And I have exactly zero problem with that. But, see my opinion below
Goodwill?
And IMHO (and it might not be a popular one) is that if a ‘developer/publisher/owner/all of the above’ walks away from a software product I have bought (even if it is just a licence) then that fits my definition of ‘abandonware’ and the EULA is now null and void.
Their incentive is going to be that interested parties (in the EU for now, but maybe other jurisdictions as well) will use the government and courts to enforce this on the developers/publishers.
If a government isn’t there, in part at least, to protect the rights of individuals against corporations, then I don’t think it’s a very good system…
Edit: exactly like any environmental law. What incentive does a corporation have to not wash toxic waste down the local river? Government action against them!
BAM, nail hit squarely on its head.
This is not at all unique to gaming of course. Amazon has removed books from Kindles at the request of the publisher. There is no requirement to reimburse, or even notify, the customer when this happens. Sure, you can keep the Kindle in airplane mode and basically brick it from any new content. Baring that, your device, once it is online, stops being well and truly yours.
It’s never been yours to begin with.
If US farmers win their lawsuit against John Deere that may well not be the case going forward.
Wheels
I think my old Amana toaster was always mine. My ‘76 Plymouth was mine (no one else would want it). But true, today, if it phones the mothership, it belongs to them.
It was more about the Kindle tbh. but yeah. Stuff gets more complex by the minute, but if there’s not at least the possibility to apply your own firmware and operating system, then the hardware is never truly yours. You are at the mercy of the company that sold it to you. If they stop supporting it, it is trash, and god knows, it’s not in the manufacturer’s financial interest to support their devices for any length of time.
True. But if a manufacturer or developer no longer wants to support their product it shouldn’t prevent me from doing so. In line with my post above, I should have the right to circumvent DRM in order to do so. Not to profit from anyone else’s IP but to continue to enjoy a product I have purchased.
I’m glad you mentioned Kindle. I have a big problem with how software is treated differently from just about every other product. Let use the example of a book to illustrate my point:
If I buy a (physical) book, it is not illegal for me to share that book or even re-sell it if I desire. With an ebook (electronic file) that is illegal, even if the sharing is done via ‘cut & paste’ so only a single copy of the file exists at any one time.
Especially now that software is nearly ubiquitous, I think we need to rethink how we deal with the issues of IP around software and bring it in line with all other forms of IP/copyright. i.e. it isn’t illegal to share (provided only one copy of the app or program exists at any one time) or use as the ‘owner sees fit’ as long as they don’t pass it off as their work or profit from it.
And don’t get me started on Software as a Service… 
As a software dev myself, I have mixed feelings. I would love nothing more than being able to make a modest living off of writing MIT licensed FOSS. Haven’t found a way to do that, though.
I recently had to throw away an old iPad. The hardware was fine. Touch screen worked great, and I would have loved to use it as a wall mounted smart home control panel.
But the OS and browser had aged too much for it to display any web page made after 2019, so it could not display the Home Assistant interface.
I could have handcrafted an old-style HTML for it, but the obvious (and safe) thing to do, was to put a newer OS on it and have a capable browser.
The problem is that Apple locked up the bootloader to make that impossible, and then never gave us the keys after they stopped supporting it.
So I ended up throwing away perfectly good hardware.
I love Linux, my Fairphone, laptops where the RAM isn’t soldered, and generally, products that are yours and that you can maintain/support/repair/modify after the service ends.
We should make that mandatory.
I’m 100% with you, though I’m less worried about soldered RAM than I am by components that you can replace… if you pay a dealer to update your car’s engine computer to recognise the new parking brake actuator (BMWs - just say no!)
Just in case you did not know:
x86 (x64) based hardware will always allow users to disable secure boot, so installing any operating system you like is possible.
The same is not true for ARM based hardware. It‘ll be locked down just like your Smartphone is. So only the vendor can install or update the OS, and there is no choice or alternatives.
Buyers beware.
How is that dependent on the instruction set? Isn’t that just a question of whether the bootloader allows it? I.e. Googles Pixel phones allow flashing alternate ROMs.
Search for Arm Base Boot Requirements.
It’s security vs. freedom, not a trivial topic. But something we should be aware of before sending x86 into the sunset.
I have sort of a soft spot for ARM from back when the Raspberry Pi first came out. ARM worked closely with them to help make it the cheapest computer possible. It helped that the founder of the organization was formerly with ARM. But I was unaware of the locked out boot loader.
Sorry if I’m being daft, but Secure Boot does not preclude me from installing other operating systems, in fact, I am writing this on a Linux machine with Secure Boot enabled. I don’t quite get it. Are the base boot requirements so much more restrictive?
The keys in your UEFI belong to Microsoft. They signed the binaries you use to boot your Linux installation. Not sure if they had to, or wanted to. But they did.
That‘s nice and all, but you can disable secure boot and install any OS you want. BSD or BeOS (does it still exist?) or whatever. The next young Linus Torvalds out there might just write a new kernel, who knows.
Try to do the same on Mac M1. Or an Android Tablet. Or an iPhone. Or one of these new Windows ARM Laptops.
You’ll find that you’re not able to switch off secure boot. And you probably won‘t have binaries signed by the Vendor either. That brick is controlled by them. For better or for worse.
But that is still a choice of the manufacturer and not an absolute requirement. It’s much more the rule than the exception, but there are exceptions like the aforementioned Google Phones and a few others that let you install other ROMs.
Sure, but that’s not enough sometimes.
I don‘t want to be allowed to install specific things. I want the freedom to install anything I like, any time I want to. Today and in the future. I want ownership.
This works only when you‘re able to switch it off if needed. The switch is called CSM - Compatibility Support Module. Go figure.
So once x86 is gone, you will own neither software nor hardware. This is where we‘re heading now for PC as well. „Free Hardware“ might get expensive.