Selling your steam games on market place or a steam user store

[Leo Major]

I know there was this new games library platform clone like Stream,GOG,EPIC, etc that game out called RobotCache but with a pretty cool twist..... which was the ability to sell your own games on the app/platform to other users.

This is a great idea... There are plenty of games I have that bought that I don't like like Marvel Midnight Suns (the first 2 hours were all cut scenes and by the time I realized the game wasn't for me It was too late to refund) and I would have no problem selling this game for 20$ to someone on steam. Ofc Steam would probably make it so they get a cut of that sale.... even if just 2% or high as 10% it would add yet another revenue stream to steam.

Of course it would cost money paying programmers to add this feature to the platform and make sure it's not abused in any way.... For example if someone bought a 80$ AAA title and turned around and tried to sell it for 1$ to a freind.... would that be acceptable or would there be a bare minimum. Perhaps you had to have owned the game for at least 30-90 days... or you couldn't sell a game below 5% of what it costs in the steam store etc etc.

But I believe it would be a great feature to add to steam.... and the fact they have a competitor doing it... (regardless of how small) it should certainly be on Steams Radar.


Is there anyone who likes this idea or am I going to get a lot of people gatekeeping the idea?

Thanks for reading.

[Aachen]

You’ll get explanations why your idea is far too rosy (ninety percent of proceeds to the user?!) and unlikely to ever be implemented.

[Brian9824]

The issue is the idea drives away developers who don't want to participate in it. its why sites like GoG and Robotcache have so few developers participating. it also doesn't work out well in theory with people on RobotCache having to wait months and sometimes years to sell a game because you can't just "sell it" like you think you can. You have to wait in a queue of other people selling games and that also includes non re-sold games

You also can't define the price its sold for, if you paid $60 when you sell it on Robotcache its sold for its current MSRP. You can't lower the price to sell it.

No one will let you sell their games for what your thinking of because it will cannibalize their sales. Instead of people buying new copies they will keep re-selling the same copies over and over

[Brian9824]

Oh and if you bought a $60 game, and re-sold it while its MSRP was $40 you'd only get 25% of that $40 or $10 back.

[Leo Major]

Publicado originalmente por brian9824:

The issue is the idea drives away developers who don't want to participate in it. its why sites like GoG and Robotcache have so few developers participating. it also doesn't work out well in theory with people on RobotCache having to wait months and sometimes years to sell a game because you can't just "sell it" like you think you can. You have to wait in a queue of other people selling games and that also includes non re-sold games

You also can't define the price its sold for, if you paid $60 when you sell it on Robotcache its sold for its current MSRP. You can't lower the price to sell it.

No one will let you sell their games for what your thinking of because it will cannibalize their sales. Instead of people buying new copies they will keep re-selling the same copies over and over

Yes the biggest pushback would be the game companies and devs themselves.....

I mean even sony has a rule in it's TOS where you are not allowed to resell your discs that they said on twitter is "not enforced"

And why can't you define the price it's sold for? If I wanted to sell my copy of marvel midnight suns for 10$ and somebody wanted to resell their copy for 20$ mine would probably sell on the spot and theirs would take longer.

And I don't know much about the robot cache model to be honest nor do I believe steam should copy their model, but make their own improved model where they can give more power/leeway to the customer/seller because they don't need to make revenue as much as RobotCache would... but even dollars on a game, multiplied by thousands of resales a day would still be an additional revenue stream. Even if they took a 1-2$ cut off a 20$ sale.

[KalGimpa]

Publicado originalmente por A:

Publicado originalmente por brian9824:

The issue is the idea drives away developers who don't want to participate in it. its why sites like GoG and Robotcache have so few developers participating. it also doesn't work out well in theory with people on RobotCache having to wait months and sometimes years to sell a game because you can't just "sell it" like you think you can. You have to wait in a queue of other people selling games and that also includes non re-sold games

You also can't define the price its sold for, if you paid $60 when you sell it on Robotcache its sold for its current MSRP. You can't lower the price to sell it.

No one will let you sell their games for what your thinking of because it will cannibalize their sales. Instead of people buying new copies they will keep re-selling the same copies over and over

Yes the biggest pushback would be the game companies and devs themselves.....

I mean even sony has a rule in it's TOS where you are not allowed to resell your discs that they said on twitter is "not enforced"

And why can't you define the price it's sold for? If I wanted to sell my copy of marvel midnight suns for 10$ and somebody wanted to resell their copy for 20$ mine would probably sell on the spot and theirs would take longer.

And I don't know much about the robot cache model to be honest not do I believe steam should copy their model, but make their own improved model where they can give me power/leeway to the customer/seller because they don't need to make revenue as much as RobotCache would... but even dollars on a game, multiplied by thousands of resales a day would still be an additional revenue stream. Even if they cut a 1-2$ cut off a 20$ sale.

as a dev

why would you participate in that?

[Seretti]

How does this benefit the devs? They are Valve's customers too, you know.

[Wolf Knight]

Publicado originalmente por A:

Publicado originalmente por brian9824:

The issue is the idea drives away developers who don't want to participate in it. its why sites like GoG and Robotcache have so few developers participating. it also doesn't work out well in theory with people on RobotCache having to wait months and sometimes years to sell a game because you can't just "sell it" like you think you can. You have to wait in a queue of other people selling games and that also includes non re-sold games

You also can't define the price its sold for, if you paid $60 when you sell it on Robotcache its sold for its current MSRP. You can't lower the price to sell it.

No one will let you sell their games for what your thinking of because it will cannibalize their sales. Instead of people buying new copies they will keep re-selling the same copies over and over

Yes the biggest pushback would be the game companies and devs themselves.....

I mean even sony has a rule in it's TOS where you are not allowed to resell your discs that they said on twitter is "not enforced"

And why can't you define the price it's sold for? If I wanted to sell my copy of marvel midnight suns for 10$ and somebody wanted to resell their copy for 20$ mine would probably sell on the spot and theirs would take longer.

And I don't know much about the robot cache model to be honest nor do I believe steam should copy their model, but make their own improved model where they can give more power/leeway to the customer/seller because they don't need to make revenue as much as RobotCache would... but even dollars on a game, multiplied by thousands of resales a day would still be an additional revenue stream. Even if they took a 1-2$ cut off a 20$ sale.

its simple, the game developer sets the price of their games on steam, NOT YOU.
the game dev gets their cut of the money. so your cut of the money comes from steams share of it.

game cost 100, dev gets 70, steam gets 30. where do you fit into that? dev doesn't get their share they stop putting games on steam. maybe you should look at how robot cache is doing it then ask yourself why they do it like that.

robot cache lets you "resell" because that is their gimmick to get people to use their store. they had to design their system so the developers would have a reason to put their games on the store. your share of the money comes from what the store would have gotten. did you look at how they are making up for what they lost in revenue? hope you like crypto mining, I dont.

[The End]

Publicado originalmente por A:

called RobotCache but with a pretty cool twist

A blockchain/coin miner. Nope don't see that coming to Steam anytime soon.

If you need what they offer, use their site if it's such a great idea.

Thanks but no thanks.

[Boblin the Goblin]

RobotCache is just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ crypto store.

You don't 'sell' your used games. The site pays you in their ♥♥♥♥♥♥ crypto to revoke your license. They don't sell the games to other customers cheaper after they revoked your key either.

It's literally just a buyback program that only gives you store credit since you can't cash out their ♥♥♥♥ coin.

[Leo Major]

Well to be honest after I spent the money on the game and that money went to the Dev, it's of little concern to me what the dev thinks or cares about. You guys are heading down that slippery slope of "you will own nothing and be happy" consumer rights when it comes to ownership.

We are already aware that when we buy games and other things online we are not buying the "game in itself" anymore but we are buying the "digital rights to play the game"

I find it odd that so many of you care more about the devs then you care about your ownership and right to do with the game as you please. Which to me is almost like an odd gate keeping behavior. It would suggest that you have some stake into what the devs make, like you work for a gaming company or are devs in one. (Though I'm sure many of you are just customers like me)

For example if I go to the store and buy a physical copy of a game, beat it, don't like it, or just get tired of it I can then turn around and sell it to a friend or go on facebook marketplace and sell it there (like you see so many people doing)

So why should we not have the right to sell the digital copies of games we buy?

And if it really came down to it where the dev cared so deeply that they would fight tooth and nail to stop this... you could also give them a cut too. So for example you buy a 60/80$ AAA game. (USD/CAD) beat it and then turn around and sell it. You can try to sell it for 50$ because even though it's only 10$ off someone would rather spend 50$ then 60$..... and 45$ can go to you, 10$ could go to the dev and 5$ could go to steam. (For example, though I would like to see the split going towards the customers more as a customer of course... after all I'm the one who bought the game and should technically "own it")

I find it odd how it is acceptable behaviour to resell a physical game that you buy, but when you buy a digital game your rights are essentially taken away when it comes to reselling it.

What else in society can you buy that you are not allowed to resell if you really wanted to? For example if I bought a tv I could resell it to someone else, A vaccuum cleaner, heck I could even resell a toothbrush if I really wanted (and someone was sick/silly enough to buy it) but when it comes to the games that we buy digitally that we should own... our right to resell is completely taken away.

So like I said with the whole "own nothing and be happy" issue. Even Gamer Nexus brought it up on his video a week or two ago. Companies are getting greedier and greedier with their rights of ownership and licencing, to repeat myself... no where else in society do you buy goods/products physically from a store and are not allowed to re-sell it.

So why do we accept this for the games we buy online? That alone makes me want to physically own every single game I purchase...... so I physically own it and can resell it... and opposed to being denied the ability to Own and resell my digital copy of a game.

Thanks for reading.

[Leo Major]

Also should I add, lets focus less on Robot Cache then and your hatred for the store. I did not realize it was a crypto/block chain kind of thing... my focus is more on rights of ownership and rights to resell goods/products purchased. Forget I even brought Robot Cache up xD

[Aachen]

We accept it because we read the SSA before agreeing.

[Leo Major]

Publicado originalmente por Aachen:

We accept it because we read the SSA before agreeing.

No we don't, that's projection xD You might... but 95% don't

But even if it's in the SSA/TOS doesn't make it right or something we should accept.

Like I said I would rather buy a physical copy of everything to truly own it and be able to resell it

[The End]

Publicado originalmente por A:

[
Like I said I would rather buy a physical copy of everything to truly own it and be able to resell it

Then you should go for a console, there you get to that with some of the games. How long, no one really knows because consoles seems to be moving the digital download way too.

You do not buy the game, you buy a license to play the game. So you do not have anything to sell.

If it ever will be possible, prepare for game pricing to go through the roof and sales will probably just be a thing in the memory.

[Mad Scientist]

Publicado originalmente por A:

Publicado originalmente por Aachen:

We accept it because we read the SSA before agreeing.

No we don't, that's projection xD You might... but 95% don't

But even if it's in the SSA/TOS doesn't make it right or something we should accept.

Like I said I would rather buy a physical copy of everything to truly own it and be able to resell it

How much are you willing to buy games for if this became a thing? $100 for the latest AAA with a $70 resale of which most goes to the Dev, Steam, and then pennies on the dollar for the user?

Are you willing to sacrifice all forms of sales & major sales?