German group sues Valve

I'm gunna sell you this cake for your birthday! (Happy birthday!) Now, you can go ahead and eat this cake at your party, sure, but you better make sure that not another person at your party has a slice! Because those gifts you receive would be considered compensation for OUR cake. So you can go ahead and eat it, but any piece you don't eat you're not allowed to give it away at all. Dont like it? Then make your own cake! But watch out, because if its too similar to how we've been making our cakes for X years then we'll sue the pants off you! Thats our recipe! *wink*

Read the EULA for steam. Don't like it? don't use it. I get all my steam games so cheap, anyway, I couldn't imagine ever wanting to sell them. I like to keep my games, and be able to replay them later. And, again, I get them so cheap, it's not like I'm hurting for the money.

Consider; if you could sell a digital game, there is no wear, thus it's always "new". So you can sell it full priced, as a 60 dollar exchange. Now consider if you could set the price lower. You would always buy the 50 dollar game, thus Steam makes no sales, thus they get no money (50 OR 60). There's a 50 dollar transaction, but they never receive a dime. Without money, they croak. It's a faulty, incapable of working system. The only correction to it? They could tax your sale.

Do you really want to start a "taxing the internet is ILLEGAL" debate, next, all while the company flounders?

Also, the reason they haven't used such a system is because the tax would make so little money, no one would put their games on Steam anymore. The games would dry up, they'd have nothing to sell, they'd lose money, aaand...repeat.

Good job from those Germans! Too bad that the rabid Steam fanboys are going to bash them. Who cares? These people are fighting for the rights of gamers and this is a good thing.

why is this a big deal? if you make a purchase that you regret, that was your fault. if you buy a $50 game, completely finish it, then you got your money's worth. if the developer screws you over, valve offers you a refund.

For how much you buy games full price on consoles compared to how cheap you can get them on Steam that is the money you would have got from selling the game.

this is what i used to do with retail games i play them to a point of never wanting to do so again and so i sell them usually to some second hand shop since all the "game" shops dont do it anymore but with downloads its pretty much inpossible unless you sell your game account with the game key so people can play online.. ahem EA

Again people CAN sell their games on Steam, you just need to sell the entire associated account. So stick with 1 game per account if your want to sell you games. Simple. Elegant. Legal (I think?).

When you buy a game on Steam you are agreeing to their terms.

Why are we seeing this now and not a decade ago? Steam isn't something new. Companies trying to make a quick grab for money gets old.

Interesting argument. Personally, I don't think I've thought more than twice in my life about selling a game on Steam. Something about being able to download and uninstall games with a couple of mouse clicks coupled with the ability to play same games on my laptop in another borough of the city using the same account and cloud saves along with the warm feeling that I will never lose the game so long as Valve's HQ isn't firebombed or something.

I really urge people to look at the big picture. If they do this than the entire industry will suffer, as so will we as a result. The only reason that used game sales haven't ruined the industry is because buying a game new is more convenient and aren't degraded. If Steam was forced to allow people to sell there games used the entire system of digital distribution would fail because it completely eliminates the only thing keeping people from buying almost completely used. The games will never degrade and buying used cheaper than buying new. A single digital game could see well over a dozen owners and the company will only get the money from one. Like it or not, companies need money to make games. An average game needs 2 million sales bare minimum to break even. With this system the digital market would fail, it is not a matter of the quality of the games or the practices of the publisher, it is a matter of common sense.

If you "buy" a game, it should be completely in your rights to sell it. I see no excuse to say otherwise. Any problems that this creates, whatever they may be, is not the consumers responsibility. Now if you rent or license the game, then fine, resale may not be permitted. But they must ensure you know that youre licensing the product and that you cant do with it what you wish. If this is or becomes the case, "buy" should never be used on Steam as a synonym to license. Also licenses should be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than ownership. I know steam has good sales, but new games should be cheap as hell if you dont even own it.

At least with Steam we get huge discounts and letting us play games for free at weekends. They should be suing Origins for selling us games at full price, not Steam

When you pay for a DD game, you are not buying the game but pay the right to play it.

Steam sells games (discounted usually) with the understanding that digital content is cheaper to distribute, but lacks any physical presence to prove ownership. Thus, re-selling games gets hard, AND it's that lack of redistribution (you, selling pre-owned games) that allows them to corner and the market and make money. If games become resellable, Steam stops being profitable, and starts dying. Considering they never denied that this was their business model, and that we get games so cheaply DUE to this, I'm with Steam.

Enter "used" digital content into the mix, and bye-bye 20 dollar Skyrim, buh-bye 20 dollar Dishonored. Welcome back 60 dollar, full priced games.

I'm not exactly sure how this works, but don't you only have the ability to use the product when you purchase it? I didn't think you actually own it when you buy it, or, something like that.

I could be wrong though.

Only problem is with downloadable media to resell, its not full-proof on fraud. How will you sell it? Of course, with a alpha-numeric key code, but how about hackers? They could generate key codes and manipulate the system. This will be an issue in the future.

Create a separate FREE steam account for each game you buy. Sell the entire account tied to the game if you want to sell the game. BOOM, case settled. Cry about it.