this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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Do you wish that you could recycle games? (kbin.melroy.org)
submitted 1 day ago by Soulifix@kbin.melroy.org to c/games@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I'm not talking about physical case/disc/cartridge based games. But moreso, digital games. It would be a solution for gamers that fret about backlogs and knowing completely that they're never going to play the games that they have. That they've acquired from impulse, FOMO and other issues. May have been gifted a game that they liked for only a little while and may have nobody at all to play with for years.

I've learned that over in the EU, people can actually re-sell their games on Steam. I don't truly see that happening in America, though there's some small hope. But I want to take the idea a little step further.

Instead of just simply re-selling games, you could re-gift them as a way of recycling. Because I find that simply deleting them "permanently" (you can just revive a game to your library on Steam) is wasteful. You know you're not going to play it again, you know you've wasted however much money on it only to see it deleted to not be touched again.

Valve, publishers and the developers have already made their money and I know it'd be an uphill fight in America's case to try and re-sell. Because they'd just bring up the refund policy and it can be fair, at times, except for the 2 week time limit.

But I don't see a huge of a loss in re-gifting. Sure, I can see the argument of people gifting back so much, it defeats the purpose of buying the game again. I never said that there wouldn't be some regulatory practice in place to prevent such abuse.

That matter would be up to Valve/Publishers/Developers to agree on. My idea of regulating it would be that you're allowed to gift X amount of games for Y amount of time. That and you have to fill out a form per gift as to why you're gifting this game and you're placed on some cooldown timer from buying said game again. Just a concept idea.

There are tons of games that I do not play anymore and would love to see them go into the hands of other gamers that would play them. If the Publishers, Developers or even Valve think that they need to have some monetary value into this, fine, then users can at least pay a very low sum amount of money to be able to gift the game. Something no more than $1 at the least.

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[–] JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de 50 points 1 day ago

I’ve learned that over in the EU, people can actually re-sell their games on Steam.

Unless I've totally missed something, this is (sadly) not true.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I've learned that over in the EU, people can actually re-sell their games on Steam.

Going to need your source on that mate.

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

https://www.eurogamer.net/eu-rules-publishers-cannot-stop-you-reselling-your-downloaded-games#comments

The Court said the exclusive right of distribution of a copy of a computer program covered by the license is "exhausted on its first sale".

The ruling means that gamers in European Union member states are free to sell their downloaded games, whether they're from Steam, Origin or another digital platform - no matter what End User License Agreement has been signed.

The ruling continues: "Therefore, even if the licence agreement prohibits a further transfer, the rightholder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy."

And then

https://game8.co/articles/latest/steam-gog-and-others-must-allow-reselling-of-downloaded-games-in-eu

[–] gratux@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

so this is about selling your steam account, since you can't sell individual keys?

[–] FelixCress@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Pass, no idea. There appears to be a European Court of Justice ruling saying that you are entitled to sell individual pieces of software and Steam cannot stop you from doing so, ie their EULA is invalid in this regard.

But I am not aware about any legislation which would force them to create a mechanism for you to do so. I have only googled the entire thing out of curiosity.

I guess it is easier with GoG games, you can just copy them to someone else's pc, delete from your machine and it is sorted, someone else can use them.

[–] TokenEffort@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That would be an awesome feature but finance bros will find a way to abuse it in milliseconds.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

This is exactly my worry.

Suppose that on some level, this was possible. You wouldn't see nice, cozy instances of people who've finished their old collection selling them to low-income folks that just got their first Steam Deck. You'd put some games on sale for $10, and an automated Python script would automatically buy them and put them back up for sale for $49.98, one cent less than the new copies being sold.

When literally every single digital copy of a game is "equivalent", the used games market just doesn't make sense - although there's a hundred third-party sites that would like it to work that way so they can take their un-earned cut.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think there is a digital games storefront that lets you sell your games (robot cache maybe?) and it seems pretty NFT-ish, so yeah

[–] Kelly@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I just had a look at their offer and it has a few issues.

  • Customers can't resell a game license until 90 days after its release day and 7 days after their purchase (whichever is later).
  • The option to list a license for sale may be revoked if the publisher delists the title
  • The resale price is 100% of the current store price for the title but the reseller recieves only a 25% "resale commission".
  • This commission can be paid as store currency "IRON" or credited to your original payment method for a fee. If your original payment method has expired then only IRON is available.

https://help.robotcache.com/hc/en-us/articles/360029179691-Resale-Policy

So they keep 75% of resale revenue, the purchaser doesn't see any discounts, and it can't be used to access delisted games?

Its a bit of a monkey paw.

[–] Soulifix@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 1 day ago

If that's what it has to take - go for it.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

I imagine that's the only thing they could get the publishers to agree to. Still, it's better than nothing!

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There's nothing to gain from this for the publishers and such. They will however miss out on sales. So I don't see this happening. The feature would be cool to have as a customer, ofc.

[–] Kelly@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Any platform that offers transferable digital licenses will get a lot of customer loyalty but is likely to have mainstream publishers boycott it.

It could be structured so that everybody wins e.g. the purchaser pays less than the "new" price, with their payment then split as cash for the original publisher and store credit for the seller.

That way:

  1. the purchaser gets a discount
  2. the publisher gets a cut of the sale
  3. the seller gets credit to spend on new games,
  4. the platform gets that credit spent on their store (plus any additional money that might be required to complete a purchase)

As a customer I would find that attractive but I think most publishers would consider it a slippery slope.

[–] Alenalda@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Problems that you don't buy these games anymore, you lease them.

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

What?

[–] Bougie_Birdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

I would love to be able to gift my unplayed games to others.

I guess you do get into a problem where a group of people might swap the game back and forth to avoid ever having to pay for the game. But people will abuse any system, so I guess that would just be a cost of it

If a game is still within the refund window, then maybe it should have an option to gift it. The devs / publishers could keep their money and Steam doesn't have to process a refund. Seems like a win-win

[–] pastel_de_airfryer@lemmy.eco.br 2 points 1 day ago

Would be cool if it was possible to at least resell delisted games. This way it would be possible to legally purchase a copy, just like we can do for physical media.

[–] B0NK3RS@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Something like re-gifting games and/or a way to trade them back to the storefront (discount % of future purchases etc.) would be interesting.

[–] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

I almost only play recycled (digital) games.

[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

The games are mine

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 1 points 1 day ago

Little free digital libraries if you like. It'd be possible to do once the DRM is gone, if only there was a platform that made selling without the locks a major part of the pitch...

Functionally though it is possible, ebook lending exists already, but from what I gather proper libraries pay some sizable fee for the right to do so. There's no reason other digital media couldn't do the same.

[–] INeedMana@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Do you wish that you could recycle games?

No. The system is flawed, of course, but in the end game sells -> publishers see the genre/idea sells -> they are going to fund creating another one like that -> creators with ideas earn money
How strong we feel that publishers leech off creators is a valid point. But in the end that's how it works right now

Maybe, if publishers and creators were getting some petty tax from each swap, that would enable recycling without killing the positive feedback for a good game. Or open another can of worms. Think what practices would result in more gains with such system in place. I'm afraid it might be churning out low value, highly hyped, hastily created games with paid reviews
Or maybe it's a good business idea and it will revolutionize industry once someone puts up such a service

But, I think, implemented by the current big ones it would end up badly. It's a flip of the whole business plan and they would cling to old ideas

Additionally, this idea would probably in practice look more like streaming does. A subscription to access with some "coins" for swapping. And we already see that streaming has negative effects on accessibility to older, niche movies and series

you know you’ve wasted however much money

I know that what I'm going to write doesn't work for fighting games. But for the rest of them, wait until they are priced what you are comfortable spending based on howlongtobeat. Last night I binged on Citizen Sleeper that is on sale rn. 6hrs of good story for price of 1-2 beers. I usually don't get back to games I've finished, so probably won't be playing it ever again. But I still feel it was money well spent. And if it wasn't that great, this price is not the amount I'd regret spending on a meh game

[–] Soulifix@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe, if publishers and creators were getting some petty tax from each swap

You didn't read the part where part of my conceptual ideas consist of paying a fee to gift the game away, that would have to be decided up to Valve and the Developers/Publishers. I only came up with just a start. It's not a perfect idea, but it's there as a return for them because they're going to want some return from this, of course.

[–] INeedMana@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I did and my response to that is that it's very probable it would turn into something dysfunctional

Think what practices would result in more gains with such system in place. I’m afraid it might be churning out low value, highly hyped, hastily created games with paid reviews

But without it, there is no positive feedback for good games