Just because it's reasonable to assume it will have a shrink-wrapped EULA, that doesn't grant me insight into knowing what the EULA says. It's not legal to place terms on a sale that you can't see until after the sale is made, and once the sale is made I implicitly have the right to use the product for its intended purpose. Being that it's a game, the intended purpose is to play it.


You're being coerced into accepting the terms, otherwise you can't use the product for its intended purpose. Such a contract is not legal and can be ignored.

That would be like signing a contract for a car without reading the fine print. Later on you find out that the car is missing a couple parts thus unable to run until you get those parts. That's why you've got to read the fine print so that you aren't swindled out of whatever your signing.

It actually doesn't exist because it happens after the close. The Point of Sale (POS) is the close of the agreement. Once the close has passed no new terms may be added. By requiring you to agree to a EULA, the game publisher has created a contract of adhesion which invalidates the agreement. Since you have no recourse at this point (no returns or refunds, no ability to resell or transfer, not enough money to seek a legal settlement, etc.) all EULAs are void by default and any agreement to them is coerced and therefore void as well.

Furthermore, video games are not a license, they are a product. Publishers have recently taken to calling them a license in order to further limit your ability to successfully challenge them. Fact of the matter is that gamers are alway ready to defend the free-speech rights of game makers, but game makers are even quicker to VIOLATE your personal property rights in order to shut out the secondary market.

in the case of a car it would be wise to test the product first but in case of a software the developers can update it and fix said problem. In the case of fine print, that is one of the ways dealer or some content, property or service provider use to trick people into buying their half-assed product. it is sad how people must resort to trickery in order to have a business working.

What is the the advantage of Steamworks vs. regular Steam?

Steam is the content delivery software, Steamworks is the DRM.