suibhne
Watchdog
I'm pretty sure they've never sold software as property, heh. As long as I can remember (at least back to the early '90s), we've only been getting non-transferable licenses to use software. On the other hand, shrink-wrap licenses were very much a (legal) gray area, in both the US and the EU, which is somewhat solved (for the publishers) by getting us all to move to lock-in services like UPlay, Origin, and Steam.
The big trend now is toward "SaaS", or software as a service. That cements our license-only position as consumers, unfortunately, but it'll also make it pretty complicated for EA to continue arguing to auditors and regulators that it's providing a "done" product at release.
(But for reference, "sales" here refers to "sales revenue", which is the label regardless of whether you're selling a product or service.)
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