Steam Store Illegal Sales on NVIDIA Sheild

[[EW] Mitsie]

My girlfriend owns an NVIDIA shield, she purchases her games from Steam. Recently NVIDIA has restricted the play of the majority of games on GeForce Now stating "sorry this game isn't supported on GeForce Now" this is from within the steam app.

You have allowed the restriction of certain games on the Steamworks platform, but continue to sell games that are then unplayable by these customers.

This is Illegal in the UK to offer products for sale that are unusable to customers. With out forewarning the customer that this game is unplayable, you allow the purchase of these games.

You should either.

A) block the purchase of unsupported Steam Games

Or

B) restrict the steam store completely on the NVIDIA shield.

My girlfriend is furious and so am I and we will be in touch with trading standards on Monday.

You should not be selling digital products on a platform that does not allow the user to play them. Especially without giving written notification that the games we are purchasing are unplayable.

[Kargor]

Whatever deal is going on between NVidia and Steam -- I seriously doubt that Valve has taken up the responsibility to curate the store for the NVidia platform.

[[EW] Mitsie]

Are you following what i am saying? We are not talking about game availability. We are talking about Valve selling games on a platform. Nothing to do with game availability. So if the games are not available from a 3rd party, why are valve allowing their customers to purchase them ?

Steam has the feature to alert you that certain games do not play on Linux before you purchase them. And do you know why the steam app gives you a notification of what platform you can play a game on ?

Because they are required by law to tell you. But now your saying, that games are restricted and can not be played on the Sheild device are not subject to this legal notification when purchasing ?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Mitsie - DigitalAssassins.co.uk původně napsal:

Are you following what i am saying? We are not talking about game availability. We are talking about Valve selling games on a platform. Nothing to do with game availability. So if the games are not available from a 3rd party, why are valve allowing their customers to purchase them ?

Steam has the feature to alert you that certain games do not play on Linux before you purchase them. And do you know why the steam app gives you a notification of what platform you can play a game on ?

Because they are required by law to tell you. But now your saying, that games are restricted and can not be played on the Sheild device are not subject to this legal notification when purchasing ?

If you feel the need to keep on complaining here instead of the Nvidia forum I linked, contact a lawyer and ask them.

[MancSoulja]

Mitsie - DigitalAssassins.co.uk původně napsal:

Are you following what i am saying? We are not talking about game availability. We are talking about Valve selling games on a platform. Nothing to do with game availability. So if the games are not available from a 3rd party, why are valve allowing their customers to purchase them ?

Steam has the feature to alert you that certain games do not play on Linux before you purchase them. And do you know why the steam app gives you a notification of what platform you can play a game on ?

Because they are required by law to tell you. But now your saying, that games are restricted and can not be played on the Sheild device are not subject to this legal notification when purchasing ?

The platform you are using has nothing to do with anything, Steam is a store like any other. Amazon doesn’t stop you buying PS4 games when you’re not accessing their store through a PS4, just like Valve doesn’t stop you buying Windows only games when acessing the store via Android for example.

[[EW] Mitsie]

We will be on Monday. Myself, my girlfriend and a friend have all bought games now on the Steam Store through the Sheild that are restricted on the Steam store on Sheild.

Yes but when you purchase a game from Amazon, it tells you that you can play it on a PS4. It doesn't say this will play on a PS4 and when you purchase it and receive the item, it says oh well we meant you can play it on Xbox.

[[EW] Mitsie]

You visit thr Steam store on Sheild which doesn't tell you what you can and cannot play, you purchase a game and it says after the fact you have purchased it that it will not play. If you only own a Sheild this is a problem as you have purchased a game that can not be played. The problem lies with Steam not NVIDIA as Valve have allowed the restriction of games on he SHEILD edition of their app without protecting consumers by at least notifying then of the restriction and that the games they are purchasing are restricted.

[Brujeira]

Mitsie - DigitalAssassins.co.uk původně napsal:

We will be on Monday. Myself, my girlfriend and a friend have all bought games now on the Steam Store through the Sheild that are restricted on the Steam store on Sheild.

Yes but when you purchase a game from Amazon, it tells you that you can play it on a PS4. It doesn't say this will play on a PS4 and when you purchase it and receive the item, it says oh well we meant you can play it on Xbox.

Another terrible analogy. Here's a better one:

When you purchase a Windows game on Steam then you expect it to work on Windows, right? That's a fair assumption, right? Imagine if Microsoft removed compatibility modes from Windows and limited you to only playing games that were explicitly designed for Windows 10 or whichever version you're using. You'd be furious and you'd rightly blame MS for it.

NVidia have done something similar - THEY'VE updated THEIR software to block you from running anything that doesn't appear on THEIR whitelist of supported titles. Caps for effect.

Talk to NVidia.

[Snapjak]

It's amazing how stubborn people are when they think they know what's going on.

I'd just stop posting here period on the issue as you're not going to convince us it's Steam's problem and you clearly don't want to hear that it's Nvidia's problem.

Talk to a lawyer, and stop talking here.

[[EW] Mitsie]

Your missing the point. I'm not complaining about the restriction of games.

I'm not bothered about them restricting games I've bought previously. We are taking about the purchase of games from the store now and the future.

Steam has millions of games. Valve has allowed the restriction of alot of the steam games by NVIDIA on the store. Valve and NVIDIA has a list of games that are not compatible. Don't you think it would be a good idea to let the consumer know at the time of purchase if the game is restricted ?

If you are on a Sheild and you don't have a PC like my girlfriend. And you go to the steam store. You want a game you look at the game list and ask yourself. Which ones are restricted ? You don't know.

So you buy a game, yes it works. Your happy

You purchase the next game, within the steam app ypu click install. You get a message saying sorry you can't play this game its restricted.

Don't you think it would be a good idea as the developers at Valve said to themselves. We are allowing this 3rd party company to restrict games. Do you think its a good idea to show a warning on the store that this game is restricted in this 3rd party version of the steamworks app ? You know incase the consumer don't have a PC ?

Do you think their response was "Na let them play the purchase and refund guessing game" or do you think this was a massive failure on the part of the development team ?

[Zekiran]

Nvidia is the problem.

You appear to be absolutely set on this being Steam's issue, but it is in point of ABSOLUTE FACT, that Nvidia is the only one to point a finger at or complain to.

Stop using the 'shield' app, you STILL OWN and can STILL PLAY your Steam games. Why? Because you BOUGHT THEM THROUGH STEAM.

Nvidia is preventing you from using them?

GOSH WHO COULD YOU POSSIBLY BLAME for it?

NVIDIA, DUDE.

[[EW] Mitsie]

Do any of you actually own a Shield ? The version of the app is a modified version of Steam Steamworks app that is developed by Valve. Valve have allowed the restriction of apps by 3rd parties in this separate build. But have not restricted the purchase of the restricted games from within 3rd party app. Or even notified the consumer of the restriction when purchasing the game. Why don't you understand it has nothing to do with the restriction but the sale of games on a modified version of Steam to customers who may not have the ability to play the games.

Valve have the ability to solve this problem by adding in that this game is restricted on this platform, Valve run the store not NVIDIA, they just work with the tools given to them with Steamworks. Valve are the developers and the retailer for the problems people are having. It has nothing to do with NVIDIA

[Brujeira]

Mitsie - DigitalAssassins.co.uk původně napsal:

Do any of you actually own a Shield ? The version of the app is a modified version of Steam Steamworks app that is developed by Valve. Valve have allowed the restriction of apps by 3rd parties in this separate build. But have not restricted the purchase of the restricted games from within 3rd party app. Or even notified the consumer of the restriction when purchasing the game. Why don't you understand it has nothing to do with the restriction but the sale of games on a modified version of Steam to customers who may not have the ability to play the games.

Valve have the ability to solve this problem by adding in that this game is restricted on this platform, Valve run the store not NVIDIA, they just work with the tools given to them with Steamworks. Valve are the developers and the retailer for the problems people are having. It has nothing to do with NVIDIA

Nope, can't say that I know anyone who owns a Shield, not that it makes any difference. It's still NVidia's restriction that's stopping the stuff from working - or at least kind of working. Also, don't forget that the entire GEForce Now service is *GASP* a Beta service. Yup, from a technical viewpoint the entire service is actually unsupported by Valve and ALL OF STEAM'S GAME DEVS because it's still under development and an unfinished hunk of junk.

Also, what's this about not knowing in advance if something you buy will actually launch? If only there was some kind of compatibility list you could check in advance before you made a purchase... oh wait, there is.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/geforce-now/supported-games/

That's what you're limited to at the moment because of NVidia. If you seriously can't check that page before making a purchase then request a change to the interface by posting in the suggestions forum.

[[EW] Mitsie]

That isn't the list of supported games.. The supported games are listed from the NVIDIA Games app.. There is also a steam app where you used to be able to play every game on your steam game list. There is plenty of games that are not on the supported list that work, but now they have limited some games but not others. So its impossible to tell what games work and what don't.. I can play dungeons 3. That isn't in the supported games list. That list is the ones that are part of the NVIDIA games app not steam and what steam supports.

[[EW] Mitsie]

So because we could play every game on the steam app, with no warning or notification we went out and bought games and we were never warned when purchasing that they had been restricted. Purchased the game, clicked install and we were then presented with a "this game is restricted" message. So we have purchased games thinking we can play our full steam library and not been warned that we can no longer buy certain steam games or if they are restricted. They have a legal duty to notify customers on the checkout of such changes.

[[EW] Mitsie]

Especially since Valve own the Steam app on Sheild, Valve are the retailer and Valve allow the 3rd party companies to restrict certain games within the Steam app. Valve are the ones to blame.