EU Court Rules Digital Games Can Be Resold

[Griking]

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/122/1225302p1.html


Now this is going to be interesting. Think about it, the wording of this ruling would allow people to sell;

Their World of Warcraft account
Their Steam account.
Their old copies of Windows
Microsoft Word
Photoshop
Any digitally downloaded software.


Thinking about this for a little bit longer made me think that this may just lead to software developers putting expiration dates on their programs in the way that anti virus companies currently do. For instance a copy of Windows would only work for 5 years knowing that another version would be released by then. a game may be given a life of only 2 years before it expires. I hope that this isn't case but I really don't expect companies to take this decision without a fight.

[Kitsune Sniper]

http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/122/1225302p1.html


Now this is going to be interesting. Think about it, the wording of this ruling would allow people to sell;

Their World of Warcraft account
Their Steam account.
Their old copies of Windows
Microsoft Word
Photoshop
Any digitally downloaded software.

I'm pretty sure companies will have to comply, but they'll make it so difficult to sell your account it might not even be worth it.

[buzz_n64]

Great news! I now see value in digital content if this goes through.

[kupomogli]

As cheap as Steam games are now, buying used games would, instead of being dirt cheap, would be grain of dirt cheap. As much as I dislike digital content, this makes me interested.

[Griking]

As cheap as Steam games are now, buying used games would, instead of being dirt cheap, would be grain of dirt cheap. As much as I dislike digital content, this makes me interested.


I wouldn't expect to see Steam games remain as cheap as they are now if this ruling holds.

Another question. While this ruling is only in the EU I wonder how much effort will me made to ensure that people in the EU couldn't sell their used copies to people in the USA. I can see eBay region blocking these auctions.

[Kitsune Sniper]

The one good thing that may come of this is people who have older games that are no longer sold on Steam... being able to sell them off to someone else. I doubt it though.

I'd -love- to have both Godfather games. :(

[Clownzilla]

I wouldn't expect to see Steam games remain as cheap as they are now if this ruling holds.

That is exactly what will happen. Those lost $$$ from the resales will be made up by boosting the initial price of the product. It's the unintended consequences of laws that usually stings the most. Regardless, it's a EU ruling so it will be interesting to see if US courts will even entertain the idea.

[substantial_snake]

Interesting.

I am definitely supportive for more consumer control of digital media. The only times I ever really buy games from Steam or other services is when they are super cheap because there is so little real value in digital purchases. That coupled with the inability to return, sell, or even simply letting friends borrow the copy said games makes it a hard sell for me to pick up the latest title for $60 on a DD platform. With real consumer control of a product I am much more likely to buy the latest title for a higher price, since I know its not just wasted value.

However this could cause a major ripple effect in the industry since so many large publishers are convinced that DD is the future. I could easily see the industry responding with a larger outgrowth of the F2P market or other methods to skirt around giving users real control over their media. The biggest push may be for publishers to simply not sell games anymore and instead offer their titles on either an official rental basis (more or less what we have now in DD) or rely on streaming services like Onlive.

My biggest concern though is how this might effect GoG.com. They are by far my favorite DD service since they just sell you a cheap executable file with no real strings attached. I'm assuming that with this ruling that a service like theirs would have to dramatically change to allow for the transfers of licenses from one party to another and a way to track that. This potentially killing what makes them so easy and convenient.

[The 1 2 P]

I agree that this has not only made things interesting but it's also making all the publishers who have been touting about the download-only future take a step back and second guess their opinions. Most of them wanted to rush to digital only for the single purpose of no longer having to deal with used sales but now they will have to entertain this idea. Theres still a chance that this will never fly in the US but if it does I can finally start selling all that pc software that ebay keeps taking down as soon as I list it.

[wingzrow]

So all those WiiWare and Virtual console game listings on eB ay have a purpose now?

Oh wait, you can't separate them from the wii you download them to. How does this work again?