Valve’s re-sale ruling flies in the face of established EU law

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Last week, the High Court of Paris ruled that Steam would have to allow customers to re-sell games purchased via the platform in territories throughout the EU. In response, Valve told Kotaku that it disagreed with the decision – and it would appear that it’s not the only one.

In a statement on Friday, Simon Little, the CEO of the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE), which represents the interests of the industry across the continent, said that the ruling “flies in the face of established EU law.”

In the statement (via GamesIndustry.biz), Little said that “far from supporting gamers, this ruling, if it stands, would dramatically and negatively impact investment in the creation, production and publication of, not just video games, but of the entire output of the digital entertainment sector in Europe. If Europe’s creators cannot protect their investments and their intellectual property, the impact on both industry and consumers will be disastrous.”

Per the ruling, Valve has a month to change its policies, or it will face a fine of €3,000 per day for up to six months – but it sounds like the company has no plans for immediate change. In a statement last week, a Valve representative said that “we disagree with the decision of the Paris Court of First Instance and will appeal it.” “The decision will have no effect on Steam while the case is on appeal.”

It’s not just about game resale, either. Valve is supposed to refund your Steam Wallet balance if you stop using the service. It’s supposed to be accountable if a beta product causes harm. It’ll need clearer rules on bans for toxic behaviour. And Valve’s rights over mods are meant to be diminished.

It’ll likely be some time before we see the results of the appeal, but this could have major implications for digital game storefronts throughout Europe – and it could mean that someday, you’ll actually own the games you’ve purchased digitally. Valve’s argument that it’s merely selling subscriptions is a pretty strong indication of how little your digital purchase actually buys.

Posted: Sep 25, 2019 8:45 am
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.pcgamesn.com/sell-steam-games

Comments

XBL-ABPosted: Wed. Sep 25, 2019

naterocks500
Rocky5 I agree, if we buy a game retail or digital we should be allowed to sell it on to someone else if we see fit to. That goes for the physical disc or the license I paid for when I bought the digital version.

I liked how the XB1 back in the day would allow reselling of digital purchases with some of those sales going to the devs. They way I win the new user wins and the devs win. (Publishers can feck off, devs deserve the cash more than the publisher)

Digital games would drop in value faster than anything. If you were able to resell digital games, indie game devs would cease to exist.

For example, If they had a single player game and I sold it after I was finished, the Devs would stop getting income from that point forward. It would drive down the cost of the game tenfold and like I said, get to the point there wouldn't be any indie games and AAA titles would be doing freemium models or have so many MTX it wouldn't be funny. You can't sell a Windows License because it tells you it is a one time activation, Steam tells you the same with games sold on their storefront..

While that is true. There should be a small collection fee of some sort when transferring ownership paid to the devs

naterocks500Posted: Wed. Sep 25, 2019

Rocky5 I agree, if we buy a game retail or digital we should be allowed to sell it on to someone else if we see fit to. That goes for the physical disc or the license I paid for when I bought the digital version.

I liked how the XB1 back in the day would allow reselling of digital purchases with some of those sales going to the devs. They way I win the new user wins and the devs win. (Publishers can feck off, devs deserve the cash more than the publisher)

Digital games would drop in value faster than anything. If you were able to resell digital games, indie game devs would cease to exist.

For example, If they had a single player game and I sold it after I was finished, the Devs would stop getting income from that point forward. It would drive down the cost of the game tenfold and like I said, get to the point there wouldn't be any indie games and AAA titles would be doing freemium models or have so many MTX it wouldn't be funny. You can't sell a Windows License because it tells you it is a one time activation, Steam tells you the same with games sold on their storefront..

Rocky5Posted: Wed. Sep 25, 2019

I agree, if we buy a game retail or digital we should be allowed to sell it on to someone else if we see fit to. That goes for the physical disc or the license I paid for when I bought the digital version.

I liked how the XB1 back in the day would allow reselling of digital purchases with some of those sales going to the devs. They way I win the new user wins and the devs win. (Publishers can feck off, devs deserve the cash more than the publisher)