In LTT's recent WAN Show, "Linus and Luke discuss Microsoft’s appeal of a UK ruling that could let consumers legally resell software licenses, exploring how this could upend Windows, Office, and even digital game ownership." But as was discussed within, there isn't a clear way to do this.
You can resell your physical media, but there are reasons that is a bit different. First is the fact that physical media has greater risk, with possible damage from use, and requiring trust in the seller. It also has an amount of friction on the part of the seller, having to picture the item, list it, find packaging to post it in, print the postage label, and take it to the PO. This reduces the amount of sales lost from used physical media.
Focusing in on a store like Steam, this doesn't work. A digital license doesn't degrade from use, and if the second-hand market aspect was controlled by Steam itself, there isn't the risk of trusting the seller. It would also (likely) be far more convenient, as is the case with much of digital media, reducing the friction for the consumer to sell their copy to just a few clicks. As such, you could end up with people just buying a "used" copy of a digital game for 80% of the price new. For obvious reasons, that wouldn't work.
The best idea I could think of, was something involving giving up your copy of a digital game license, in return for maybe 20% of the price you paid in store credit. With Steam and other stores taking about 30% cut, this wouldn't impact the developer, leaving Steam with a certain 10% from that game. The 20% given back would have the assurance for the store that it would go towards another game sale. A lower percentage like 20% also works well in shifting the use only to more expensive AAA game sales, where the store's profit margin will be higher. A £10 game would only give you £2 back, not really worth it for losing access to your game. But an £80 AAA game would provide £16 back, which could certainly buy an indie game or an older AAA game on sale.
But this is not perfect either. Being stuck to only store credit, and not a return in the actual currency you paid with, traps you into only being able to use that money within that store, unlike with the selling of a physical copy of a game.
Interested to hear what anyone else thinks about this!
I've thought about this, and I think the solution is in decentralized systems. While we all cringe at what happened with NFTs, the idea of buying digital games via a system like that makes a lot more sense than buying a JPG file. A digital token could represent ownership and not rely on official servers to be available. Initially, game licenses would be offered directly by the publisher, but once enough people bought them, they could be sold on an open market, and this would force the publishers to provide competitive pricing, although there would obviously be an official storefront which would be different than the "used" marketplace. These licenses could even be provided by USB at stores, and as such, transferred via USB or ethernet, to avoid the need for someone to need internet.
The game data is more complex. Again, you'd need a decentralized system, in this case, similar to torrents. Once again, initially, the game data would be seeded by the official publisher servers, but then after that, players could donate a portion of their network bandwidth to seed the games they have installed for other players. Again, this data could be transferred over USB or ethernet for offline options. The digital game data would be encrypted of course, with the license serving as the decryption key.
A system like this would allow everything discs offer in terms of ownership and not needing to rely on official servers. the problem is, you would need laws to enforce a system like this. No platform holder would intentionally volunteer a system like this.
No platform holder would intentionally volunteer a system like this.
Indeed, there's no way they would unless forced.
Personally I don't get it. Infinitely reproducable digital files can't really be 'used' so their value would surely have to come from a limit in the number of copies/licenses available at any time? I.e. the marketplace is not selling any 'used' copies at the moment so you'd have to go buy a 'new' one.
At a stretch, I can see how a license to play a game which requires online resources would work but then on consoles you're already paying a subscription for it.
Hard agree that there is no way current publishers and platforms would see value in a resale system, since the whole current license model revolves around artificial scarcity. Resale only serves to devalue "new" copies.
I for one vote we go back to physical releases, nothing denotes ownership like physical bits in your hand. Hell, even a hardware key ala FIDO2 styled as a game cartridge with a USB plugin dongle to insert into would appeal to the millennial nostalgia and platform holders get a unique identifier for each game copy.
And yes, this seemingly practical attempt is still completely impractical, biased wish-fulfillment when the priority for the market is shareholder value. Give me back my 100 page paper manual in a box dammit
I've bought music software (Native Instruments). It came with a license key. It was a centralized system. You could transfer your license to someone else. You just had to click a button on the web page and enter an email address. It could be as simple as that. Go to manage game, click transfer license, enter gamertag, the end.
Most of the worries seem overblown, especially when they apply to physical games as well and clearly MS, Sony, and Nintendo weren't driven out of business because of them. Microsoft was talking about transferable rights on digital purchases during that infamous Xbox One E3 conference that everyone hates, so it may not be as impractical or far fetched as it seems. Honestly, there was more consumer push back at getting digital rights than there was corporate push back about offering them.
I've bought music software (Native Instruments). It came with a license key. It was a centralized system. You could transfer your license to someone else. You just had to click a button on the web page and enter an email address. It could be as simple as that. Go to manage game, click transfer license, enter gamertag, the end.
Most of the worries seem overblown, especially when they apply to physical games as well and clearly MS, Sony, and Nintendo weren't driven out of business because of them. Microsoft was talking about transferable rights on digital purchases during that infamous Xbox One E3 conference that everyone hates, so it may not be as impractical or far fetched as it seems. Honestly, there was more consumer push back at getting digital rights than there was corporate push back about offering them.
The problem with centralized systems is that nothing lasts forever on the internet. Systems are all eventually shut down. A centralized system can work for the current generation, but how's it supposed to work if you load up a 25 year old console that no longer has any servers active? A decentralized system wouldn't need to rely on any official servers being active to work.
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Topic: How could reselling digital media work?
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