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 22 points 3 weeks 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 11 points 3 weeks 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 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

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

[–] TokenEffort@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] Alenalda@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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:

the purchaser gets a discount
the publisher gets a cut of the sale
the seller gets credit to spend on new games,
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.

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 1 points 3 weeks 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 1 points 3 weeks 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 1 points 3 weeks ago

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.