company contracts in an easy to understand manner:
1. We can do whatever we want.
2. You can do nothing we don't want.
3. We own everything.
4. We guarantee nothing.
5. You have no rights.
That does it. That's literally what all these little contracts boil down to. Every single time I read one it's just the above 5 points over and over in mind numbing legal language.
People just don't care until they personally get a kick in their face. We all know that and companies bet on it.
Where I live many of these contracts are actually in violation of consumer protection law. I've had actual lawyers tell me I can safely ignore many clauses because they are clearly abusive and judges would strike them down in court. Particularly unacceptable are those that make me give up my rights. Appatently that's a thing in the US, you can just sign away rights such as reverse engineering or even the ability to take companies to court by "agreeing" not to exercise them.
"Read the contract because it is likely a bad idea and you shouldn't do it."
Granted, in the car dealership scenario you have the opportunity to negotiate. That is not the case here.
Disable (Uncheck) automatic updates from [Settings] > [System] > [Automatic Downloads]
You'll have to uninstall the game and reinstall it from your hard copy to get the original version of the game you remember.
However, if you'd bought the digital version, you'd be out of luck.
When the devs have to keep up with the system updates etc. there is expectation that they keep working on software. I am sure they would love to just push something that would work forever.
So much software that i bought stopped working. Even when you have "lifetime" license - eventually world moves on and you are without hardware to run the software.
I am not saying it's right but i am also not sure how it can be solved.
Hardware evolution isn't a big deal, actually, so long as you can emulate the old on the new. For example, all the old DOS games can still be made to work thanks to DOSBox and PCem. In principle, the same applies to software, except that it evolves too fast for such emulation layers to keep up.
Which can be a bad thing. The Minecraft I played first and the Minecraft I played recently are two different games, and I don't like how overpacked with stuff the new version is.
Most game expansions - paid or not - follow the philosophy of "more of the same", rather than stopping somewhere between that and "less is more". Depending on the game, that can make it tedious.
Which ones are those?