Steam might allow game sharing

[JTsyo]

Kotaku

Seems something similar to the XBone feature might be coming to Steam. Will be good for families with multiple computers and gamers.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Kotaku

Seems something similar to the XBone feature might be coming to Steam. Will be good for families with multiple computers and gamers.

Wonder if it will be timed demos like the Xbone was actually going to do? I notice by all the negative "oh so it's ok for steam but not MS" comments that obviously hadn't read the news.

 

[alangrift]

Sounds interesting, but I wonder if there will be a cost for someone to actually do that with a game.
Oh and you can buy two copies of the same game on one steam account?

 

[JTsyo]

Sounds interesting, but I wonder if there will be a cost for someone to actually do that with a game.
Oh and you can buy two copies of the same game on one steam account?

You can, at least if you buy a pack. But the second one just becomes a gift you can send out.

 

[Mushkins]

You can, at least if you buy a pack. But the second one just becomes a gift you can send out.

That's not quite accurate. Only *some* games will translate to a gift code, typically Valve games.

If you already own GTA4, and then you buy some Rockstar bundle on sale, you do *not* get a giftable GTA4 code, etc. There's a list of specific games that will give you an extra code like you said on the forums somewhere.

And yes, you can buy a second copy of a game you already own normally, as long as it is a gift code, the interface prevents you from accidentally double purchasing a single game you already own. The "Buy this for myself" button is replaced with a green "I already own it" icon.

 

[Nintendesert]

How about they let us sell our licenses like the Europeans will be getting.

 

[AstroManLuca]

This was probably the #1 best feature that would have been enabled by the Xbox One, had MS not backpedaled. With no need to swap discs a little ways behind it.

I understand why some consider it hypocritical to support Steam but dislike the now-dead Xbox One DRM system. They're pretty similar. The main difference, I think, is that console gamers haven't had time to get used to that kind of DRM. Console games are usually purchased as a physical item but on Steam you almost never get a physical copy (unless you buy a disc for a game that uses Steamworks). So psychologically, the console copy seems like something you should be able to sell while the Steam version does not.

Steam is essentially the same as a console platform, if you make all your purchases as digital downloads and avoid discs altogether, which is entirely possible.

The other thing, of course, is that people trust Valve more than they trust Microsoft, in general.

 

[ThinClient]

I'd love to be able to trade games with other Steam users. Remove it from my library, enable it at someone else's library, do the same in reverse for whatever game they're trading me.

 

[ImpulsE69]

This was probably the #1 best feature that would have been enabled by the Xbox One, had MS not backpedaled. With no need to swap discs a little ways behind it.

I understand why some consider it hypocritical to support Steam but dislike the now-dead Xbox One DRM system. They're pretty similar. The main difference, I think, is that console gamers haven't had time to get used to that kind of DRM. Console games are usually purchased as a physical item but on Steam you almost never get a physical copy (unless you buy a disc for a game that uses Steamworks). So psychologically, the console copy seems like something you should be able to sell while the Steam version does not.

Steam is essentially the same as a console platform, if you make all your purchases as digital downloads and avoid discs altogether, which is entirely possible.

The other thing, of course, is that people trust Valve more than they trust Microsoft, in general.

You didn't see the blog from the MS employee that spoke about how that family sharing was actually just timed demos that took them to a page to buy the game did you? That isn't at all how people thought it worked and was almost willful deceit if you go back and watch the videos of them talking about it.

 

[Nintendesert]

This was probably the #1 best feature that would have been enabled by the Xbox One, had MS not backpedaled. With no need to swap discs a little ways behind it.

I understand why some consider it hypocritical to support Steam but dislike the now-dead Xbox One DRM system. They're pretty similar. The main difference, I think, is that console gamers haven't had time to get used to that kind of DRM. Console games are usually purchased as a physical item but on Steam you almost never get a physical copy (unless you buy a disc for a game that uses Steamworks). So psychologically, the console copy seems like something you should be able to sell while the Steam version does not.

Steam is essentially the same as a console platform, if you make all your purchases as digital downloads and avoid discs altogether, which is entirely possible.

The other thing, of course, is that people trust Valve more than they trust Microsoft, in general.

That however is outdated and wrong now in most of the civilized world. We in the US should be able to sell our games too. This XBone fiasco should open our eyes too in regards to our first sale rights and how much Steam is boning us. I can only hope that we fight for our first sale rights like Europeans are because the future will suck with consumers merely renting licenses instead of owning. The medium that a piece of software and license is distributed on should be irrelevant.

Valve offers good value and we tolerate it, we see EA and MS going that way too and we know they won't treat us as good. Valve is the exception and shouldn't be the basis of the rule. We have to fight back against all forms of licensing DRM like the console-kids did. Hopefully the rights the Europeans enjoy extends to us living in a digital-licensing-darkage.

 

[MustISO]

I just don't see the incentive to do this. By not allowing game trades or sales they force people to buy their own copies at whatever price they set. I'd love it if they did it but I don't see it happening any time soon.

 

[imaheadcase]

Just give me a option to sell my game to someone for $1 and i would offload a hundred games to people that I have no intention to play again. 75cents to developer 25cents to my steam balance. ta ta everyone wins. I have tons of games I played for less than a hour because i hated them.

Which reminds me i have 3 copies of Terraria, anyone want one?

 

[Via]

I've never tried that game, I'll take one if you have no use for it.

 

[Maleficus]

Just give me a option to sell my game to someone for $1 and i would offload a hundred games to people that I have no intention to play again. 75cents to developer 25cents to my steam balance. ta ta everyone wins. I have tons of games I played for less than a hour because i hated them.

Which reminds me i have 3 copies of Terraria, anyone want one?

I'll take a copy of Terraria if you are still giving it away

 

[smithkt]

You didn't see the blog from the MS employee that spoke about how that family sharing was actually just timed demos that took them to a page to buy the game did you? That isn't at all how people thought it worked and was almost willful deceit if you go back and watch the videos of them talking about it.

You mean the anonymous blog post from a guy claiming to be a Microsoft employee? The one which two actual confirmed employees said was completely wrong? Yeah I saw it.

 

[Wyndru]

I just don't see the incentive to do this. By not allowing game trades or sales they force people to buy their own copies at whatever price they set. I'd love it if they did it but I don't see it happening any time soon.

This.

While it's not the same as the win98 gaming days where you just made copies of everything and gave them to your friends, it more similar to what the book publishing industry has gone through...where people don't have to buy books, they just wait until their friend is done with it and then they read it.

There would be a lot of lost revenue.

I've also heard people suggest selling your old games at current market price (after a year of being out say it's worth $5, you sell it for that)...but again that money is not going into the game publisher's pocket, so I doubt that will ever happen either...unless they set it up where you get game credits that you can only use toward the purchase of a game from the same publisher or something similar.

If they ever did set something up where the some money went to the publisher and another percentage went to the seller, I'm sure what goes to the seller will be such a small amount that most people wouldn't bother. I certainly wouldn't sell 100 games for a measly $25.

 

[ImpulsE69]

You mean the anonymous blog post from a guy claiming to be a Microsoft employee? The one which two actual confirmed employees said was completely wrong? Yeah I saw it.

Link? I've been watching and can't find anything in this regards. Just a few columns about it, and that it's not known if it was an actual employee or not. It really wasn't written in a fashion that screams fake.

 

[smithkt]

Link? I've been watching and can't find anything in this regards. Just a few columns about it, and that it's not known if it was an actual employee or not. It really wasn't written in a fashion that screams fake.

I answered you in the thread in the console forum. I don't want to continue this discussion in two places. Besides, we are going off topic in a thread about Steam.

 

[QueBert]

Just give me a option to sell my game to someone for $1 and i would offload a hundred games to people that I have no intention to play again. 75cents to developer 25cents to my steam balance. ta ta everyone wins. I have tons of games I played for less than a hour because i hated them.

Which reminds me i have 3 copies of Terraria, anyone want one?

I'll give you the buck you're talking about for a copy of Terraria 😀

 

[stormdlp]

Kotaku

Seems something similar to the XBone feature might be coming to Steam. Will be good for families with multiple computers and gamers.

Hopefully!!

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Why is everyone so obsessed about selling used games? I understand wanting to swap between friends but selling is a failure for me. I thought about it twice in my life, then I realized I'm essentially getting a 3% trade in. Game store gives me like $2.68 toward either an over priced new game or an over priced used game that they recently bought for $2.97 and are now selling for around $15-$25. I walked away both times its insulting that you get fck'ed so much.

 

[imaheadcase]

Because people don't want uses games is the whole argument. Because with the useless DRM that started with consoles, people wanted a reason to trade in games. Hard to believe but you used to be able to give copies of PC games and console games to others just because, now you can't so much anymore because of DRM of some sorts.

Would you rather a game just sit idle in a steam library or console game sitting on shelf or would you like to give it away somehow with option for developer to make something? It just makes sense.

 

[Lonyo]

Why is everyone so obsessed about selling used games? I understand wanting to swap between friends but selling is a failure for me. I thought about it twice in my life, then I realized I'm essentially getting a 3% trade in. Game store gives me like $2.68 toward either an over priced new game or an over priced used game that they recently bought for $2.97 and are now selling for around $15-$25. I walked away both times its insulting that you get fck'ed so much.

How about sharing with your family?
Giving to your siblings or children?
All things you can't do with Steam.
Or giving away to random people on the internet.

Used games is also more than selling.

I used to buy used games back in the day when I had bad internet and there were more SP games, as well as sell games (mainly buying and selling through Amazon).
Nowadays I mostly play MP so it's account tied, but somewhat reasonable as it's MP only, or I buy GoG.com games.
I also don't buy Steam games.

 

[gorobei]

ive said it before and ill say it again, steam will likely allow you to sell your games on steam market to other people for store credit. the EU ruling requires them to allow resale and they wont want to get into the legal issues of trying to verify/exclude someone in EU selling to a US buyer. so everyone will likely be able to sell to anyone they want. it isnt worth the trouble to try to setup a system to exclude some groups from selling to others.

the main issue for valve is how to prevent people from buying a bunch of copies of games on $5 sales and selling later for non sale price. people could undercut valve's price which might discourage some publishers from allowing valve to offer the low price sales.

also, sometimes you buy a game and just dont like it. when steam allows resale, i have a copy of serious sam that i will dump in a heartbeat for $1.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Why is everyone so obsessed about selling used games? I understand wanting to swap between friends but selling is a failure for me. I thought about it twice in my life, then I realized I'm essentially getting a 3% trade in. Game store gives me like $2.68 toward either an over priced new game or an over priced used game that they recently bought for $2.97 and are now selling for around $15-$25. I walked away both times its insulting that you get fck'ed so much.

I've never understood this. Everyone complains about Gamestop. I have NEVER traded a game to Gamestop or any other store. I've always sold them privately via Ebay or local free ads. I've made quite a bit of money back doing this. People using and complaining about Gamestop are just clueless.