French court rules Steam’s ban on reselling used games breaks European law

Re:French court rules Steam’s ban on reselling used games br... by shmerl on Friday September 20, 2019 @04:44PM (#21031096)

In theory it sounds right, but the downside could be developers getting less sales, and in the already crowded market it could sink a number of them. Or may be it won't. Hard to say.

However, there will be probably a reaction from some publishers to push more DRM and to run to use something like Stadia exclusively. That's not a good thing at all. And if this will undermine DRM-free gaming, I'd say it's not worth it.

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Re:French court rules Steam’s ban on reselling used games br... by betterbeehome on Friday September 20, 2019 @04:58PM (#21031220)

Stadia is no different than a PS4 or an Xbox. It's just that you're renting a Stadia, but still buying game licenses (just like Steam). Stadia isn't Netflix for games, it's streaming console for hire.

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Re:French court rules Steam’s ban on reselling used games br... by shmerl on Friday September 20, 2019 @06:04PM (#21031789)

Neither PS nor Xbox are good examples to begin with. They are already DRMed to the brink.

Stadia however is DRM on steroids. So even worse in this sense than other options, especially when you compare it with proper DRM-free stores. I.e. if it comes as a convenience and you can still download the game - then it's fine. But if it comes as "streaming only" option, it's not.

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Re:French court rules Steam’s ban on reselling used games br... by odessacubbage on Saturday September 21, 2019 @07:25AM (#21034661)

there's nothing barring valve from giving devs a percentage of the resale right? that in of itself would be a significant advantage over traditional used game sales & key resellers.

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Re:French court rules Steam’s ban on reselling used games br... by shmerl on Saturday September 21, 2019 @08:36PM (#21038852)

Valve could do it, only if re-sale takes place through them. What if it doesn't? Nothing mandates using some middleman for it. I.e. consider some proper DRM-free store like GOG. You can just copy files and charge for it directly (and then delete them, to finish the transaction). In that case, neither the store nor developers will get anything out of it.

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