[the_af]

Note this move, crappy as it is, wouldn't turn the game into "vaporware".

I think you actually mean "abandonware". But it wouldn't, either. I was part of the abandonware community for decades -- ah, good old Home of the Underdogs -- and the sad reality is that abandonware is not a legal term, and the legal owners of games long abandoned and forgotten are sometimes petty enough to actively prevent them from being made available or playable again.

It must also be said that other authors and publishers kindly make them available for free, or at least don't interfere with preservation efforts. But abandonware, as such, is not a legal thing and nobody is entitled to playing abandoned games :(

[makeitdouble]

Yes. From the other side of the table, there's always an option to rerelease a game as an emulated version for instance. They don't even have to do it themselves, they can just license the IP to companies willing to take the risk.

So the rights holder have no incentive to ever declare it "abandonware" nor give up on the IP, and rights last long enough that ignoring them for decades isn't enough to make them worthless.

[ConstantVigil]

Yes, I meant Abandonware, thanks. Sorry about that.

Hmm... I could have sworn it was legal; but it looks like it's only legal once the copyright expires and nothing prior like failure to support...

Even then, all they have to do is do what Nintendo did with the e-shop.

That said, I think there is legal grounds to take these kinds of scenarios into court to attempt to get the laws changed. Maybe not in past decades, but the current situation with digital goods basically requires that abandonware be legal; lest we are just going to roll over and give in to these companies that only care about profits solely and only.

Yes, profits are important; but so is repaying your fanbase for their loyalty. They might not be able to keep these games running forever, but that shouldn't stop people from being able to do it for themselves.

That's my nickels worth on this matter.