Should you be able to re-sell Steam games?

This would be a awesome idea but what worries me is what happens when your account gets hacked and it takes valve a week to get your account back so in that time the person who hacked your account could easily sell all the games to another account he hacked or a random account.
 
I think you should. Steam has a good trading system already, so if a user wants to sell his games then it is his choice. I don't see how this would hurt Valve as the seller loses his rights to single-player and multi-player features in the game and the buyer gets the entire product. Maybe they would have to implement some sort of cd-key reassignment in the background.
 
That's a good point Crzwaco. It will also be hugely detrimental to the indie developers. People will play their short games and sell them again. I quite like Steam as it is. It has helped indie game development so much and it has made pc gaming a force after lots of people said that pc gaming is dead.
 
I've never really understood why the rules of resale apply differently to software (games and utility software alike). But they do. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that reselling a piece of software ensures that the software is in the same condition as when the original person bought as opposed to a car for example where the value is inherently diminished as a result of the previous ownership and use. I'm guessing here. I would love for someone to explain this to me. Any lawyers?
 
Would be awesome if I could sell my games. Best option would probably be to make it so that when you sell it to other steam users you get credit on your steam wallet. In turn you would be able to buy more games from steam.
 
I'm pretty sure someone will find a way to buy a game and sell it on but hack the game so he still has the game and his money back.

Personally I feel when you sell a game you sell all rights associated so the game, saves, history, stats and so on should also be sold with the game. Meaning your computer is wiped clean of any trace of the game, which we all know doesn't happen.

However with the rate of piracy on the pc platform this will just be another system abused by someone out there.

I'm pretty sure if pirates weren't such an issue for Devs then prices would be cheaper and more games would be available to PC.
 
Ike_009 said:
I'm pretty sure someone will find a way to buy a game and sell it on but hack the game so he still has the game and his money back.

Personally I feel when you sell a game you sell all rights associated so the game, saves, history, stats and so on should also be sold with the game. Meaning your computer is wiped clean of any trace of the game, which we all know doesn't happen.

However with the rate of piracy on the pc platform this will just be another system abused by someone out there.

I'm pretty sure if pirates weren't such an issue for Devs then prices would be cheaper and more games would be available to PC.
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Although I agree with your first point that people would find a way to hack it, I feel the exact opposite to you on your last point: I think that pirates have forced the industry to apply the lowest profit margins they can. When strict DRM is enforced and/or the multiplayer component of a game is the most attractive part of it, then the prices are heavily inflated (console games, Call of Duty, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 etc).

I suppose that in a world without pirates, there would probably be more competition which could drive down prices, but I think that greed would ultimately win and we would be paying the same for PC games as console games simply because the publishers would be able to ask what they want.

*Disclaimer* I do not think that this makes piracy a good thing. I think that it creates a slew of other problems that I won't get into here. The point of this post is merely to disagree with Ike_009 ;)
 
StaggerLee said:
Although I agree with your first point that people would find a way to hack it, I feel the exact opposite to you on your last point: I think that pirates have forced the industry to apply the lowest profit margins they can. When strict DRM is enforced and/or the multiplayer component of a game is the most attractive part of it, then the prices are heavily inflated (console games, Call of Duty, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 etc).

I suppose that in a world without pirates, there would probably be more competition which could drive down prices, but I think that greed would ultimately win and we would be paying the same for PC games as console games simply because the publishers would be able to ask what they want.

*Disclaimer* I do not think that this makes piracy a good thing. I think that it creates a slew of other problems that I won't get into here. The point of this post is merely to disagree with Ike_009 ;)
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Odds are that we will never find an answer to this issue since so long as we have cheapskates we will have people out there abusing the system to the detriment of the greater community.
 
Graal said:
This will likely just kill Steam sales.
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I have this same concern. Why bother putting a game on sale if you have to try and undercut the second-hand prices on your own platform?

Valve might also rub larger publishers the wrong way who are doing their utmost to discourage second-hand game sales.

That said, being able to trade or resell my games would be great. If Valve is forced to do so by a court, though, then the same must apply to all digital marketplaces in that region.

Similar to Microsoft before and now Google, Valve is drawing the attention of these groups because it's the largest digital distribution platform for games, but it is hardly the only one. If Valve gets nailed, everyone must be forced to comply in the same way.
 
Ike_009 said:
Odds are that we will never find an answer to this issue since so long as we have cheapskates we will have people out there abusing the system to the detriment of the greater community.
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Ja, absolutely... And there will always be cheapskates. :P
 
For now, we are continuing to extend the Steam services to gamers in Germany and around the world.
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I wonder if they're insinuating that they will stop the steam service in Germany if they are forced to do this.
 
Eugene said:
I wonder if they're insinuating that they will stop the steam service in Germany if they are forced to do this.
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That's what it sounds like to me too:

"Well, if we have to allow you to resell games, then we simply won't run in your country anymore."

That sort of thing wouldn't really protect the consumer then would it?

I mentioned it in an earlier post, but "resale protection" (licensing) seems to be a universal software concept. So what differentiates software from purchasable goods? If there is a justifiable difference, then games should be afforded the same protection as any other licensable product. If there is no justifiable difference, then games, and indeed all other software, should not be licensable and should be allowed to be resold.
 
I think resell would create more problem than it fixes. But what would be super cool would be the future to Lend a game to a friend for a fixed time. Meaning friend comes to visit I can give him copy of my l4d2 so we can play together on my LAN but when he leaves he can't play anymore.
 
The moment you give users the right to resell their Steam digital purchases, you're opening a stinking can of worms.

As Graal said, this would just kill organic sales; many users will benefit from cheaper games, but in the end Steam loses out on tons of revenue and so does the developer (indie devs will especially feel the blunt edge of the knife). This in turn will just drive developers to increase launch prices with more gradual price-reduction gradients. Indie devs will simply find it even harder to survive. Ze German's are just trolling.
 
It could work... Might ask the devs if it can be re-selled and let the devs chose

Also! They can add a limit to 1-2 games per months or something

And it would be cool to trade activated games. But if you have finished the game then its tied to your account permanently...

Just a thought. :)
 
Another thought is... You buy a game, you play online, you cheat, your CD key gets blacklisted, you sell your game, you buy a new copy, repeat. Poor sucker who buys your game sits with SP only because of abuse by the original seller.

I believe that they should deactivate the original key and re-issue a key on resale if and when they allow resale of games on steam.
 
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