Friends! Now would be a good time for me to warn you about the dangers of digital downloads on gaming systems, particularly Sony and the Playstation 4.

There was an issue with DLC with a game I had. I bought it on the desktop version of the Playstation Store and expected it to give me a code to enter in the game. This is important because I was buying it for a different account that uses my PS4.

But it didn't give me a code at all. It just got added to my own personal Playstation Network account, which then got automatically added to a temporary account for this game that I never created.

Obviously, this was a problem since the REAL account doesn't have access to it.

I contacted Sony support and explained what happened- and they shut there was "literally" nothing they could do. The money has been wasted because there's no way to cancel the DLC, transfer it or do anything to fix the situation.

I was kind of surprised, honestly.

So I contacted the support from the game publisher. They told me the same thing - there's no way to do anything about it. $40 was just dropped on this DLC and now we'll have to pay another $40 to add it to the real account. That was the only solution offered.

I then called my credit card company to see if there was anything I could do about it. They brought up submitting a dispute as a way to start a conversation with Sony. Sony would reply back to me and discuss it further. I said "Yeah sure, a conversation sounds good"

Well they definitely started a conversation because IMMEDIATELY, Sony suspended my account. Already, this pissed me off. No one from Sony reached out to me at all. Just boom- suspended.

And I had heard of users getting suspended or banned how it prevented them from re-downloading any of their purchases. I certainly did not want this to happen. So now I'm thinking "Great, now I have to call everyone back to get this fixed".

But at least I can play my games until then, I just can't buy any DLC or re-download anything in the meantime. Right? Wrong.

Sony locked every single game I purchased on their store. Not just DLC - the actual full games. Can't launch them. Dozens of games.

The only games I could load were from disc. This was insane.

I understand not being able to make any new purchases, MAYBE even being unable to redownload them (even though, my opinion, that would still be too harsh). But not having access to everything you bought? Insane.

I had to scramble to make the situation right. And you know what Sony told me? That I'd have to buy a Playstation gift card, then use that to "reimburse" them of the DLC that they messed up with. I had to pay to get my access back to the games....that I had already bought...

I can play them again now but this was ridiculous.

I did some research and of course, everyone has explained that in the User Agreements, they make it clear you don't actually OWN the game, you're just paying a fee to use it. Blah blah blah.

And that in the Sony Playstation Store agreement, when you create an account, you're agreeing that if your credit card company tries to reach out to them for anything, they'll suspend you or even ban you. Blah blah blah.

Look, here's the thing - just because you put stuff in agreements and have people sign them doesn't mean it negates reality. It doesn't mean you're able to supersede the law.

I have a feeling that some years down the road, when our generation gets older and we have another generation or two, this will get challenged in court. And Sony or Microsoft or whoever it is at that point is going to lose. Because their agreements are not reality.

When you buy a game, you know you don't OWN the game or any of its copyrights. You know you just have a copy. But realistically, we also know it's common sense that when you pay for a product, you have that product, especially when it's clear it's not a rental.

Everyone knows....EVERYONE knows that when you buy a game, you are buying a product that you are then allowed to just have. They can come up with all the mental hoops the language in their agreements create - but we all know.

I don't know if the current judges understand enough of video game culture to make a good ruling on it at the moment. We've seen how technology-related cases can go down in court and it's clear a lot of judges just...don't get it. But once our generation are all the judges? Boy.

All that to say - BUY ALL OF YOUR GAMES ON DISC if possible. Sure, Sony and Microsoft always have those KILLER deals on digital downloads but man, it's not worth the risk IMO. Spend the time to get the actual disc. Because they have the power to just simply lock it.

And through my research on this subject online, there have been MANY occurrences where Sony locked an account in error. The users had to wait to get it cleared up from support to play the game they lawfully purchased.

Also - don't buy DLC for any game made by @EpicGames