Who Goo'd My Valve?

Why would Stardock see some of Valve's trade-in action?

Brad has talked about doing this with Impulse.

Somehow I suspect if Valve did this, it would be a big gamechanger. Impulse would have to match at least, or do a version of GG's Blue Coins (I'd suspect GG and D2D would have real issues if this happened)

BTW kryo/someone: this really needs a new topic title- it's gonna be confusing to folks.

Well, Valve promised 3 surprises in 12 months (Valve Time) so maybe this is second surprise (1st was ingame store for TF2).

Edit: I agree that threads title should be changed - or we will have half a dozen reposts by tomorrow .

Yeah, it was definitely talked about for Impulse. However, something like this does require the support of the publishers, since they are ultimately involved as their serial numbers are exchanged. SD (back then and now) doesn't have a whole lot of weight behind it to "encourage" the major publishers to agree to this kind of system - but Valve does. If anyone can start this trend, it would be them. If they managed to break the ice, the other services will soon follow suit, without much convincing of publishers needed as long as they are satisfied with the implemented system for handling game trades/resells.

Edit: The thread title sounds quite kinky

It does not look like free trading, but maybe a "remove this from your account for $X credit" or "pay $X to transfer your game to someone else's account. I doubt I'll take part in either.

Quoting FutileEmotion,

reply 5

It does not look like free trading, but maybe a "remove this from your account for $X credit" or "pay $X to transfer your game to someone else's account. I doubt I'll take part in either.

That's what I'm thinking as well. Still, I do like the option of being able to sell a game pc game back if I don't want to play it again. The only major impact I'd think would be with steam's regular sales. If a game goes on sale for 1 week for like $5, will the re-sell price drop to that? Then it just gets silly - I can keep my $20 game or trade it back in for like $3... hmm... whatever will I do. At any rate, not being able to trade in your PC games is a problem imo that's been around for some time. I think progress in this area would be great - whether steam or impulse actually implement this (and how well... just for certain games from certain developers? etc), remains to be seen.

Quoting FutileEmotion,

reply 5

It does not look like free trading, but maybe a "remove this from your account for $X credit" or "pay $X to transfer your game to someone else's account. I doubt I'll take part in either.

Oh, it most certainly won't be *free* trading, the publishers would never go for that. At best, it would be something like official re-selling of a used game. One user buys it full price, plays it, decides to trade it in. Then either Valve gives them store credit at "used" value and resells the used copy itself, or has a marketplace sort of thing where people can list their games for a set price and if it gets bought Valve takes a cut of the sale.

Denied by Valve:

http://www.bluesnews.com/s/115103/valve-denies-steam-trade-in-plans

" We contacted Valve for comment on this and received the following response from Doug Lombardi: "Untrue. We've never met with Mr. Pachter."

That doesn't deny anything. Patcher never said he talked to valve in the first place. Patcher said "he heard." Meaning rumors. All Valve did was deny something that Patcher never claimed happened . So basically, still within the realm of possibility.

While I am skeptical about this report, the idea seems to make sense. It's a way for Valve to get gamers like me (who detest Steam and its "one-user-per-license-only" DRM) to take a second look. Would I be more likely to buy a Steam digital game if I could "trade" it in for in-store credit? Probably not, since that would just get me more deeply tied to Steam and its game marketing system. Would I be more likely to buy a Steam digital game if I could "trade" it in for an actual partial refund of the money that I spend on it (and not just in-store credit)? Maybe.

Of course, the question is how much does Valve care to cater to such gamers like me, which would actually seem to be against its present business model. I assume that Valve believes that it is more profitable to sell a game once and then tell the buyer, "no, you can't get your money back or in-store credit under any circumstances" than to pursue a more customer friendly trade-in model. In any event, Valve will do whatever maximizes profits.

now steam can go to hell.... i like my games DRM Free... buying X com on steam made me feel ripped off since i couldn't get it off impulse or GoG, i couldn't really see a point in digital trade ins unless they made more money back ... steam just likes regional pricing and anything that makes them money.

Steam also hates dail up or slow internet.

Dial up is irrelevant in game design.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-15-pachter-sets-record-straight-on-steam-trade-in

Michael Pachter has insisted he has no idea what Valve plans to do with Steam after the Wedbush Securities analyst was reported as saying digital trade-ins were set to be introduced to the platform.

On Wednesday an online report based on an interview read, "Valve could be gearing up to offer Steam users the ability to trade in licenses, according to industry analyst Michael Pachter."

"Steam's about to let you do that supposedly - you know, like trade and exchange - but they're going to take a fee from it," Pachter was quoted as saying.

Yesterday Valve refuted the suggestion attributed to Pachter. Valve marketing chief Doug Lombardi told Eurogamer that Pachter's comments were fiction and no such plans exist.

"Untrue. We've never had a meeting with Mr Pachter," said Lombardi. "I'm not sure what else there is to say."

In a statement provided to Eurogamer, Pachter agreed with Lombardi.

"I saw the headlines yesterday, and honestly don't remember saying that Steam would sponsor trade-ins," he claimed.

"I can only surmise that the reporter asked the question that way ('Steam is rumoured to be considering taking digital trade-ins') and asked me what I thought. I have NOT heard this from anybody, and think it had to be the way the question was phrased.

"When I said 'supposedly', it's because the question was posed that way, and is an acknowledgement that I've never heard it before. I am pretty sure it was posed as a hypothetical question, and I was trying to be responsive.

"For the record, I don't know anything about Steam's plans to sponsor credits for games purchased in the past. Mr. Lombardi is entirely accurate that I have not spoken to anyone at Valve about this, and I did not hear anything from anybody other than from the reporter who interviewed me."

And what would be the point in such system for distributor? Its much easier to just hand out discounts.

Quoting KillzEmAllGod,

reply 11

Steam also hates dail up or slow internet.

So does everyone and everything. It's 2010, not 2000.

Quoting Savyg,

reply 15

Quoting KillzEmAllGod, reply 11Steam also hates dail up or slow internet.

So does everyone and everything. It's 2010, not 2000.

when i am capped steam is the only thing that refuses to work as in connect to the internet, everything else is fine though they take their time steam just doesn't move at all.

Quoting KillzEmAllGod,

reply 16

when i am capped steam is the only thing that refuses to work as in connect to the internet, everything else is fine though they take their time steam just doesn't move at all.

I was just being smarmy, I know it's crap. Dialup was my only option out here too until I found an uncapped 3G network to join up with, it was painful.

Uncapped 3G networks are almost impossible to find though, but 4G connections might not get quite so crippled.

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