http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/03/crikey-eu-rules-you-can-resell-downloaded-games/

This could have some serious consequences for services like Steam and Origin, and for DRM. Very interesting.

It's about time

If Steam and them are smart, they'll set up a "used" games market, where people can put up licenses to trade and sell to other users. Once you put a game on said market, you can no longer play it. To play it you must either remove the game from the market (if not sold yet) or repurchase.

This is pretty much the opposite of the US, though, where First-sale even for physical goods is under court examination.

Hmm.


How much you want to bet that they go for "okay, we're selling you a 5/10/whatever-year license to use the game" rather than making used sales possible?

(In which case the big question would be how big the customer riots would be......)

Just means that the companies will change the EULA to say the game is sold as a x year\month Lease that is renewable by the original purchaser at the end of that term and expires at the end of that term or when the license is resold.

Interesting. Though I suppose the problem that poses is there's nothing really stopping friends 'lending out' their digital games. i.e. I decide I want Skyrim so Exorince 'sells' me the game and pays me the money back via Paypal. Then once I've played we do the same process in reverse.

Surely the game companies won't like that too much?

It's a complete free market, so anyone can buy and sell. In fact, maybe even make it an auction type service, so the buyers determine how much to pay for a game, keeping people from being able to price a game so high no one except a friend would buy it. This would also keep someone from just flooding the market and stuff like that, so an auction-based system would probably be the best suited for the job with something like a two-week auction time.

The EU has been making some strange decisiouns lately. I think this is a little strange, too. Doesn't this make gaming largely a rental system?

I've never rented games in my life, and have never really bought used games either, so this concept is strange to me.

(One notable exception was my year 2000 purchase of Thief: The Dark Project at a Flea Market. Thank goodness that happened.)

Meh, I don't see this making a positive difference.

Digital distributors aren't going to be under any obligation to provide a means for resale.

If it holds up, it means provide a means for resale or pay heavy fines while simultaneously being banned from the huge market that is the European Union.

Would making a 5000 year license still fall under the "not sold indefinitely" clause, or...?

They'd probably go with something like 15-20 years - effectively "5000 years" in the digital realm, but not so long that the courts would stare at them and say "No. You're trying to weasel out of it."

That's likely probable.

But they could also try to arrange it so, that the reselling happens through their own system (Steam games resold through Steam, etc). I've no idea if that's possible, though.

I thought it just meant they can't legally punish users for trying to resell games / accounts... not that the distributors are now legally obliged to provide a convenient way for users to resell their games.

I don't imagine they'd like it too much, but there's no difference between trading the game and letting you borrow my account, or just coming over and playing it on my account.

If it makes the DRM bound digital distro side buck their ideas up it'll be a good thing.

Going to be even more interesting to see how this affects the US market.

Probably depends on the implementation. At the moment the way Steam works any game I buy is tied to my account and I am, therefore, prevented from selling it on without selling the entire account. Whether or not that violates the ruling would be up to the courts, but it seems like it would to me.

Edit: I'm just using Steam as an example, it's true for other services too obviously.

LOL.... Can't wait to see people whining when they only get $1.50

Steam already has a gift inventory, where you can keep/trade your games until you add them to your Steam library. The reverse probably wouldn't be too hard, taking your games out of your library and putting them into a "for sale" inventory.

I'm not sure how the pricing would work though, since there are regularly sales where you can get games for up to 75% off. If you sell them after the sale is over would you sell for a % of the current price or a % of the price you paid?

Valve: All Steam prices have been increased 300% in the EU because trolololol.
EA: OOO GOOD IDEA. MWUAHAHAHAHHAHAH

But we already pay 25% more than the Americans...

It'll strengthen our IPs!
If people have to state their own price they're willing to buy/sell at, I could see people buying multiple heavily discounted copies of a game just to sell it at a profit later.

This would be nice. It's not fair how games depreciate 100% of their value as soon as it's bought.

On a human rights level this is right. As for Steam? Well probably going to have to raise its prices. If it doesn't then I can't see how they could sustain they're crazy sales syndrome they've perpetuated. The free market would undercut all they've worked towards. Digital distribution will have to change, and I've got a feeling unless they do something innovative it will be for the worse.

So yay something good happened, but oh noes something bad might happen now. I only care about Steam and GoG though.

Edit
Most likely raise prices to a very high degree. They can't lower them enough to compete with the user who can sell it or even loan it for however long he likes. Hypothetically if the market is crazy enough it might just crash Steam and we lose everything since the service can't sustain itself. I can see them charging a market fee for games sold... I think. They would have to or else how would they live as a business?

That's what I'm worried about as well.

I probably wouldn't even sell any of my Steam games, even if I could. I often go back to replay old games. But if the trading/selling thing goes through you guys can let me know if you're interested in Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Even if it upsets the status quo and causes prices to spike a little, at least it sends a clear message to publishers that they can't simply do as they please. You buy it, it's yours - case closed (hopefully.)

The EU is a joke they got a financial crisis happening and all they care about is a kid getting paid 32￠ from reselling a digital video game.

EDIT: And anyways those companies are American so EU can't do anything.