Sumar has urged the Government to intervene so that consumers retain the option to choose the physical format in video games against the advance of subscription models and digital licenses. The party emphasizes that players must continue to be "owners" of their titles and not "precarious tenants" subjected to the decisions of the large multinationals in the sector.
This demand is included in a non-legislative proposal recently registered by deputies Alberto Ibáñez and Nahuel González for debate in the Culture Commission of Congress. The text calls for guaranteeing "the right to freely choose the format" and curbing potential monopolistic practices in the video game and home cinema industry.
The initiative is presented coinciding with the start this Sunday of a strike by video game users and consumers. Ibáñez has shown his support for this mobilization, which denounces a transformation of the market that, according to the proposal, is oriented towards exclusively digital distribution.
"A strike that wants to stop an injustice from the big tech companies that want players to stop being owners to become precarious tenants dependent on the subscriptions that at any moment the video game multinationals want," he stated in a statement sent to the media.
The deputy from Compromís integrated into the Sumar group has also claimed the importance of maintaining neighborhood stores and specialized establishments as "a space for socialization among peers," as well as the need to protect jobs linked to the trade of video games in physical format.
In coherence with this, the proposal demands that public administrations and, "particularly," the Ministry of Culture guarantee the survival of video games in physical format "as an indisputable part" of culture.
Cultural goods and consumer rights
The parliamentary initiative also urges the Executive to recognize cinematographic works, audiovisuals, and entertainment software, including video games, as protected cultural goods. The aim is to ensure rights such as lending, collecting, and reselling digital copies.
In the exposé of reasons, it is warned that the disappearance of physical support would imply that users would stop being owners of a product to only have a revocable "license of use," whose maintenance would depend on whether companies kept their servers operational or their commercial agreements.
The text also points out that the elimination of physical discs would reduce competition between large surfaces and specialized stores, facilitating that the distributing platform itself exclusively set the prices, promotions, and access conditions to the contents.
According to the data provided by Sumar, physical stores concentrate 35% of the total consumption of video games in Spain, in a sector valued at 2.408 billion euros. The formation warns of the effects that the disappearance of the physical format would have on the second-hand market, lending, and exchange between users.
For this reason, Sumar demands that the Government analyze in detail the economic impact of this transition to digital and that it conveys to the European Union the urgency of approving measures that prevent situations of monopoly and abuse of dominant position in the European market.