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Eeeeeeeh:
"Revenue for Valve & Devs: Earnings could be split between Valve and the developers (if they still exist and hold rights to the game), "
(if they still exist and hold rights to the game)
(if they still exist and hold rights to the game)
(if they still exist and hold rights to the game)
Boosters and the market help, but don’t fully solve the issue in all cases:
- Abandoned games with no boosters: Some games (like TES: Legends) no longer drop boosters because devs shut them down. With no new cards, existing ones become ultra-rare and expensive.
- Unchecked speculation: Delisted games’ cards often hit ridiculous prices (e.g., €10+ per card), making badge completion unreasonable.
- No supply: Many old-game cards simply don’t appear on the market because no one lists them.
The proposal is for Steam to step in only for these edge cases, where the current system fails. It wouldn’t affect active games with healthy markets.
If you own a copy of the game, you can still use Gems to create booster packs which adds to the supply of cards available. Then you can offer to trade extras for cards you need or for Gems to go towards future booster packs.
You're absolutely right about the legal complexities, Steam can't just sell assets they don't own. But there might still be a middle ground. For games where the developer is truly defunct (confirmed bankrupt, no active company), abandoned rights, or where Valve retained distribution rights in the original contract, they could explore a system like GOG's Classics program, a curated, legal way to preserve access.
Even if full sales aren't possible, Valve could at least enable trading for deadlisted games where cards are stuck in limbo. Right now, some badges are permanently incomplete not by design, but because the market fails when supply vanishes. There’s got to be a better solution than letting collectors get price-gouged or locked out entirely.
You're right that gems and trading work for many games, but there's a whole category of abandoned titles where this system breaks down completely. Take something like TES: Legends - even if you own the game, there are no booster drops happening anymore because the developers shut down the system. The few remaining cards become impossibly rare, and since almost nobody is actively trading them, you can wait years without completing a badge. It's not about refusing to use the existing tools - it's about those tools no longer functioning for certain games. Maybe there could be some failsafe, like letting us craft missing cards at a premium gem cost when a game has been officially delisted for X years. That way it wouldn't affect healthy game economies but could help rescue truly abandoned collections.
valve cannot make items tradable or marketable unless they own the rights to do so.
your not understanding how things work. game gets delisted, market is now off limits to those items. selling of items for those games is no longer possible.
You're right about the legal constraints, Valve can't magically make abandoned games' cards tradable if they don't own the rights. But there's a practical reality here: when games get delisted, their trading cards often become stranded assets. Not a crisis, just an inefficiency in Steam's collectibles ecosystem.
Maybe the solution isn't about redistributing cards at all, but giving players tools to manage 'orphaned' badges, like hiding them or marking them as legacy collections. No copyright issues, just better UX for niche cases. Valve excels at systems design; this seems like a solvable quirk rather than a rights violation.
This situation reminds me of how Steam needs constant evolution to avoid becoming outdated. Look at achievements: they've barely changed in 15 years, while player expectations have grown. Trading cards are another system that feels increasingly "static" as more games get abandoned. Valve excels at innovating (Deck, Proton), but some legacy features risk turning into digital relics unless they're periodically revisited. Small tweaks—like better management for orphaned content—could modernize these systems without requiring overhauls.
The Elder Scrolls - Legends for example is 1000 gems per booster.
You can then trade those cards with other players.
After running my own tests, I can confirm booster packs still function for some delisted games - but the system's design makes it nearly impossible to complete badges in practice. While the technical capability exists, the reality of spending 1000 gems only to receive three identical cards (as just happened in my test) reveals how broken this is for actual collectors.
The core problem isn't availability, but design. When a system charges premium currency for completely random drops with duplicate cards and no bad luck protection, it might as well not exist for completion purposes. For abandoned games where market supplies have dried up, we need either duplicate conversion systems or weighted odds that prioritize missing cards - solutions Valve has already implemented in other parts of their economy.
This isn't about special treatment, but bringing an outdated system up to modern player expectations. The booster mechanic made sense in 2013, but in 2024 we should expect smarter systems that respect players' time and investment.
I think there's some confusion here - this discussion isn't about bringing back delisted games themselves. That's entirely up to publishers, and Valve obviously can't override those decisions. What I focusing on is improving how Steam handles the existing trading card ecosystem for games that have already been removed from sale.
The key point is that even after a game gets delisted, Steam continues supporting many of its features - community hubs remain active, the market still operates, and players can still craft badges. The issue arises when normal card distribution breaks down over time, making completion nearly impossible through no fault of collectors.
Rather than suggesting Valve override publisher rights (which they clearly can't do), I proposing adjustments to Steam's own systems - like improving booster pack algorithms or adding duplicate protection - to better preserve collectibility for games that are still technically supported in Steam's ecosystem, just no longer sold.
It's less about the games themselves and more about maintaining functionality for features Valve already keeps running years after delisting. Small tweaks could make these legacy systems work better without stepping on anyone's rights.