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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

Perrott

Gold 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?
 
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Perrott

Gold Member
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.
Web chat people from PS support can take licenses away from you when you contact them about a refund, so its not crazy to assume that they would have the tools to grant licenses back. I don't even care about the glitch, all I expected was to get MGSV:TPP back in my library.
That’s fucked up. 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.
Good idea, I'll try doing that.
 
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haxan7

Volunteered as Tribute
Web chat people from PS support can take licenses away from you when you contact them about a refund, so its not crazy to assume that they would have the tools to grant licenses back. I don't even care about the glitch, all I expected was to get MGSV:TPP back in my library.
They can give a refund? Wow, that’s a hard button press. I too am surprised they can’t immediately resolve a problem that took you an 8 bullet timeline post to even describe.
 

reinking

Gold Member
They can give a refund? Wow, that’s a hard button press. I too am surprised they can’t immediately resolve a problem that took you an 8 bullet timeline post to even describe.
It sucks but I don't know that they would give a refund on a PS Plus or a PS Now game.
 

BigLee74

Member
I can't even fathom this as a Xbox user, everything is just there, there's no "version" or anything...

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.
 

Great Hair

Banned
It´s just MGS5 ...
guy driving GIF
sci-fi japanese GIF by MANGOTEETH

upside down spinning GIF
sexy pig GIF
Bored GIF
Bored No One GIF
 

Trimesh

Banned
Their incompetence when it comes to game licences is legendary. For years they couldn't add the feature to allow people to purchase games they've previously picked up in PS+.

I had another "you guys really didn't think this through, did you?" moment with Astro's rescue mission for PSVR - I had installed the game from disc and it had subsequently been updated to the latest version from PSN. Sony then had it available free as part of a promotion, so I claimed it so I could play it without having to put the disc in. Except that doesn't work - when I went to run it, it needed the original disc - and if you try and download it from PSN it said I already had the disc version installed - so I had to delete the version that was already installed on the machine and download it again from PSN before it would work.

For reference, MS handle this much better - if you have a disc-based version of a game installed and you then get the version from the store it just downloads the license and none of the data needs to be downloaded again. If you then delete or deauthorize the associated account the installation reverts to needing the disc when you start the game, as you would expect.
 

Riky

$MSFT
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.

That game doesn't appear in my library either but if you search for it in the store you can download it still, same with Forza Horizon 2.
 

kingkaiser

Member
I can't even fathom this as a Xbox user, everything is just there, there's no "version" or anything...
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.
 

skit_data

Member
Have you tried restoring licences?

I’ve had games disappear and I’ve had to restore the licenses for them to pop up in my library

Edit: This is for PS4 but it’s probably the same for PS5:

Edit2; Saw now that you already tried it
 
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Same ol G

Member
That’s fucked up. 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 game has been on sale for $4 multiple times, so I would hope they could just give you the damn license. It would cost them more to investigate it.
They don't have to do anything, it's just a PS+ title you rent those games.
See it as netflix, series can disappear anytime and as PS+ is like a rental service if a license get's lost they don't have to restore it, it's not like you bought the game that would be a different story.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
That game doesn't appear in my library either but if you search for it in the store you can download it still, same with Forza Horizon 2.
I’m pretty sure evolve can’t even be played anymore on consoles, they shut the servers down and it was a purely online game. That might mean it’s gone from the Xbox servers too because it’s useless. Only way to play is on pc using some “legacy evolve” program and it’s p2p.

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.
Xbox handles games differently than PlayStation. There are no different versions actually - you just get different licenses. Downloaded on game pass? Game pass license that expires after your subscription does. If a game is on game pass and you download it but then also buy it, you just get assigned a purchase license too. You don’t have to redownload the entire game like you would on PS4/5. Same with physical copies - on Xbox if you buy physics and install you can then just buy a digital license and you can stop using the disc straight away, whereas on playstation you have to (or at least did) redownload the digital version because you’ve got the “physical” digital version.


And then took it back off them so whats your point?
That he wouldn’t have gotten the game for free without the horrible evil digital future.
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
Seems to be a lot of work still to investigate to get a definitive answer. It might be a visual bug but is still on your account in the backend etc. Have you tried the browser equivalent of the library as well to make sure it's not appearing there? Have you got a trophy from when you added the game to your acount as a PS+ title? Or check the last used date if the trophy data installed when you opened it?
 

Riky

$MSFT
I’m pretty sure evolve can’t even be played anymore on consoles, they shut the servers down and it was a purely online game. That might mean it’s gone from the Xbox servers too because it’s useless. Only way to play is on pc using some “legacy evolve” program and it’s p2p.

It's still there and offers me the option to download it, I haven't played it in years but I think there was an offline vs AI mode?
 

kunonabi

Member
I randomly got locked out of my PS+ copy of virtua fighter ultimate showdown yesterday. It still shows up in my library but I can't play it at all. Happened at the same time my PS4 cloud storage stopped working but I managed to fix that at least.
 
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nush

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.
 

wipeout364

Member
I would have assumed if you let your subscription lapse Sony would be able to remove any PSplus games from your account and are not under obligation to return them. Those games are only borrowed while you maintain your account. Besides metal gear is frequently on sale for 15 dollars isn’t it, just buy a copy and support something you obviously like.
 

MaKTaiL

Member
Do not let your PS Plus lapse. A lot of people are having the same problem with multiple games and it has nothing to do with PS Now.
 

squarealex

Member
Sorry, but this is the most dumb thing I read for owning a game

paying 49$ PS+
download MGS5
paying 49$ PSNow
download MGS5
paying 49$ PS+

Complaining a game always at 5$ is not a library... bc you do some wtf trick to playing the same game.

At least, communicate with Sony and proove you have MGS5 with the invoice... There's always invoice even for ("free") PS+ Games. You can blame yourself, if you lost the invoice...
 
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