Valve wins court case in Germany, say goodbye to the possibility of used digital games sales.

[HutchisonSorbo]

Source

 

ZBZ made the case that Valve has to comply with a European Union decision from 2012 that states that companies cannot stop consumers from reselling digital product. That case involved Oracle products, and the decision then was that consumers could resell Oracle license keys to each other, as long as the seller was no longer using the key.

However, the new court decision seems to have made Steam the exception, as the jury believes the ruling does not apply for the digital storefront.

 

It appears the drastically reduced game prices PC gamers have enjoyed up until this point have now come at a price. We don't know the implications of the ruling at this point, if this is happening in Europe with it's stricter consumer rights laws then there is no telling what will occur in the future now that the precedent has been set. What do you think of used game sales, do you think it could have ever worked?

                                                                                                          

 

[PillowSmoke]

[Shd0w2]

ORACLE 2014 <3

[Imabigmac]

Wait this is a bad thing? Now steam sale will be able to continue, isn't that what we like?

[Blue fellow]

Used digital games is absurd. There is no deprecation of value like physical copies have and there would be zero motivation for anyone to buy a new game. This would force game companies to do what consoles do with the $20 online fee, or have some sort of exclusive DLC for new purchases. 

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Why cant they just charge like $20 per month and let the user play whatever they want?

[DoubleY]

Why cant they just charge like $20 per month and let the user play whatever they want?

That would just be crazy. I could play any game on Steam for $20 a month? I don't think Valve would like that

[Antistatic12]

Interesting, I am very divided on this. I understand people saying, "I bought this game, I should be able to sell it when I am finished or bored of it."
but I also believe consumers need to take more responsibility when buying items. To understand terms and conditions of sale.

One thing is for sure, there is too much red tape in life and it is confusing and annoying for everybody.

I am more than happy with the current way Steam works. Just leave it alone....well maybe more sales

[Ertman]

It kinda sucks, but we do get some damn good deals. The question is would everyone be ok with getting rid of sales if it means selling used digital games?

Valve could always open up a used storefront like they do with ingame content and take a cut for developers and themselves. Besides there is that whole sharing thing.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

That would just be crazy. I could play any game on Steam for $20 a month? I don't think Valve would like that

Maybe from a limited pool of games, and to get more games and AAA titles you pay more per month? I know that me, and most of my friends buy games and then hardly ever play them again. They would make more per month from users like me than their more hardcore users.

[Blue fellow]

Why cant they just charge like $20 per month and let the user play whatever they want?

 

There are $3,000+ games. If you have a Steam account for the next 10 years and the game amount and price stay the same, that's $2,400, Or 80 cents a game.

[EricX2]

Why cant they just charge like $20 per month and let the user play whatever they want?

Sounds like gamefly to me, but mixing unlimited rentals with digital downloads would be tough. They would probably have to make it so you could only have 1 or 2 games playable at any given time and you would 'check them out' which would mean you'd have them for a set amount of time and not be able to get another game until that time was done. So if you didn't like a game you would king of be screwed until you could get a new one. Maybe they could do daily or something.

[Imabigmac]

Interesting, I am very divided on this. I understand people saying, "I bought this game, I should be able to sell it when I am finished or bored of it."

But in reality they are only leasing the game, so it is not theirs to sell. Which is why people need to; 

 

take more responsibility when buying items. To understand terms and conditions of sale.

[Antistatic12]

But in reality they are only leasing the game, so it is not theirs to sell. Which is why people need to; 

yep, my point exactly.

 

[bob345]

I think the idea of used digital games is just stupid. Its not any different than trying to sell used mp3's

[Beskamir]

I am actually very much happy by this court ruling. All Hail LORD GABEN

[Scionyde]

I'm perfectly fine with this ruling, I'd think most Steam users understand this is the tradeoff they get for such deep discounts. I still think Valve needs some kind of refund policy similar to Origin's, though.

[420istoday]

I wouldn't mind being able to trade games through steam, but selling is a bit of a stretch, I have so many games I got through Humble Bundles that I just do not want and will never play, I'd like to give those games to someone who would appreciate them more than I.

 

However, if they brought selling used games into play, they could mandate a percentage of the sale, say 10% to the dev, and 5% to Steam, then they could still afford to have sales, they may also have to limit the used price to something like no less than 80% of the market price, that way the dev is actually making a good portion of what the new game is and to counteract inflation, like Dota 2 keys which went for 2 cent each. I bought 5 beta keys for Dota 2 for 10 cents, I don't even like Dota 2.

 

There would also need to be a disadvantage to buying used games, with physical copies that's usually damage, but with digital copies they don't usually drop any value other than just being older. I have no idea what that might be though.

[Humbug]

I'm happy about this ruling. Forget about valve- I don't want game developers losing potential sales and money because of a used digital games market.

[totjup5]

I don't care, I don't sell games.

[Misanthrope]

Used digital games is absurd. There is no deprecation of value like physical copies have and there would be zero motivation for anyone to buy a new game. This would force game companies to do what consoles do with the $20 online fee, or have some sort of exclusive DLC for new purchases. 

 

I can see why the gut reaction is just that. The problem with Digital goods is that they are not really considered "goods" and henceforth a special set of laws apply. Some of them make no sense (reselling digital content) but other ones (not being legally able to return defective products, being bound to specific hardware or to a certain number of installations, always-online DRM that turns legitimately offline software products into licensing instead) are a lot more troublesome.

I think that it's unfair that companies (not Valve specifically but they HAD encouraged or allowed some of this practices) want to take advantage of the grey area digital content lives in to set a double standard: When it comes to copyright, software absolutely IS considered to be a commodity and has even more protections against theft than physical products, to the point of nonsense stupidity (see always-on DRM). Yet when it comes to honoring traditional consumer rights, suddenly they're NOT considered goods anymore they're considered licenses and use-agreements so companies can avoid responsabilities and liabilities like replacing or repairing defective products that flat out don't work as advertised. Seriously take a look at how long Valve has been around and how much time they went with a 0 returns policy. On retail, even if a retailer doesn't wants to honor a return you can still go to the manufacturer and demand a replacement. On digital goods? Yeah tough shit if you bought Ride to Hell: Retribution you're stuck with it, you can't return it, you can't get your money back, you can't sell it, you can't do nothing about it.

 

But if for some reason you pirated a copy of it? THe MPAA and RIAA would like nothing more than to throw your ass in jail. That is a double standard.

[TheProfosist]

Lol im not suprised its been like idk 7-8 years at least since you could truly have a isb pc game.