Why does Steam still sells games from bankrupt companies or mostly broken components?

[Raul]

I've seen lots of games that

-The Producer went bankrupt
-The game doesn't have any type of support anymore
-Servers (specially multiplayer) are down. so you get half the game
-For some reason it crashes a lot

and many other minor reasons

and i ask myself Why does Steam still sell these games? Games that got critical mechanisms down and unsupported, and some that you can't even log in anymore. Gamespy ones specially. It's ok to a company maybe shut down a game server because he is old and a few people play, but games relased in 2011, 2012 and even 2013 being unsupported? cmon... The funny thing is that these situations happen and because of the sales the companies still get the game money, even if they don't support it anymore, so wtf?

I wish i could add more things here but i'm terrible in that, so you guys got my point i guess.

[iAmRockyFeller]

Most companies would have somone come in and buy out their license cheap. May be the case here? Maybe Valve have a licens/clause to allow them to continue trading the item while reaping full rewards.

[Gus the Crocodile]

The money has to be going somewhere, so I would ask for some evidence on the "bankrupt companies" bit.

On games with dead servers, well, unless you're talking about purely multiplayer games that are absolutely, completely unplayable, isn't it better that people be able to buy the game for the campaign or whatever if they want to, rather than it become unavailable once a bit of it dies? I would agree in such cases that there should be very visible notices informing players about which parts don't work, of course.

[🍋 Lemonfed 🍋]

since most game are from both a publisher and a developers as long as one of the two remain then someone obviously still have a right to sell the game ... so unless both the developers and publisher sank then there no reason to not keep selling a game. do you have a example of a game which is still sold but has no longer a publisher or a developers that is there to ... well grab the money from the sale ?

[Xaelath]

Really?
1. List me the games
2. I am sure most of you said were indies and early access
3. Tho sometimes its not only indies/early access some like AAA titles Dead Rising 3 and AC:Unity already broken and didnt got any update.
4. Multiplayer server cant keep up forever, maybe you should play console abit more often rather than pc. Steam keeps the multiplayer from its own server. Other games prefer using it own server like GTA V. Also if the game got less players each months it will be closed since it will cost more money with alot of open servers.
5. If the steam removes the game randomly it might create quite ruckus like b4 they did in hatred. PCgamer already said it.
6. Bankrupt Producer doesnt meant they cant sell it on steam except it was starting to abuse or they wanted it to removed from steam.

[zythasha]

would be nice to see a new Tag for broken multiplayer though.. so you can tell before buying that it doesn't work...

[Xaelath]

Oprindeligt skrevet af zythasha:

would be nice to see a new Tag for broken multiplayer though.. so you can tell before buying that it doesn't work...

check forum.
i waited so long for sr4 damn. they didnt even bother to fix their servers.
also the other games multi need to be tagged along withfriend and couldnt find public matchmaking.

[Lore]

one of those, resident evil operation racoon city, game company is no more i think, game hasnt gone in sale in a loooong time either

[✨Hot Soup✨]

bankrupcy is filed to protect against creditors seizing assets, financial or physical. doesnt mean the company is going away completely. its a sign that the people running the business are still trying to keep it going.

[Start_Running]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Gus the Crocodile:

The money has to be going somewhere, so I would ask for some evidence on the "bankrupt companies" bit.

On games with dead servers, well, unless you're talking about purely multiplayer games that are absolutely, completely unplayable, isn't it better that people be able to buy the game for the campaign or whatever if they want to, rather than it become unavailable once a bit of it dies? I would agree in such cases that there should be very visible notices informing players about which parts don't work, of course.

There usually is. In any case for most of those games the server kits are still available so anyone can host their own multiplayer if they so choose.

[Resolute]

When a company goes into banrupacy or recievership somebody still owns the assets (usually the liquidated or reciever), the assets can continue to be sold and the income generated is given to the asset holder and used to repay debt or to distibute to the debtors with a divend payment at the end or even during the recivership/liquidation.

Finally the Reiciver and/or liquidator may sell off the asset(the game property, title and rights) to any interested party, again in order to try and pay of debts.

Or they could keep the assert together in order to hopefully sell the company off as a going concern.

Essentially the reciever and then the liquidators job is to maximize the return on assets and pay as much of the debt off as possible - secured creditors first, then unsecured. Employees usually fall between those two gropups depending on local laws.

The above is different for each country btw, but is probably generally correct for most of them.

[3006150]

Example: THQ bankrupt and closed KAOS Studios before closure, DeepSilver acquires Homefront and still sells game. Mulit-player works though, not that it will ever get more updates.

DeepSilver also acquired Saints Row 3 and 4, from publisher THQ Volution becomes Deep Silver Volition now, but some features of those games are broken too, online upload character creations MY Steal port gone trouble with MP. The core SP still functions.

Some games with old Game spy tech have been community patched, master server put up to find other gamers online. I know that MEDAL OF HONOR: ALLIED ASSAULT WAR CHEST is one, sold on GOG.


There are other tools for finding making online play for http://alternativeto.net/software/gameranger other older games.




Sorry, some kind of error has occurred: There was an error communicating with the network. Please try again later.

[3006150]

Gog and EA offer limited refunds too.

It' is the third party publishers responsibility to set the correct details about their games on the Steam Store Page. If you feel that a games details are misrepresented, there is a Report button to send Valve a clue. I have noticed removal of listed as “multi-player ”on some old games in the past, after it was reported as broken, especially after the Game Spy shutdowns a few years back.

[Raul]

Some games still 'work' even without multiplayer servers, but they are not meant to be played Single. imagine if you have to only play Team Fortress and Counter Strike with bots? it is possible but NO ONE does that. at least a lot. i'm pretty sure you guys know more examples. The other thing is that because of some games are very server-dependant for many core features of the game, shutting them down would make the game a lot less enjoyable. and i know games (Test Drive Unlimited 2) that because of that, DLCs doesn't work, parts of the game completion that depends on multiplayer doensn't work anymore, and many more.

[Br0kenGhost]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Kainochi:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Commander Makara:

Please provide any evidence of selling of products form bankrupt producers...

THQ

Perfect example, as most of thier IPs got picked up at auction. THQ is dead, but everyone who bought the rights to the games can still make a few bucks.

[Asura]

BitComposer