European court: You are allowed to resell your steam games

[dokko]

Steam should take the iniititave and go with it, set up a system where if buys back licences for credit to use on it's store, make it bonus credit to be put against the same publishers ( so fm 12 can credit against fm 13 more than against batman)

It could also do a game swap, meaning you could swap games between friends, for a small fee of course, credits, whatever.

It would open up the pc games Market to a lot mre people rather than simply closing doors in te current community.

 

[mehuk]

How long till Steam have to implement this?

At the minute my human rights are being crushed, im getting depression because of it, cant go outside... might even start slicing my arms up a bit... if they dont sort it out to confirm with the EU ruling I might sue them for the harm its doing to me.

 

[Larrs888]

I was going to edit my post to clarify but here will do. I don't particularly care what happens to Ubisoft, EA or Activision. I'm more concerned about the effect it will have on the smaller guys, the startups, the people making the new and interesting games with a bit of vision and love for the art. I don't think developers like Minimax and the like are trying to bleed us dry, or CDProjekt Red.

Yeah but CDProject don't implore these horrible one-time activations and DRM. My copies of the wither/2 can be re-sold as many times as need be. I can install them on my laptop, desktop you name it. I paid the price and I should be able to do as I please (subject to copyright of course) with my purchase.

Not that I will be because both Witcher games are amazing and I love the company as they actually respect their customers and don't treat them like criminals. I'm also not some sort of beggar so I can actually pay for my games.

I also think people harp on about piracy too much. Most people that pirate games would never have bought them in the first place. If someone has lots of money they go and spend it on nice things (including games) if they don't have money they can't buy things so they steal/pirate if they want something they can't afford. Yes its harder to catch a pirate than a shop lifter but the point is whether you catch them or not they would never have bought it in the first place.

 

[Larrs888]

Steam should take the iniititave and go with it, set up a system where if buys back licences for credit to use on it's store, make it bonus credit to be put against the same publishers ( so fm 12 can credit against fm 13 more than against batman)

It could also do a game swap, meaning you could swap games between friends, for a small fee of course, credits, whatever.

It would open up the pc games Market to a lot mre people rather than simply closing doors in te current community.

I love this idea, Steam store credit or community game swaps (even a small, and I mean small swap fee) would be something I can go with. At the end of the day pleasing customers is always good and they will respond well to that sort of thing.

A mate of mine who isn't a massive PC gamer bought CIV 5 retail, needed a steam activation, he hated the game, game got thrown in the bin.

There are a lack of game demos these days and in the past the game would have been resold or even given away. You can't always try before you buy and a lot of people like myself are hesitant to just buy a game on a whim hoping that its alight, because if it isn't then you are stuck with it.

 

[Gimpymoo]

A mate of mine who isn't a massive PC gamer bought CIV 5 retail, needed a steam activation, he hated the game, game got thrown in the bin.

These sales are the ones which help support our niche past time, like it or not.

 

[anything I don't mind]

On that note anyone want to buy my steam copy of black ops? £10 ? Actually if anyone wants it they can have it.

(i am not actually selling outside mm, just making a joke)

 

[Naff8000]

it will be interesting the initial impact this has on prices when everyone runs to sell. I have so many games on steam I never play.

 

[trickycurve]

According to this new EU law, would it be legal for developers to take a small cut of the money (say 10%) made from second-hand sales? If it isn't, it might not harm them too much.

 

[AtreuS]

Developers cant control the user console game market anyway as with console games you mostly have the physical game you dont need an internet connection to play console games ?

I work with a friend who owns an independent games shop and its his understanding from various chats with suppliers and reps that the new consoles will be implementing systems to drasticly cut down on used games. In microsofts case its on the cards that all games will come with a one time use code that you will HAVE to activate on your xbox profile and that once its done your machine and yours only will play that game ( a code will be embedded in each dvd that is unique simiar to a MAC address ). Once activated the console with its unique serial number will be registerd to play that unique disc and thats it... similar to steam. You will not even be able to take a game round to a mates house and play it there.

That is what is being discussed anyway in the industry because they all feel "cheated" by second hand games.

 

[Dave85]

That is what is being discussed anyway in the industry because they all feel "cheated" by second hand games.

And that is EXACTLY the problem they feel cheated and its wrong you should be able to sell on your games end of! Greedy damn company's.

 

[Gimpymoo]

And that is EXACTLY the problem they feel cheated and its wrong you should be able to sell on your games end of! Greedy damn company's.

Maybe regarding the big publishers, but surely nobody can begrudge the Indies getting their fare share?

 

[cwhitehead]

And that is EXACTLY the problem they feel cheated and its wrong you should be able to sell on your games end of! Greedy damn company's.

Again this, cheated the fact people sell used goods? every other industry manages why cant a games company ? the sell not a few thousand but MILLIONS of copies in most cases.

You wouldnt catch samsung saying our monitors need registering to one address and have a GPS signal which makes sure of it. (exteme case i know)

 

[Qel]

If this has any major impact it will simply be that publishers stop selling games where this can occur (EU) or switch everything they can to a subscription fee thus you aren't buying anything you're renting it for a fee and cannot resell it.
Why would EA or Valve make some kind of games trading mechanism when they could simply slap a subscription fee on Origin/Steam for Eu customers?

 

[FoxEye]

Its bad enough we can buy games for rediculously cheap prices, but now we can sell them on to poor unsuspecting people and make a profit from them? lol.

If this goes through, say bye bye to sales.

It certainly has the potential to kill Steam sales.

But exactly what the fallout will be is impossible to predict.

I should add, that I don't think this EU ruling was necessary or particularly welcome.

 

[mmj_uk]

this is the piece of the ruling that WILL make it happen

"However, repeated precedent has shown that EULAs hold no water against actual laws. For if you agree to an EULA that is contradictory to European law, that point of the EULA is void."

That's also why the whole Microsoft "you can only activate OEM Windows on one motherboard" thing is an absolute scam, they could never enforce it legally which is why they reactivate them over and over again, they're just relying on people to swallow it and be stupid enough to pay extra for retail.

 

[Edrof]

Does this mean I can sell on my physical copies of Black Ops and MW2? It would be nice to recoup some money on those **** awful games.

 

[Komedy]

I work with a friend who owns an independent games shop and its his understanding from various chats with suppliers and reps that the new consoles will be implementing systems to drasticly cut down on used games. In microsofts case its on the cards that all games will come with a one time use code that you will HAVE to activate on your xbox profile and that once its done your machine and yours only will play that game ( a code will be embedded in each dvd that is unique simiar to a MAC address ). Once activated the console with its unique serial number will be registerd to play that unique disc and thats it... similar to steam. You will not even be able to take a game round to a mates house and play it there.

That is what is being discussed anyway in the industry because they all feel "cheated" by second hand games.

They needn't bother talking about it anymore

tbh I wouldn't expect any change any time as soon as the Distributors will fight their corner hard. At some time they well have to change how they and the publishers/developers do business.

PCGamer have just put up a short article on it as well http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/03/european-court-of-justice-rules-on-the-right-to-sell-your-digital-games-and-licenses/

and finally START THE DAM SALE ALREADY GABE !

 

[mmj_uk]

This is only going to hurt the developers hard. People will be passing games to and fro all the time and there will be much less money actually going to the developers.

Sure, its nice to get a cheap game 2nd hand, but think of the bigger picture

What hurts developers is greedy publishers taking the majority of profits and demanding they waste valuable development time implementing anti-piracy measures that are nothing but a nuisance to legitimate buyers.

Selling a car second hand takes money from Ford etc, you could use that argument for anything material but it doesn't seem to bother other industries.

 

[snowdog]

I completely agree, you should be able to sell steam games, I have some **** in it I haven't touched more than 5 minutes.

 

[Fenris]

I completely agree, you should be able to sell steam games, I have some **** in it I haven't touched more than 5 minutes.

Well then maybe you shouldn't have bought them in the first place.

Personally I do agree with allowing people to sell games that are digitally activated however I only agree with it when there is a physical copy involved.