The gang got together to try to draw some conclusions from the shutdown of GameSpy's online matchmaking systems, a move that has far-reaching effects for many first- and third-party game publishers -- even going so far as to shut down all multiplayer services on Nintendo's Wii and DS/DSi consoles. Do consumers have any rights or guarantees for service when they buy a game or a console? (Hint: Not really.) And perhaps more importantly, what implications does this attitude have for game preservation in the long-term?

Background photo: "Wasteland" by Denis Defreyne. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.