Activision Joins the Anti-Used Games Crusade

[oranger]

I've seen this before, talk about the success of dragon age and mass effect 2...but you can't judge the strategy used as successful until the sequels come out; because really, did anyone really know before buying just how much of those games had been chopped out and sold separately?
I can bet you dragon age 2 and mass effect 3 won't sell as well, at least in the dlc department.

 

[obisean]

There is an error in that last paragraph. You put "Activison". And "free" in the same sentence.

 

[Atmos Duality]

they may be dip shits but they legally have the right to shutdown used game sales and sue whoever trades in their game. The CD is property of the publisher and the developer, not you. You only paid 60$ for the RIGHT to use the CD and its contents and therefore have NO right to sell it to another person or entity. Used game sales, in the eyes of the law, is piracy.

Read about "First Sale Doctrine" and then come back. Publishers have NO LEGAL POWER to shutdown used game sales. Think about it; if they did, you can bet that all used game retailers would have been put out of business years ago.

And don't bother quoting some End-User-License Agreement. EULAs are created by private entities, and thus, are subject to the law. Remember: the LAW trumps any contract.
Also, equating used game sales to piracy in a strictly legal sense is incorrect.
Ethically questionable? Sure. That's why this topic has such a high turnout.

 

[laserwulf]

What if, instead of giving away content along with new copies of a game, publishers threw in a code for convenience bonuses, such as higher XP gains for your first few levels?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

What dipshits! I've said it before and I'll say it again, the sale and resale of goods has been part of human society and economy for centuries and so far only these dipshit game publishers have made an issue of it. Hell Ebay was set up for the express purpose of reselling used goods!
This is just bullshit. Not to mention the fact that they're wasting money that could be better spend making decent games.

they may be dip shits but they legally have the right to shutdown used game sales and sue whoever trades in their game. The CD is property of the publisher and the developer, not you. You only paid 60$ for the RIGHT to use the CD and its contents and therefore have NO right to sell it to another person or entity. Used game sales, in the eyes of the law, is piracy.

And what twisted backward fucked up law is that?

 

[obisean]

What dipshits! I've said it before and I'll say it again, the sale and resale of goods has been part of human society and economy for centuries and so far only these dipshit game publishers have made an issue of it. Hell Ebay was set up for the express purpose of reselling used goods!
This is just bullshit. Not to mention the fact that they're wasting money that could be better spend making decent games.

they may be dip shits but they legally have the right to shutdown used game sales and sue whoever trades in their game. The CD is property of the publisher and the developer, not you. You only paid 60$ for the RIGHT to use the CD and its contents and therefore have NO right to sell it to another person or entity. Used game sales, in the eyes of the law, is piracy.

And what twisted backward fucked up law is that?

C'mon man, this is self evident if you look at all the lawsuits filed of over this. Oh, wait...

 

[5-0]

Considering I buy the vast majority of my games used, trade 'em in, and buy more, this is bloody annoying. No matter, I rarely buy anything Activision anyway.

 

[Uber Waddles]

So, lets get this straight. Activision, who releases 5 hour long games, sees that used game sales are high, so they want to literally say "FUCK YOU" to gamers who dont have their console connected to the internet, or people who dont want to shill out $60 for a few hours of gameplay (when they can get the same for $20).

Cutting content then forcing people to download it is a BAD idea.

If you want to compete, why not try lowering prices? Lowering prices can be achieved by taking some of the time and money away from graphics, and turning it into gameplay. Graphics are the sink hole of a games budget, so realistically, if we took time away from making our brown space marines less shiny, we could... INNOVATE... AND cut costs.

I have no problem shilling out $50 for a 14 hour game. I do have a problem shilling out $60 for a 6 hour game that looks pretty though. I buy a game new if it interests me. If its lackluster, or short, I usually wait for a good used sale.

I understand why the industry doesnt like used Game Sales, but taxing gamers by requiring them to waste harddrive space and be hooked to the web is slapping a large majority of us in the face. Just a business lesson, and I caps lock it for importance... LEARN TO COMPETE, IDIOTS. YOUR NOT GOING TO COMPETE VERY WELL BY SCREWING OVER YOUR AUDIENCE.

 

[zombays]

But...I don't care about Activision except for their spider-man games! Oh wait, NOOOOOO!!!!!!! FUCK YOU ACTIVISION!!!!!!!

 

[diasravenguard]

I find the reaction to this... entertaining.

The only people who really have a reason to complain about this sort of thing are people who buy their games used, and people who for some unknown reason don't want have their console online. While I feel for the latter, they're relatively few and far between, and frankly typically just technophobic incompetents who probably shouldn't be gaming in the first place.

My big worry about this is that some of the new firmware for the ps3 turns it into a brick just like the new GUI for the 360 it bricked one of my units I ended up having to buy a new system...

Of the Ps3 in that whole lawsuit over removing functions of the system to avoid a pirating method that is not currently used. I'm in no way a technophobe but I do not like having my consoles online. I do play a few mmorphs but they are on the computer. I have friends over when I want to play multiplayer.

In general I don't want to buy anything from activision, blizzard or anyone else who expects to have a happy customer when they make a game that costs 50-60 dollars and lasts 5-9 hours. The average gamer is 35 I don't like being handled like I have no intelligence...

 

[diasravenguard]

they may be dip shits but they legally have the right to shutdown used game sales and sue whoever trades in their game. The CD is property of the publisher and the developer, not you. You only paid 60$ for the RIGHT to use the CD and its contents and therefore have NO right to sell it to another person or entity. Used game sales, in the eyes of the law, is piracy.

Actually I own the "CD"(dvd/bluray) not the right to the use of it they do not have the right to remove the "CD" from my house nor can they force a recall of the game. I do not own the usage-rights of the "data" on the "CD" I am granted the use of it through the purchase of the "CD" I also have the right to sell the "CD" and transfer the grant for use of the data as long as I have not made a replication (copy) of the "CD"

You might want to look at those laws again...

 

[Stormz]

Soon it's going to be "Buy our DLC or you won't be able to finish the game!"

I know it's going to happen. Whats with the game industry these days? are they really trying to make me hate them?

Also I agree with everyone. I'm not buying a 5 hour game for 70$ and then an extra 15 every month for some shitty map pack.

 

[Omnific One]

Honestly, they will probably try to drop multiplayer for those who buy it used. Not that I care, I'll buy it used for $10 bucks just for single player's 5 hours.

 

[diasravenguard]

i believe its in the EULA though i am not sure. i do know its in those contracts that come with the game. if your a PC gamer they make this VERY prominent. in console games you can find them on the back of the manual if they haven't changed it since i was a console gamer.

That is correct to a point but there are also provisions that exclude the EULA from a sale dealing with the product (this is a general statement involving laws in the US and the UK it may not be true in other regions) rather than the use of a product. If you were selling the use of the game rather than the game itself it does force recognition of the EULA before the general sales laws of the country you are selling within.

 

[Omnific One]

they may be dip shits but they legally have the right to shutdown used game sales and sue whoever trades in their game. The CD is property of the publisher and the developer, not you. You only paid 60$ for the RIGHT to use the CD and its contents and therefore have NO right to sell it to another person or entity. Used game sales, in the eyes of the law, is piracy.

Actually I own the "CD"(dvd/bluray) not the right to the use of it they do not have the right to remove the "CD" from my house nor can they force a recall of the game. I do not own the usage-rights of the "data" on the "CD" I am granted the use of it through the purchase of the "CD" I also have the right to sell the "CD" and transfer the grant for use of the data as long as I have not made a replication (copy) of the "CD"

You might want to look at those laws again...

Quite. You own the physical copy, including any and all items contained within. The things you don't own are the rights to the materials on the disk and any online components.

 

[diasravenguard]

So, people are buying and playing Starcraft 2 like crazy and Activision joins the anti-used games publishers.

Good job, people. Really. I hope you enjoy your Starcraft 2. You just HAVE to play it and it's worth every cent, isn't it? You'll also buy Black Ops, no matter it isn't being developed by the series original creators. Would you also buy a Metallica album without Hetfield and Ulrich?

I actually attempted to communicate with blizzard about this (directly related to the download of maps not into a local sc/maps folder) and they basically avoided commenting on the loss of the folder and user control and talked more about how easy it was to build a map...

They lost my business a long time ago I hope I'm not the only one...

 

[diasravenguard]

they may be dip shits but they legally have the right to shutdown used game sales and sue whoever trades in their game. The CD is property of the publisher and the developer, not you. You only paid 60$ for the RIGHT to use the CD and its contents and therefore have NO right to sell it to another person or entity. Used game sales, in the eyes of the law, is piracy.

Actually I own the "CD"(dvd/bluray) not the right to the use of it they do not have the right to remove the "CD" from my house nor can they force a recall of the game. I do not own the usage-rights of the "data" on the "CD" I am granted the use of it through the purchase of the "CD" I also have the right to sell the "CD" and transfer the grant for use of the data as long as I have not made a replication (copy) of the "CD"

You might want to look at those laws again...

Quite. You own the physical copy, including any and all items contained within. The things you don't own are the rights to the materials on the disk and any online components.

Check the post right after that I did actually bring up provisions that allow for the sale of the disk and all intellectual data within. Basically you are transferring the EULA to another person the big thing about console games is I never had to agree to it in order to "sell" the game only to "play" the game. There are provisions for that as well in the US but not the UK as it was covered in earlier provisions describing the sale of the unit as a whole. It's why groups such as vintage stock are able to run businesses it's not illegal to transfer ownership of a product if it is not being modified or replicated.