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Rumor - Steam to Allow Game Borrowing

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G

Grief.exe

Member
Smash88 said:
Despite my love for Steam and Valve, I'm genuinely curious what the true reason behind this is. Is it to become more competitive with Sony or to become a more lucrative and appealing digital store compared to others or is there a financial reason behind this.

I'm sure publishers will be the ones who decide if you can share their games or not. If so, how many will actually hop on board for this initiative? I'm really curious and at the same time excited at the potential of this.

I also wonder how much of an impact has Sony had on Valve's decision to implement this feature.
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Could be due to the European ruling last year

Recently, the European Court of Justice showed that it disagreed, ruling in a landmark case between Oracle and UsedSoft that "[a]n author of software cannot oppose the resale of his 'used' licences allowing the use of his programs downloaded from the internet."
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http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Valve-B...Digital-Software-Resale-Legal,news-15845.html
 
B

BigDug13

Member
STEAM for president.

Damn, it's like they saw all the Microsoft shills screaming how the XBO was "just like Steam" and they said, "fuck that!"
 
P

Prelithe

Member
Windu said:
what if someone never comes back online? you wouldn't get your game back. And if they do transfer the license back to the original owner without the borrower coming online there would be two copies out in the wild. Would publishers agree to that? not so sure.

edit: i guess maybe they could make it a set time limit for how long you can have the game, that might work.
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I think they'll force you to be online to play shared games (e.g. online auth on game startup). That way the owner always has control of their game.
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
Grief.exe said:
I'm looking for Indigo Prophecy.

I'm probably just going to pick it up on GOG if it goes on a daily deal.
Click to expand...

Man all this time you've been hunting that game, I wish I could be there to witness you playing and realizing that it's one of the worst games ever made.
 
S

StudioTan

Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
BigDug13 said:
STEAM for president.

Damn, it's like they saw all the Microsoft shills screaming how the XBO was "just like Steam" and they said, "fuck that!"
Click to expand...

So they copied an XBO feature? :p
 
A

Almighty

Member
Interesting news. Depending on the rules this could be something fucking great or something really meh. Would be nice to be able to pass around great games with my friends like we do on the consoles. Might even save me the money of buying a PS4. If I can lend and borrow games from my friends on Steam that removes a huge reason to own a console for me.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Sinatar said:
Man all this time you've been hunting that game, I wish I could be there to witness you playing and realizing that it's one of the worst games ever made.
Click to expand...

I've played it before, on the original Xbox.

Of course, I was a good deal younger and my tastes have grown far more selective since then.

I think I also desire more because it is a rarity, if only I could find someone with the game still as a gift.

alexandros said:
I think this is the most likely solution.
Click to expand...

They already have that functionality with the free weekends and open Betas.
 
Xenon

Xenon

Member
Wow this is awesome! Someone should have thought of this sooner. They should call it the buddy plan.

BTW I wonder how stream will know if your buddy is playing when you are? I think they'll hire physics so people won't need an internet connection.

Hopefully they'll do this for the PS4.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
Haha! fuck me.

If Steam manages to release information on game sharing before Major Nelson. I mean damn.

Also, please tell me you guys are joking when you think MS didn't push this initiative first.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
sleeping_dragon said:
What now Xbone? Anything left to say?
Click to expand...

I seriously can't tell if you're serious or this is sarcasm.

-SNIP-

MS was the first to publicly announce a sharing feature. Valve hasn't even mentioned specifics. Not to mention Steam doesn't let you trade games in.

Seriously guys. You're pulling my chain right?
 
A

Almighty

Member
Orca said:
You realize that's exactly what Steam does too...right? Go buy a boxed copy of any Steamworks game.
Click to expand...

And it fucking sucks so bad. Of course PC games haven't really had a used market long before Steam came around, but still it sucks. Main reason why I pretty much stopped buying physical Steamworks games. All they do is become coasters and take up space.

Still the comparisons between Xbox One and Steam are dumb. Microsoft will have much, much more control over One games then Valve can hope to achieve with PC games.
 
D

def sim

Member
Phawx said:
What!? MS was the first to pubicly announce a sharing feature. Valve hasn't even mentioned specifics. Not to mention Steam doesn't let you trade games in.

Seriously guys. You're pulling my chain right?
Click to expand...

Are you sure you quoted the right person?

You edited.
 
O

Orca

Member
Almighty said:
And it fucking sucks so bad. Of course PC games haven't really had a used market long before Steam came around, but still it sucks. Main reason why I pretty much stopped buying physical Steamworks games. All they do is become coasters and take up space.

Still the comparisons between Xbox One and Steam are dumb. Microsoft will have much, much more control over One games then Valve can hope to achieve with PC games.
Click to expand...

I dunno. Look at any thread when PC game's digital release is discussed and count the "no Steam, no sale" mentions.
 
I

inm8num2

Member
Interesting if true.

I can't keep up with Steam anymore. Trading cards, community features, etc. To me it's still just a library client. But this is something that might encourage me to be a little more active.
 
E

Eric_S

Member
This is a good thing naturally, and it's made me muse over a trade in program.

Providing a market for selling used games (availabile three months after release) and a trade in program that grants rebates would work just fine in my mind.
 
K

kejigoto

Banned
This is pretty big news if this comes to pass. I know Valve has talked before in the past about a digital trade in program but we haven't really seen anything on that yet. Wonder if this is where they ended up especially with the only positive to the Xbox One being able to share games like this. Looks like Steam families might become a big thing. I know I'm sitting on like 225 games at the moment so if I was sharing my library with someone they'd have a ton of gaming at their finger tips with a very small chance that we'd be on the same game at any given time. Hopefully we get more details about this soon if it is already popping up in the Beta coding.

I've heard conflicting reports on the Xbox One's sharing plan though. Some of have said that you can play a game at the same time withe one other person, some have said you can only access multiplayer with one person, and some have said only one person at a time can play. Still waiting to hear finalized results for that.

The best part about this though is that there are no fees attached to Steam so even if two people can access the same game at the same time on Xbox One this comes out way ahead in my book. I don't have to pay a monthly fee nor do I have to do constant checks with Steam's servers to verify I'm not a bad guy. I could see some form of online check involved with the share program but in this case it makes sense considering you'd be accessing someone else's library through a digital service.
 
O

Open Source

Banned
KingKong said:
I can already see all the steam borrowing threads and websites that will spring up. Like steamgifts but for trading
Click to expand...

Yes. If people organize and make this efficient, then it's really terrifying for developers, who will then start to design or sell games in a way that prevents or discourages sharing.

I keep having this nightmare of a future where all games have become f2p grindfests that try to sell you something every 5 minutes and gradually make the game less and less fun if you don't pay.

In any case I suppose the short term effect would be price hikes and less discounting to compensate; thus, non-sharers would effectively subsidize sharing.
 
Z

Zarx

Member
I wonder how they wil implement it and what restrictions they will impose. I have a feeling it will only be for select games, no offline mode etc
 
A

Almighty

Member
Orca said:
I dunno. Look at any thread when PC game's digital release is discussed and count the "no Steam, no sale" mentions.
Click to expand...

Sure and that annoys me as well, but at the end of the day Steam is just one option on an open platform and on top of that is much more open then the One will ever be.

What I mean by that is while everyone focuses on a game getting tied to your Steam account they forget that there are many ways to get that game and a lot of them(last I heard) Valve doesn't see a penny from. Example I bought my last three Steam games from a "rival" digital store(Greenman Gaming). My understanding is again Valve didn't see a penny from those sales, but I still get to use all of Steams features. I doubt something like that will ever be true on the One.

Of course there is the fact that I am still in control of my OS, my hardware, and have access to the games files. Which means at the end of the day I can get the games I bought to run without Steam relatively easy.

Sorry for the rant, but I dunno all the post about "Xbox One is just like Steam" have gotten to me. Unless Microsoft plans to open stuff up on their end then them and Steam are nothing a like as far as I am concerned.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
Almighty said:
Example I bought my last three Steam games from a "rival" digital store(Greenman Gaming). My understanding is again Valve didn't see a penny from those sales, but I still get to use all of Steams features. I doubt something like that will ever be true on the One.
Click to expand...

How exactly is this different from GS/Walmart/BB/etc from selling games? In the Xbox One world, they are rival digital stores.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
It would be interesting to see if they ever implement the ability to just straight up give the licence to my friend.

I'm probably never going to play certain games in my library ever again, might as well let someone else have it.
 
S

scitek

Member
Phawx said:
How exactly is this different from GS/Walmart/BB/etc from selling games? In the Xbox One world, they are rival digital stores.
Click to expand...

In one scenario, Microsoft has control over your account with all your games, in the other, Valve does.
 
F

flyshow

Member
Wonko_C said:
Only loan your games to people you trust, I.E. real life friends.

The license wouldn't be able to be transferred back until the borrower logs in, with this system there would always be only one copy running.
Click to expand...

not gonna work.
Valve obviously has no interest to know and validate your 'real life' friends, just like you can add anyone to your family group on Xbone;
the mechanism you described minimizes the utilization of the game copy and compromises the ownership of the original game owner as it is the borrower who is able to decide when the license can be transferred again.
 
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