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A game disappeared from my PS4 digital library, Sony support acknowledges that these things can happen and say that they can do NOTHING about it

Jack Uzi

Banned
Happened to me too on xbox with gold games once...i thought was for the licences because was project cars...
i don't know if now there's on my games or not tho šŸ˜…

But someone said they canā€™t fathom this as an Xbox user, that everything was ā€œjust thereā€. Youā€™re contradicting their statement in this thread buddy.
 

dotnotbot

Member
Title is an annoying clickbait. Sony does indeed say that your PS+ games might not last forever in your library, but this doesn't apply to games you bought.

PS Plus licenses can disappear from your library without any notice and regardless of the how much time you had not been subscribed to the service.
 
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smbu2000

Member
Ive had a game called Evolve disappear from my digital library after getting it as part of Games with Gold.

Never really played it, and it looked bad, but it obviously happens.
As somebody else said, if you search for "Evolve" on the store then it will be available for you. There is a note about the multiplayer servers shutting down in 2018, so only single player or peer to peer multiplayer is available.

I got the game as part of Games with Gold as well and it didn't show up in my games library when I clicked to show all GWG games. Searching for it though shows it as "Install: You own this".
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
  • In October 2017, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) was given away as one of the monthly PS Plus games. I added the game to my library back then.
  • In June 2020, I bought a 1 year PS Now subscription. MGSV:TPP was one of the many titles included in the service.
  • Sometime in 2020, while browsing the PS Now lineup I came across MGSV:TPP and, although I already had access to it from my library as a PS Plus title, I decide to download the game from PS Now out of pure convenience.
  • In October 2020, I let my ongoing PS Plus subscription expire for various reasons.
  • In January 2020, less than three months after it expired I decide to renew my PS Plus subscription for a another year.
  • In June 2021, I let my PS Now subscription expire because I wasn't finding that much value in the service at the time.
  • Yesterday, I deleted my locked MGSV:TPP app (the one that I downloaded from PS Now) from my PS4 in order to replace it with the PS Plus "version" of the game I had in my library, but it turns out that said PS Plus copy of MGSV:TPP was not there anymore. I did all the "restore licenses" shit from the console settings, and it still doesn't show up.
  • Today, I decided to contact someone from PlayStation Support via a web live chat and not only they were unable to solve my problem (yeah, Sony, aka the owners of PS Store/PSN couldn't restore my MGSV:TPP PS Plus licence, unbelievable), but they also told me that "PS Plus licenses can disappear from your library without any notice and regardless of the how much time you had not been subscribed to the service."
What? That's clearly not what happened here (I believe that this whole situation is a result of some bug in regards to the relation between PS Now and PS Plus licenses), but what's the deal with having PS Plus games you already added to your library randomly disappear while you are unsubbed to the service? That's some next level bullshit, isn't it? Can they be sued for this sort of shit?
Op fighting for a game license which he won't play for another 4 years. What a great backlog warrior! :messenger_bicep:

He is right though, Sony should fix this. But this doesn't justify a physical future. We need more rights and protection over our digital products, that's all. I can't download BF3 from origin launcher, i'm trying to fix this atm, these things can happen in every store. It's better than cleaning a CD with an alcohol soaked cloth hoping for the best.
 

Yoboman

Member
  • In October 2017, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) was given away as one of the monthly PS Plus games. I added the game to my library back then.
  • In June 2020, I bought a 1 year PS Now subscription. MGSV:TPP was one of the many titles included in the service.
  • Sometime in 2020, while browsing the PS Now lineup I came across MGSV:TPP and, although I already had access to it from my library as a PS Plus title, I decide to download the game from PS Now out of pure convenience.
  • In October 2020, I let my ongoing PS Plus subscription expire for various reasons.
  • In January 2020, less than three months after it expired I decide to renew my PS Plus subscription for a another year.
  • In June 2021, I let my PS Now subscription expire because I wasn't finding that much value in the service at the time.
  • Yesterday, I deleted my locked MGSV:TPP app (the one that I downloaded from PS Now) from my PS4 in order to replace it with the PS Plus "version" of the game I had in my library, but it turns out that said PS Plus copy of MGSV:TPP was not there anymore. I did all the "restore licenses" shit from the console settings, and it still doesn't show up.
  • Today, I decided to contact someone from PlayStation Support via a web live chat and not only they were unable to solve my problem (yeah, Sony, aka the owners of PS Store/PSN couldn't restore my MGSV:TPP PS Plus licence, unbelievable), but they also told me that "PS Plus licenses can disappear from your library without any notice and regardless of the how much time you had not been subscribed to the service."
What? That's clearly not what happened here (I believe that this whole situation is a result of some bug in regards to the relation between PS Now and PS Plus licenses), but what's the deal with having PS Plus games you already added to your library randomly disappear while you are unsubbed to the service? That's some next level bullshit, isn't it? Can they be sued for this sort of shit?
FfXG8AX.jpg
 

Shut0wen

Member
Happened to me too on xbox with gold games once...i thought was for the licences because was project cars...
i don't know if now there's on my games or not tho šŸ˜…
This happened to me on xbox as well, it aint in my library but if i type in said game it still allows me to download it for free, only happened the once but id be pissed if i couldmt redownload it
 
Bullshit, of course there are versions on Xbox too, depending if you "bought" a game via Gold membership, Game Pass or actually paid directly for it.
Once you let those subscriptions expire on Xbox, you will also lose access to every single game purchased with them unless you renew the subscription.
Yeah , I bought mkx twice and for the 2nd time it just gave me choice to gift the original copy to someone else and when you refuse doing that you just lose it , that's so stupid to even make sense.
 
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Agent X

Member
Do you have all those receipt emails from PlayStation Plus? Just gather those and file a proper email complaint to support. It might take a while but they need to give you the license back.

This looks like very good advice to me.

If you do this, Perrott Perrott , then please let us know the outcome. This could be helpful to others who experience a similar problem in the future.
 

nush

Gold Member
Congratulations OP you've discovered a rare Easter egg in the classic MGS 4th wall breaking style. It's obviously Kojimas metastatement on how you won't own anything in the digital future.
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
PSNow and PS+ probably share the same product keys for certain titles. When you subbed to PSNow, it probably changed the service attribute from PS+ to PSNow. Letting your PSNow sub expire meant that you then lost access to the game, as your library JSON would point to that game being part of your PSNow sub, as opposed to PS+. I'd bet dollars to donuts that's what happened. I wouldn't expect a regular CS person to piece that together if they don't understand the DB structure.

I only assume this, because I have to dig through our DB regularly, and product keys are unique identifiers. And things like inventories shouldn't be deleted or modified by backend processes randomly. Based on your timeline, and what we know of how subscriptions work, games in your library are remembered even after you unsubscribe. So there must be a record of that game in your account still. What could easily prevent that game from being available now is if the service tag on it got overwritten. That would happen if they have the same PKEY/SKU in the system. That could be the case if both PS+ and PSNow access the same exact game data for a specific title.

To be sure, it would be poor design, but it might also be unforseen. If PSNow and PS+ don't use the same PKEY/SKU for most games, then this issue would only come up a small amount of times. Then shrink that number further to find the number of users that would report it. It might well be ticketed for correction, but could be a low priority. It might well be something else causing this entirely. However, based on how we know the system works, and what happened to the OP, this actually lines up. And fits in with how I imagine account data is handled. Each game in your account JSON would be an array with product keys, and service fields, among some of the data in the array. If the service field isn't designed to take more than one value, then it's going to be overwritten by the most recent service you downloaded that game with.

If you resubscribe to PSNow, and find that the game is once again available, then there you go.
 
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Orion2

Banned
yeah the way they handled the PS+ licenses versions of games back in the day was weird, supposedly they recently fixed it, owning a PS+ license of a game is not the same as owning a game
 

01011001

Banned
Congrats, you found a glitch. Did you honestly expect the web chat help person to resolve it, and on the same day you contacted them? Have an iota of patience.

similar thing happened to me on Xbox, was resolved literally within less than 5min

a license of a game I bought was not functioning, and the guy on the phone literally fixed it in like 2min
 

ManaByte

Member
PSNow and PS+ probably share the same product keys for certain titles. When you subbed to PSNow, it probably changed the service attribute from PS+ to PSNow. Letting your PSNow sub expire meant that you then lost access to the game, as your library JSON would point to that game being part of your PSNow sub, as opposed to PS+. I'd bet dollars to donuts that's what happened. I wouldn't expect a regular CS person to piece that together if they don't understand the DB structure.

This is exactly what happened. Knew it was the case as soon as he said he downloaded the PS Now version.
 
It is weird, psnow games are considered different to regular downloaded games from psplus or the store. Same with game saves
 

Bryank75

Banned
Would also like to know. Bryank75 Bryank75 wellwerewaiting.gif

Initially it offered a lot of value.... you had most of the major shows on it and you were saving over cable / satellite. But as content producers and tech giants entered to get their cut, the content slowly got divided up and now to cover everything you either need 5 - 6 or more subscriptions or you need to be constantly cancelling and renewing based on what you've watched.

Fact is, the prices are going up faster than ever now and there is no going back. You've fallen for the trap and now you'r just a person that owns nothing but still pays.

You start applying the same concept to everything and you can never accumulate wealth....that is what they are getting you used to.
 

Loope

Member
Digital ownership is amazing, isn't it?
Still better than having shit all over the place after 20 years playing the game. Also tell that to my Neverwinter Nights physical edition which has a scratch on cd number 2, which means i can't longer install it.
 
Initially it offered a lot of value.... you had most of the major shows on it and you were saving over cable / satellite. But as content producers and tech giants entered to get their cut, the content slowly got divided up and now to cover everything you either need 5 - 6 or more subscriptions or you need to be constantly cancelling and renewing based on what you've watched.

Fact is, the prices are going up faster than ever now and there is no going back. You've fallen for the trap and now you'r just a person that owns nothing but still pays.

You start applying the same concept to everything and you can never accumulate wealth....that is what they are getting you used to.
Mines like 15$ a month, cable is 100$. I don't need to watch all the shows in existence. Also the vast majority of video games are practically worthless within a few years anyway. I don't see the issue. Your other thing sounds like politics and my politics always get me in trouble here so I'm staying clear.
 

Bryank75

Banned
Mines like 15$ a month, cable is 100$. I don't need to watch all the shows in existence. Also the vast majority of video games are practically worthless within a few years anyway. I don't see the issue. Your other thing sounds like politics and my politics always get me in trouble here so I'm staying clear.

I dont watch anything, everything on those services is trash. I just have for my kids to watch a few cartoons on Netflix. Turns your brain to mush watching that stuff.
 

Agent X

Member
PSNow and PS+ probably share the same product keys for certain titles. When you subbed to PSNow, it probably changed the service attribute from PS+ to PSNow. Letting your PSNow sub expire meant that you then lost access to the game, as your library JSON would point to that game being part of your PSNow sub, as opposed to PS+. I'd bet dollars to donuts that's what happened. I wouldn't expect a regular CS person to piece that together if they don't understand the DB structure.

I believe this used to be the case. Starting about a year ago, though, some games that I obtained through PS Now sent a transaction receipt, for which the description of the item showed the name of the game along with "(PS Now)". Based on this, I believe Sony became aware of the issue, and modified their games so that PS Plus and PS Now licenses are treated differently.
 

Genx3

Member
But someone said they canā€™t fathom this as an Xbox user, that everything was ā€œjust thereā€. Youā€™re contradicting their statement in this thread buddy.
I thought that with games with gold on XB1 once you stop subscribing you lose the game.
That is normal.
On 360 you could keep the game indefinitely.
 

Genx3

Member
You lose access to the game, but it's still connected to your account. If you re-sub it's still there.
Exactly
If you re-subscribe you can download the game again and if it's on your HDD then you should be able to just play it again.
In a case where it randomly disappears If the game is a permanent license you just have to go download it again.
 
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Perrott

Gold Member
So it sounds like OP does not currently have either PS Now or PS plus subscriptions. Those games are only playable if you have an active subscription.
I no longer have a PS Now subscription, but I do still have PS Plus until January of next year.
 

Riky

$MSFT
Exactly
If you re-subscribe you can download the game again and if it's on your HDD then you should be able to just play it again.
In a case where it randomly disappears If the game is a permanent license you just have to go download it again.

There are four games to my knowledge that were given away with Gold that don't appear in your library for some reason, but you can search for them and download them no problem.

Evolve
Project Cars
Forza Horizon 2
Forza Motorsport 5

People should check they own them.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
Is that right? I wonder why they changed that then.
Every 360 game I claimed from Games with Gold shows up in the owned tab in my library. When I look at the Games with Gold tab in my library all I see are Xbox One games that I presume will disappear if my subscription elapses.
 

Jack Uzi

Banned
Every 360 game I claimed from Games with Gold shows up in the owned tab in my library. When I look at the Games with Gold tab in my library all I see are Xbox One games that I presume will disappear if my subscription elapses.

Nice, so itā€™s pretty much just the same as PS+
 

kunonabi

Member
Called up Sony support about my game that locked and they basically said the game license didn't renew and they'll fix it eventually but they couldn't give any estimate whatsoever.
 

That's not really relevant here. Because the game in question was a complimentary PS+ game that the OP never paid for.

Had the OP bought the game, this wouldn't have been an issue and there would be no thread.

That said, the OP's issue is weird and he should try to get PS customer services on the phone.
 

bender

What time is it?
Still better than having shit all over the place after 20 years playing the game. Also tell that to my Neverwinter Nights physical edition which has a scratch on cd number 2, which means i can't longer install it.

Neverwinter Nights is trash so it sounds like disc 2 did you a solid by committing seppuku.
 

kingfey

Banned
That's not really relevant here. Because the game in question was a complimentary PS+ game that the OP never paid for.

Had the OP bought the game, this wouldn't have been an issue and there would be no thread.

That said, the OP's issue is weird and he should try to get PS customer services on the phone.
If op gets 1 indefinitely ban, and all his library will be locked forever. Same on other consoles and pc. Same thing could be said about the console, not an issue for pc though.

We are at a point, where we have the ability to play the games, and not own them at all.
 
If op gets 1 indefinitely ban, and all his library will be locked forever. Same on other consoles and pc. Same thing could be said about the console, not an issue for pc though.

We are at a point, where we have the ability to play the games, and not own them at all.

Well if you get an indefinite ban, it's your own fault for being a shithead.

The fact that it doesn't happen on PC is why on PC cheaters run fucking rampant on MP games.
 
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zombrex

Member
I'm still waiting for my $5 refund for items they were never granted in PS home.
PlayStation support is the absolute worst. if something goes wrong you are up shit creek.
In Australia they constantly broke our consumer laws to the point they were fined millions of dollars.
 
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