Valve forced to allow users to sell games

MikeKay1976

This could be good or could be bad but unless the appeal succeeds this could be massive
Overall I hope the appeal succeeds I think as otherwise will surely mean price increases......plus small Indies and people who make short experiences may be boned (unless valve build in some feature where part of the sale goes to Devs but this may not be legal..
Mind you OTOH 2nd hand physical sales never killed the industry

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                French judge reportedly orders Valve to not prohibit re-selling of digital games on Steam - KitGuru                                                                                                        Valve has faced issues with consumer laws in various parts of the world over the last few years. The                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                www.kitguru.net

aslird

It would also not just affect Valve, but the whole industry (since Valve cannot be singled out) and would mean wholesale changes to the way games are sold/delivered to us.

MikeKay1976

I agree. Would be unfair to expect it only from valve

richardb70

Surely this also touches things like Kindle books, music downloads etc?

MikeKay1976

To be honest I can't imagine valve won't win the appeal. It is too big a thing

Hillskill

If anyone can be bold enough to push this through it would be the french

Hillskill

Just dawned on me. Would this mean we could all vpn and spoof a french IP to sell games too?

MikeKay1976

For a few days at least we are in the EU so presumably it will include us anyway. I hope it does not mean the end of crazy steam sales and humble bundle.

silvercue

This is very interesting and the posts above are right, this has much wider implications, firstly it would have to apply to Sony and Microsoft for their console platforms.

No idea whether an appeal will work, but video games companies probably won’t find many allies and sympathies in a European court system.

I can’t help but feel that digital games should have had a more competitive pricing structure and this is the obvious outcome of not having that in place.

There will be positives and negatives to either outcome.  Personal I will buy more digital, in fact probably only buy digital if I have a route to recover some of the outlay once I don’t want to play the game anymore.

Video games industry is strong at the top, they will be fine.  Not so sure how smaller companies will be impacted.

Thug

Its a double edged sword, and I am not sure who will be the winner at the end of the day.
Firstly it 'could' effect pricing and sales for the good and bad, depending on the title.
It may make sales better as people wont care about buying games so much as they know they can move them on when completed.

Secondly how many games do YOU have in your library that you no longer play? You could sell them to get money to buy new titles, meaning more players in MP games etc.

Steam may charge more, knowing that not as many people are going to buy them due to knowing that they can pick them up in the future for a little less. But having said that, Steam may have more 'sales days' or price titles 6 months old more aggressively knowing this.

How will it work for DLC? If I buy a car for iracing and don't like it, can I move it on and sell it?

I would like to see more allowing cross platform/store usage as I think that would save PC gaming. The times I had bought a game from Oculus home and not been able to play with mates who had bought it from Steam would be a none issue in the future if they would allow this.