Sacred Symbols+, Episode 513 | Sony DRM, Subnautica 2 Bonuses, and Call of Duty Leaving GamePass: A Legal Analysis (Patreon)

Please welcome long-time LSM collaborator, lawyer, and friend Rick Hoeg back to Sacred+. I (Colin) invited Hoeg back to the show yet again to get into some of the deeper business-and-legal-related issues percolating around our industry. We begin by talking about the biggest news of the last few weeks, at least in PlayStation world: The faux hulabaloo surrounding seemingly-new DRM requirements on PlayStation. When it comes to digital offerings, what is and isn't Sony allowed to do? What's the EULA say? And why do so many people believe corporations want to needle you, when really all they want is your money? We then get into the year-long saga surrounding South Korean publisher Krafton, their subsidiary developer Unknown Worlds, and hundreds of millions of dollars caught-up in the anticipated release of Subnautica 2. Krafton vastly overpaid for Unknown Worlds, realized that, and tried to stymie the two sides' agreement, only to get egg in their face. Now that we're on the verge of the game's release, what does the near-and-far future look like for both sides? Can Unknown Worlds' leadership merely quit post-game, create a new studio, and give Krafton the finger? Finally, we touch on Call of Duty's removal from GamePass, a decision Microsoft made when it realized their subscription is ultimately a dead end that's not going to grow much beyond its current bounds. Does the game's removal infringe upon any deal made with the FTC and other publishers? Could this be a loose thread to try once more to undo the deal... or are Microsoft's competitors more than happy, at this juncture, to let them stew in a clearly questionable acquisition?