Why can't pc games be traded in ?

Omaeka said:
The gold also is the product and the only one of it's exact kind.

Also, what side are you on? You little Ronin, you. :p
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No different to 1 license (One of its kind of that specific license) So I fail to see the relevance.

I'm against the resale of digital content, but I find some arguments against it to be fallible.
 
Martini1991 said:
No different to 1 license (One of its kind of that specific license) So I fail to see the relevance.

I'm against the resale of digital content, but I find some arguments against it to be fallible.
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It is different though, the gold has to be dig up, found and refined, it is a product. A software, licence or no, is nothing more than an exact duplicate with a randomly generated key.
 
Omaeka said:
It is different though, the gold has to be dig up, found and refined, it is a product. A software, licence or no, is nothing more than an exact duplicate with a randomly generated key.
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So why are games different from other software licences? Companies such as Adobe and HP allow you to transfer a software licence to another person if you want - check out their transfer agreements on their web sites.

This whole thing kicked off when Oracle tried to restrict licence transfers and were taken to court. Oracle lost, and the court ruled that:

"It makes no difference whether the copy of the computer program was made available by means of a download from the rightholder’s website or by means of a material medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD," the court ruled. "Even if the rightholder formally separates the customer’s right to use the copy of the program supplied from the operation of transferring the copy of the program to the customer on a material medium, the operation of downloading from that medium a copy of the computer program and that of concluding a license agreement remain inseparable from the point of view of the acquirer."

"From an economic point of view, the sale of a computer program on CD-ROM or DVD and the sale of a program by downloading from the internet are similar," the court ruled. "The on-line transmission method is the functional equivalent of the supply of a material medium."
 
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This all reminds me of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, where they simply sold one copy of the guide billions of times using time travel
 
Omaeka said:
It is different though, the gold has to be dig up, found and refined, it is a product. A software, licence or no, is nothing more than an exact duplicate with a randomly generated key.
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We have differing opinions.
I don't think the process of creation has any bearing, they're both products, the software doesn't just appear, it's coded and created from scratch etc. (Sure you can get limitlessness copies of the software, but I'm on about the paid for license, it's unique and it's the thing that's bought, it gives access to the software, 1 license = 1 legal access to that software, a second person would have to buy another license to use the software themselves, regardless of the infinite nature of the software)

That said, I still don't agree in selling software licenses and would rather see their classification as consumables.

The ability to revoke and sell the license is a lost sale to the developer/publisher as they're not the ones selling the fresh license.


Jokester said:
Games aren't different to other software licences, your point about Oracle being taken to court demonstrates this.
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Which poses a problem. You have to include all software licenses in a ruling, it can't be one way for one thing, and then different for another.
 
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A game is different to a productive piece of software.

You will use MS Word x number of times for x number of purposes.

A game on the other hand, once it is "consumed", it has little or greatly reduced value to the end user.
 
When the industry talk about selling you games they go to lengths to point out that you're paying for a license to use the software and not the game itself, so what does is matter what condition the software is in? Licenses do not deteriorate.

Moothead2 said:
But they also shouldn't be screwed out of sales because of third party trading of an 'identical to a new copy' used product.
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That wouldn't happen if the game was worth holding onto I have quite a few games that I would never sell, games of that nature are few and far between this day and age though primarily because developers/publishers have done everything they can to stop owners selling games on so they can release any old ****.
 
Martini1991 said:
The ability to revoke and sell the license is a lost sale to the developer/publisher as they're not the ones selling the fresh license.
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No it's not, if you're friend is willing to buy a game from you for £2 doesn't mean he would buy the game from steam for £35 if you weren't selling him it.
 
Why don't steam etc. just hike their prices by 30% then once you're finished with the game, sell it back to steam for 30% of it's cost? They're complying with the law, and people are getting money back to spend elsewhere?
 
Amnesia said:
No it's not, if you're friend is willing to buy a game from you for £2 doesn't mean he would buy the game from steam for £35 if you weren't selling him it.
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I don't buy games on Steam for 35 quid, but I have a fair amount of games, buying it at 2 quid means he won't buy it on a sale because he already has it, thus lost sale.

Most of the games I buy are like 3.75 etc on sales, if I bought that key second hand, it's a lost sale.

I've never understood the "Well they wouldn't buy it at X price" as X price is usually inflated anyway, they could buy it at a different, much lower price during a sale, which isn't a lost sale.
 
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Lets say Skyrim is a £22 trade in, what about people who bought Skyrim for £17 in the summer sale? They'd make money. So it's one or the other, I can't wait to see how badly the little entitled crybabies complain when sales are replaced with second hand. I also hope that if it does happen, the trade in prices are abysmal.

People...
 
Omaeka said:
Lets say Skyrim is a £22 trade in, what about people who bought Skyrim for £17 in the summer sale? They'd make money. So it's one or the other, I can't wait to see how badly the little entitled crybabies complain when sales are replaced with second hand. I also hope that if it does happen, the trade in prices are abysmal.

People...
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You're weird.......why would steam sell a game at £17 and then give you £22 trade in ?
 
Omaeka said:
Lets say Skyrim is a £22 trade in, what about people who bought Skyrim for £17 in the summer sale? They'd make money. So it's one or the other, I can't wait to see how badly the little entitled crybabies complain when sales are replaced with second hand. I also hope that if it does happen, the trade in prices are abysmal.

People...
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Again, why should games be different to any other type of software?

I bought Windows 7 during the pre-release offer. I think I paid £49 for my copy of home premium. Many people bought up multiple copies and sold them on for profit. I could probably still make a profit on it if I upgrade to Windows 8.

You can still buy copies of Windows 7 second-hand for much cheaper than brand new from Microsoft, but people still buy brand new even though the product is the same.
 
Martini1991 said:
I don't buy games on Steam for 35 quid, but I have a fair amount of games, buying it at 2 quid means he won't buy it on a sale because he already has it, thus lost sale.

Most of the games I buy are like 3.75 etc on sales, if I bought that key second hand, it's a lost sale.

I've never understood the "Well they wouldn't buy it at X price" as X price is usually inflated anyway, they could buy it at a different, much lower price during a sale, which isn't a lost sale.
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You missed the point with the first part of your reply.
The second part doesn't really work because people do buy games at full price.
 
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ZombieFan said:
Again, why should games be different to any other type of software?

I bought Windows 7 during the pre-release offer. I think I paid £49 for my copy of home premium. Many people bought up multiple copies and sold them on for profit. I could probably still make a profit on it if I upgrade to Windows 8.

You can still buy copies of Windows 7 second-hand for much cheaper than brand new from Microsoft, but people still buy brand new even though the product is the same.
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Used licenses?
You could buy an unused retail PC game and sell it on for more (As long as it's unused)
 
Amnesia said:
You're weird.......why would steam sell a game at £17 and then give you £22 trade in ?
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You obviously can't read, it was an example, how would they possibly ever put any games on decent sales when they are under pressure to have a trade in option. Just Cause 2 is £15, yet it's regularly on sale for literal pennies, what are they going to do, give a regular trade in value of next to nothing?

I think you might have the single worst comprehension skills on this forum.
 
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