Steam Activation, the end of pawning your old games

[TenPc]

I've bought several PC games from a local pawn shop and all of them have already been activated on the previous owner's Steam account and I am unable to play the games. Does this spell the end of Steam activated PC games for resale purposes?

How do I prove to Steam that I now own those games? I got the original packaging and box with the Cd's (or DVD data disks)

I'm not going to return them, I only paid about $5 each for them but I have informed the retailer of the problem.

I think that it spells the end of resell value of Steam activated games unless the user unistalls the game and de-registers it from Steam, is that even possible, to deregister a game on the Steam account?

I suppose I'll just have to go buy them at a proper retail store and pay full price.

 

[jaguarskx]

Yeah, that's one of the drawback now of buying used games. You need to register them online whether it's through Stream, Origin or whatever...

The only way to play those games is to find the original owner an convince him/her to unregister the game so that you can register them on your PC. I'm not sure which is harder.... Finding the original owner(s) or convincing the game company to unregister the games....

The final result is never, ever buy a used game unless the game is old enough that online registration was never implemented for that game.

 

[Hawkeye22]

You have never been allowed to resell steam games. Read their EULA. You aren't even allowed to sell your steam account to someone else.

Some retail games can be steam activated, but never used games. Most games, console or PC, now require an online pass for multiplayer also.

 

[TenPc]

@Hawkeye22 - Does that mean that landfill sites will be filled with mostly Steam licensed PC games?

I think this situation calls for some sort of debate within the PC gaming community or, at least, Parliament!

It's a shame that THQ have gone bust so it could be that the Steam Activation process requirement has caused their demise, people avoiding those games for preference to non-Steam Activation games, either for PC or console.

I've noticed in the games retail store that their has been an increase on purchases of non-Steam activation games.

 

[mgsfreak]

its simple, used games dont profit the publishers and developers, you dont buy the data on the disc anymore, what youre buying is permission to play the game. It makes business sense, although imo is alienating some gamers

 

[TenPc]

its simple, used games dont profit the publishers and developers, you dont buy the data on the disc anymore, what youre buying is permission to play the game. It makes business sense, although imo is alienating some gamers

Resellers of PC games (as well as music Cd's and dvd movies) should pay a license fee to re- sell those things. I don't mind paying and extra $5 for an older game from a reseller (that sells it for between $5 and $15), I just dread having to pay nearly $100 from a retail store for the same game, that hasn't been used or sold previously.

One of the main problems is that the internet connection is not always possible, there does seem to be, at some time or another, at lack of local bandwidth. Also, Not everone can afford to pay a premium price or cost for connection, there are times when I have had to forgo the connection in preference for food. At one time, I was paying over $100 a month for several months (too much reseaching and downloading drivers) as well as buying games at retail prices that caused a shortfall in my savings.

The licence fee for products is really only about 30 cents per item (at most, mostly) so re-licencing should be enforced on resellers. This will also help the industry profits and ongoing expenses.

 

[Hawkeye22]

@Hawkeye22 - Does that mean that landfill sites will be filled with mostly Steam licensed PC games?

I think this situation calls for some sort of debate within the PC gaming community or, at least, Parliament!

It's a shame that THQ have gone bust so it could be that the Steam Activation process requirement has caused their demise, people avoiding those games for preference to non-Steam Activation games, either for PC or console.

I've noticed in the games retail store that their has been an increase on purchases of non-Steam activation games.

Why would you buy the disks or reatail game when you can just download it from steam. This also saves the landfills for other junk.

Also, DRM isn't just a steam thing, just look at UBISoft's UPlay or EA's Origin. Unfortunately most software has DRM of some sort. Steam is one of the least hostile towards users... so far anyhow.

 

[cats_Paw]

I dont know guys, companies have been doing whatever they wanted for a long time, and only from time to time there is someone to stand up to them.

Steam is what id call "the lesser evil". Sure they have some DRM , activation and sorts, but you get nice games at low prices and you can always DL the game anywhere you want.

If there is one thing i dont like, is that you cant have two instances of steam running in diffrent PCS.

I mean, i know that if i want to play on lan with my friend we need to buy the same game twice (actually, some time ago you ddint have to, cus you could install "spawned versions" of the game... that was back when blizzzard was a good company), but to have to make another steam acc for my friend, and then register a new game on his name, and then we can play....

But if a new friend comes, he ahs to buy the game again! (well no thx, id rather pirate the game).

There are things in those systems that are flat out abuse...

Lucky, we got some free nice games around that dont ask your for nothing (trackmania nations, tribes ascend)

 

[TenPc]

I recently bought Sniper ghost Warrior for a discount price of $19. Well, the disk only had the cinemtic scenes and I then had to download 2.36gb of game files. My connection costs $30 per gb so it cost me about $70 to download the game, plus the cost of the game didk (and another download of x amouint so I can play the game offline), about $93 all up.

Even if my internet service was better value, there is still that extra cost you have to pay to play the game.

I recently heard that Battlefield 3 requires a 4gb download, even with the disk, so WTF?