is it really economically smart for digital distribution services to make transfering games to other accounts impossible?

Published on October 27, 2008 By TheBigOne In PC Gaming

So I thought about buying Company of Heroes from Steam or Impulse (once it is available) but after some thinking I decided against that and will buy it in a shop because it is the better choice for me.

I find it discomforting that just because I get something digitally I don't have the same rights as when buying it in a store so I made the logical choice. If it was expected to be cheaper than in the shop I might have decided otherwise but with this regional pricing (I don't have a problem with that) it is pretty obvious it will cost more or less the same. Sure digital distribution has some nice advantages for TheLazyOne but its not enough to make up for binding the game unremovable to myself when I the retail copy gives me the option to burrow it to friends (which I do regularly) or to sell it (which I've never done yet, but its nice to know I can).

So with the current business practice, physical copies are superior to digital versions and people might be inclined to buy the physical copy because they then actually own the game.

"HOLD ON! You don't own the game, you own a license!" - nonsense, if I buy the game in a shop I own the game in the same way as I own a book, a poster, a Vinyl or a Film and every other goods* I own. I don't own the artistic and technical work in it but I can freely burrow, exchange and trade them without breaking any law. Have you ever heard writers complaining that people burrow books to their friends or that there are Librarys (you know that thing where you can get entertainment for free and which surprisingly didn't kill all the book stores yet)? I buy about 20-30 books every year and I lend almost every book I to at least one of my friends and surely got hundreds of books burrowed from them already, but this doesn't stop anyone of us to buy books, same for CDs and Films (the numbers are smaller though).

Okay, the developers/publisher wouldn't get any money directly from that so why should Steam or Impulse allow that? Maybe because they would sell more copies as they don't give the buyer less rights compared to buying it in a store then. Surely it could be abused but so could the "return of money if you run into technical problems" and from what I read it wasn't abused yet so why should it be different with the ability to transfer games to friends. To be clear, all I want is being able to transfer it to my friends account, it is not the responsibility of Valve or Stardock to have a 2nd-hand selling platform, finding a trustworthy solution for transactions with strangers is up to themselves.

As final note, the current policy could also turn out very interesting once Demigod is released, someone buys it in a german store, binds it to his account and then can't transfer that game to another person. I think I've read reasoning like "he can still transfer it just can't get patches and play no online multiplayer. Those are not part of the purchase anyways". I totally agree with the patches but not about the multiplayer at least when it is mentioned on the box. If it is mentioned on the box it is part of the purchase and not being able to transfer the multiplayer part of Demigod would be a deliberate reduction of the quality of the game which violates the German Civil Code and could get the german publisher for Demigod in some trouble if someone takes it to court and wants a test case. Wouldn't be very good publicity surely.

Comments (Page 2)

Bodyless

on Oct 30, 2008

Ok something messed up the quotes and when i try to edit it i cannot see the box where i could make the edit.

Ke5trel

on Oct 31, 2008

At least for now, we are comparing apples and oranges, imo. When you buy a game from a brick-and-mortar shop you are buying an object (the disc) which gives you access to information (the game). When you buy a game via Impulse or similar you are essentially buying the information directly. There is no way to allow peer-to-peer sharing of that particular chunk of information that also allows commercial enterprise. That's ok. You don't really need to loan your own personal copy. You just want to give someone else you know access to the game. Systems can be enabled to make that happen.

What might work would be a relaxed referral system (one publishers could opt out of) which would allow a buyer to make three referrals. The lucky referred would have a day of free play on that game, with the option to pay full price for the remainder. Make it competitive, a buyer who has 20 referrals make subsequent purchase gets a free game. This would work really well for indy or small games and apps that need word-of-mouth and it's the way alot of indy devs demo their products. Make it systemic and you will make small devs and gamers really really happy without pissing off the big guys.

Kaltes

on Oct 31, 2008

its a shame that you cant unregister a game. becasue then you could just give it to someone else. Of corse then you wont have accses any more but who care you gave it away.

WIllythemailboy

on Oct 31, 2008

Like many other things, this is up to the individual developer. For example, Blizzard expressedly allows transfer of Diablo II, although the EULA specifies all supporting materials must go with it (box, manual, etc). They do not allow the same for WOW.

PurplePaladin

on Nov 04, 2008

When I got my new computer (and IP), I had NO idea that a game could be "glued" to my email address. I could not figure out why it would not re-registger. I ended up trying, off and on, for over a year I think. From now on, I guess I'll have to keep records on what email/credit card I used for each game.

On a scarry note: my C drive is filling up (Thanks Windows), because, as most know, everything gets defaulted to the C drive for saves ect for most games/programs. Anyway, with only 1+ meg left on C drive, I can't do much now (let alone defrag it), so I have to get a new hard drive; which means a new OS reinstall 80

Anyone know how to make windows not put everything on C, or is that not changeable?

Bodyless

on Nov 05, 2008

Its changeable if you use impulse. I got the same issue with my c drive being almost full but i managed to download and install everything bigger to my other drive.

croxis

on Nov 05, 2008

You can move a lot of things in windows if you know where to look (more easy in linux, alas we're not a big enough market for Stardock =p). You can move yoru My Documents folder to another location or drive. Right click on My Documents on dthe desktop, select properties, click the move button and select a new folder. You can install new programs to another drive if you wish. the defaults can be changed using some programs like TweakUI.

Torgamous

on Nov 05, 2008

PurplePaladin

reply 20

Anyone know how to make windows not put everything on C, or is that not changeable?

Don't go with the default. Whenever you install a game or save a file, it asks you where you want to put it. Simply change where it is going to save the file.

Wynter

on Nov 24, 2008

Yarlen

reply 11

There's a key bit of mistaken reasoning in the original poster's argument: It's not digital stores that determine that we're not going to respect copies of games sold via competitors' stores (at least in the case of Impulse - can't speak for others), it's the publishers. The publisher has to allow us to do this, and thus far, none have.

^ quoted for truth. Let's hold the actual culprits responsible. You don't whine about Best Buy having DRM games because you know they're just selling stuff, and they don't get to say how it's designed or implemented.

Remeber WE are the ones with the cash. WE get to decide who gets supported and who doesn't.

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