Internet Kills Video Game Resale - Gaming Greed

While the Internet can be a great place to socialize and gather information for research purposes; it can also be a haven for the fundamentally challenged trolls of the Internet, pirates and marketing. The Internet gaming market has expanded almost exponentially over the years and may have become a little too big for its own good. Companies like Steam, eGames, Gametap, and iWin all have a hand in what you can or can't do with the product licenses you purchase today. Let's look at each of these individually and see how they handle product sales.

Internet kills Video Game Resale: Valve Steam

Valve Steam is an integral component of mainstream marketing. Steam allows Indie developers and mainstream software companies to deliver products to a large market. Even some games right off the store shelves now come with Steam today. Unfortunately for the market Steam's service includes some securities in place to prevent piracy.

One of the latest developments in Steam's arsenal for preventing piracy is the connection of a CD-Key to an online Steam account. This new means of copy protection is a great way of preventing unauthorized usage of a CD-Key, but what does it do to the market as a whole?

This recent implementation made by Steam seems to have a massive effect on the second hand gaming market. No longer can you sell a used game when you're done with it. Once you purchase a game and activate it with an account it is forever attached to that account with no means of license transfer. While many people get around this by selling off their accounts this is in reality a violation of Steam's TOS and could end with more than one unhappy customer. Now let's look at what are other publishers doing.

Internet kills Video Game Resale: eGames

For the casual gamer eGames is the perfect venue for getting a quick fix. Most games on eGames are available at no cost and there are many subscription levels available which remove advertising. Once a game is downloaded from a user's account on eGames any user can play it and will not need an active Internet connection to play. When you make a purchase on eGames you can elect to have a backup CD shipped to you at the same time for a small additional fee.

This method appears to be a bit more transparent than the methods used by Valve. However, eGames deals mostly with Indie developers who are looking for general sales and not royalties for life. These are a different breed of developers the kind that just want to make a living. Simply put you won't find COD or MW2 on eGames. However, many of the games you will find on eGames are reasonably priced and some even get published to stores. Now let's have a look at iWin.

Internet kills Video Game Resale: iWin Games

iWin games provides another Internet publishing medium which like eGames is largely driven by advertising. Many of the games at iWin could be considered "casual games" and can be played free online through Internet advertising. However, we are back to having a non-transferrable license. The iWin games medium operates a little differently than Steam and largely offers Indie games. These games can all be played free but require you to download the iWin toolbar in order to play. iWin offers subscription based access to their network much like Gametap and once your membership is expired you are left with nothing of value. iWin games does not publish to store shelves they are primarily an Internet based publisher.

Internet kills Video Game Resale: Gametap

Gametap provides a service much like local movie rental store. This service allows you to access their archive of games for a monthly subscription fee. The primary difference between Gametap and iWin is that free accounts are offered very little and are not monetized. While your subscription is active you may play your Gametap games only when connected to the Internet and multiple logins are not allowed to access the service simultaneously. Gametap offers you no license at all on any games provided. However, you may elect to purchase your games from them directly and receive a product key that will be valid without registering through Gametap.

Internet kills Video Game Resale: Closing statement

The main problem that is seen in markets like this is that without resale rights these games hold little to no real value. When any value conscious customer shops around they look for things which serve a purpose, hold value long after the purchase, and can be readily sold to correct their balances.

A gamer is far more willing to spend $60 on a game that he can sell back to Gamestop for $30 than one which is worth nothing as soon as the transaction is completed. While entertainment is a value in itself, entertainment is not the most important aspect of a games value. Certain games in history have become collectors' items worth far more ten their initial value. The FFIII and Chrono trigger original cartridges come to mind here.

Buying a game should be an investment just like buying anything else. Steam largely caters to a group who would have you believe that resale rights do not exist and all you pay for when buying a game is the right to play it.