[jamjamjamjamjam]

As a consumer id just wait for indie games and smalltime books to become free. This ruins the demand and people have much less incentive to create. In general taking money away and giving it to a government is not a productive solution and definitely hinders creativity

[mitchdoogle]

You can already do this to an extent. Wait a while for a book / game to have used copies available for a deep discount or easily checked out from Library

[condwanaland]

I agree that some people would do this. However the proliferation of early access games and pre-ordered/special editions coming with an early access period suggests there is a significant chunk of consumers willing to pay to get something earlier

[watwut]

Yeah, if all it takes is to wait 5 years to have it for free, many people will wait.

People wait for steam sales of just released games and that can take 2 years and you still pay. If they were sure it is free after 5, they gonna wait.

[ncallaway]

If the studio expected > $500 of potential sales in years 5-10, then they would pay the fee and the game wouldn’t enter the public domain for 10 years.

Every game that experiences even a moderate success would probably be locked up for 15 years in this scenario, and every game that experiences even a hint of success would be locked up for 10 years.

I cannot imagine that the number of people who are willing to wait 10-15 years to play a game instead of spending $20 now will materially harm the same of a game.

[watwut]

Waiting 5 years for small obscure game is easier then waiting for some massively successful game everyone talks about. Likewise, limiting your selection to 5 years old games is easier when you go for small niche games.

This would hit the small and niche companies hardest.

[ChoGGi]

I've been waiting since 2005 for we love katamari to come out for PC.

Okay, I've probably just been waiting since katamari damacy came out...

[rcxdude]

Given the statistics of most game's sales over time, I don't think this applies to most consumers.

[seba_dos1]

Except in the proposed scenario they're not sure it's going to be free at all? If they want it for free, they usually can find a torrent anyway.

[mitchdoogle]

This would only work for games that have virtually no sales, otherwise you'd probably be waiting at least 10 years