Microsoft/Sony Patent to Prevent Pre Owned Game Sales?

[Tim]

I've just been talking about this with my brother and he's found out something quite interesting. Apparently by EU law it is the consumers right to be able to resell or lend a product. He was telling me that there was a case where someone sewed Steam for not being able to sell off their game and the court ruled in their favour. Afraid I don't have any more details though.

Afraid I don't think that's possible. Sorry for calling you out. But You don't buy games on Steam, you buy licenses, essentially permissions to play the games. In all purposes you own the game, you don't have any less rights, but you do not own the content of the game. you have permission to use it and access it. Which means Steam is exempt from the laws to resell or lend a product because you haven't purchased any product.

But a licence is all you buy for a hard copy version as well. At least that's what they say in the massive T&C list that you're meant to read but no one ever does. Steam and other digital distributor's just took it literally by removing all physical parts of the product.

As for if this incident really did happen I can't say for sure but my Brother tends to know his stuff on these things (way more than I do) and I've got to admit the case sounds familiar.

 

[Fredward]

I've just been talking about this with my brother and he's found out something quite interesting. Apparently by EU law it is the consumers right to be able to resell or lend a product. He was telling me that there was a case where someone sewed Steam for not being able to sell off their game and the court ruled in their favour. Afraid I don't have any more details though.

Afraid I don't think that's possible. Sorry for calling you out. But You don't buy games on Steam, you buy licenses, essentially permissions to play the games. In all purposes you own the game, you don't have any less rights, but you do not own the content of the game. you have permission to use it and access it. Which means Steam is exempt from the laws to resell or lend a product because you haven't purchased any product.

But a licence is all you buy for a hard copy version as well. At least that's what they say in the massive T&C list that you're meant to read but no one ever does. Steam and other digital distributor's just took it literally by removing all physical parts of the product.

As for if this incident really did happen I can't say for sure but my Brother tends to know his stuff on these things (way more than I do) and I've got to admit the case sounds familiar.

Which is true, that's why they will be able to get away with adding chips to the CD to prevent other people using it. The only reason they have probably let Game continue selling pre-owned copies is because they know full well that Game will threaten to stop selling there new games as well. It's what happened in the past.

Example Space Marine was not on Steam on release in the UK because Game said if the distributers put it on steam they will not sell any console copies of the game... the dev's and distributers didn't have an option but to comply, they would lose a lot of money not having their game in Game. Bit of a kick in the teeth really as Game sells little to no PC games... greedy basts....

 

[Russ]

I really do not believe this will ever some to come light and if it does it WILL only be used on the likes of lets say Halo 5 and the likes of Sony's own games. I would like to go the way EA and Codemasters have gone and that limit the game to include only one multiplayer key and then when the game is traded/lent or whatever you have to buy a new code to access the Live/PSN bit.

I feel that is a much better approach than this silly idea. Like I said this will be around for a couple of games if that and thats all we will hear of it.

Yes I will be buying the next gen of console weather it be the Xbox or Playstation but I do tend to lean more to the Xbox. Doesn't Xbox 8 just sound good

 

[Mankey]

Thing is, since DRM was first implemented, pirating has soared. You can't tell me that's coincidence either. People don't want to feel limited over the games they buy. I purchased Spore years back, and as the years went on my Hard Drives fried, I lent it to friends, It got installed on my sisters laptop. Now I have a game that I cannot play. A game I paid £30 for... Where the hell is the justice in that?

This is the same situation. By preventing the general public from gaining use in the things they've paid their hard earned money for, they eventually feel used and violated by the big companies and then the companies will lose their custom. The upcoming consoles are seriously proving to be a MAJOR threat to Nintendo and Sony purely for these reasons.

In my view, I have every right to not give these people money over their stupid mistakes. If I feel in any way like I'm being restricted on my entertainment (which is what the console is there for) I will NOT invest in them. If they can't think up a mature/proper solution to both pirating and pre-owned game sales and not going "money money money money!" then what's the point?

If people aren't restricted, they're far more likely to invest because they feel like they're being trusted. If measures are being taken to restrict what you can do to a product, it can only come across as a giant finger to the people who don't understand the situation. I mean, look at spore. As a PC only title, they definitely felt the kick of that one!

 

[IanB]

Thing is, since DRM was first implemented, pirating has soared. You can't tell me that's coincidence

I would argue that this is possible, but also the improved speed and availability of the internet has had a bigger impact on Piracy, than DRM.

Ian

 

[Fredward]

Well what Gabe Newell said makes sense. Make a service more convenient and better for the customers then piracy, and people will rather buy the games then pirate them.

Ofcourse you will always have pirates. Alas that is something that won't change.

Which is why DRM like that on Spore and possibly this patent will fall flat on its face, while the DRM method on steam is a success.

 

[TPMC]

Can you sell game you downloaded from itunes to your iphone for example? Can you lend this game without your device?

I don't trying to tell you that I agree with it, but this is working already, though.

 

[Mankey]

The thing is people WANT to pay for things. If I ever torrent a game, it's to try it out. No one wants to completely rip off people because then you feel like a criminal, which is why Steam is working. Buy a game for the price of a pint? Don't mind if I do!

People don't however want to pay for things that they feel they're not getting the full advantage of, as I said earlier.

 

[Fredward]

But you also have the case when a pirated game is clearly better, If you buy a game you are stuck with all this DRM, you have to always be on-line even in single player (Assassins Creed and Diablo 3 I'm looking at you!) when if someone downloads it illegally they don't have these problems.

I think thats what Gabe was getting at.

 

[James]

Do many people actually download games illegally though?

With music and films illegal downloads happen more often, most likely due to them always being at the same cost, which is usually quite high (or adds up with music). With games these days while prices are steep at first, deals appear more often. Steam is a great example. They have great deals throughout the year and just by waiting a month or two after the release of a new game you can get it dirt cheap in one of the Steam sales. That's the main reason why I've never seen the point in illegally downloading games, Steam has been a life saver for me.

 

[Fredward]

You do get pirates, lots of them. But no where near as much as you get with the music and film industry.

This may be because of how steam works as you said. But then you also have the people who will download a triple A title for free and use that illegal download for a year until they can get it on steam for a fiver... I wouldn't really class that as 100% morally sound.. but what do I know!