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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Bethesda blocks resale of used game

Cerebralbore101 on 12 August 2018
Barozi said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

The used games market is what forces companies to offer those price drops. They know they can't possibly offer those ancient games for full price when used copies are floating around for half that. So if you get rid of used game sales, then you can say goodbye to digital sales as well. 

uhm there are tons of indie games that don't have a retail version and guess what. They are frequently on sale like every other game.
You don't seem to get that there is only a limited number of people who will buy a game at $60. If everyone of those already has the game, the publisher will make $0 unless they reduce the price.

Also it's obvious that Steam has Batman for $20. Otherwise they could never ever put it on sale if the regular price was only $5.

You're confusing the generosity of Indie game companies with the greedy AAA corporate giants. 

They shouldn't ever put Batman "on sale". It should just be $5 all the time. It's like when a department store sells a pair of jeans costing $5 to make for $60, and then suddenly has a "sale" so the jeans are priced at $20. The department store never intended on actually selling the jeans for $60. It was all a ploy. 



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haxxiy on 12 August 2018
pokoko said:
SvennoJ said:
So if he unwraps it and sells it as "mint condition, never played" it's ok?

I doubt he even has to unwrap it.

V-r0cK said:

I found weird in the article because before that statement they said about the seller "He bought the game but never unwrapped it, he told us.".  So he was still selling a new copy of the game. 

Hmm..I never thought about the game having warranty, most of the time if something is wrong with the game I just bring it back to the store and they either give me a new copy or refund, where I never deal with the Publisher at all.  So what does this 'full warranty' of a game from the Publisher entitles us to?

Same.  And it could literally be for any product a consumer buys.  Imagine if companies like Ford, Honda, Toyota etc.. start doing the same for people trying to sell their used cars? loll I think Bethesda is out of hand on this.

Warranties change depending on the manufacturer.  Usually, if you get home and you find a defect, you can call the manufacturer.  They might tell you to go through the store or they might hand it directly, but either way, it's still the manufacturer who eats the cost.  However, if it's a limited warranty, it might say that the terms of the warranty only apply to the first buyer--if the first buyer sells the item, the warranty if voided.

In the case in the article, the issue seems to be that the guy selling the game is the "first buyer", thus anyone who buys from him will get a game with no warranty.  That means the game is no longer "new" because the consumer isn't getting the same thing that someone who buys a new game from Target or Gamestop would get.  That means, legally speaking, the guy in the article listing his game as "new" might be false advertising.  If that's all this is about, then that would actually make it a pro-consumer move from Bethesda.

The article is really muddled, though, and I can't tell what is fact and what is the writer's conjecture.

As far as cars, most of them have a full warranty that transfers to the second buyer.  However, the moment a car is signed over to the first buyer, it becomes "used," even if it has never been started and has zero miles on it.  It can no longer be sold as "new" and that's a pretty strict rule.

This is not a matter of consumer law, though. AFAIK in most countries this is about transfer of ownership of personal property between two natural persons. Bethesda has absolutely nothing to do with it, no more than Ford itself should step in if they suspect I'm selling my used Focus with a busted odometer.

I suppose there is a vague possibility of them acting if a legal complaint could bypass the vendor and go straight for them, so there would sort of a basis for their legal interest as a case of prevention if you stretch it, but really, it's a piece of plastic worth $5 maybe to produce.

 



 

 

 

 

 

Cerebralbore101 on 12 August 2018

Bethesda knows that they don't have a legal leg to stand on, but they probably think they can get a nonsensical ruling from a judge that was put in power by the Koch Brothers. Many Judges are elected these days, and the Koch Bros. effectively bribe judges by giving them massive campaign contributions.



Chazore on 13 August 2018

I wonder how many rights consumers have to what's on the disc, that is to say, the game's coding. I certainly know that we hardly even own games these days, so I have to wonder about the actual code. Paying for the plastic disc is about all we'd practically own, but what's on the disc is not something of our own creation.



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KLAMarine on 13 August 2018

Noteworthy statement from Bethesda:

"Bethesda does not and will not block the sale of pre-owned games. The issue in this case is that the seller offered a pre-owned game as “new” on the Amazon Marketplace.

We do not allow non-authorized resellers to represent what they sell as “new” because we can’t verify that the game hasn’t been opened and repackaged. This is how we help protect buyers from fraud and ensure our customers always receive authentic new product, with all enclosed materials and warranty intact.

In this case, if the game had been listed as “Pre-Owned,” this would not have been an issue."



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VAMatt on 13 August 2018
KLAMarine said:

Noteworthy statement from Bethesda:

"Bethesda does not and will not block the sale of pre-owned games. The issue in this case is that the seller offered a pre-owned game as “new” on the Amazon Marketplace.

We do not allow non-authorized resellers to represent what they sell as “new” because we can’t verify that the game hasn’t been opened and repackaged. This is how we help protect buyers from fraud and ensure our customers always receive authentic new product, with all enclosed materials and warranty intact.

In this case, if the game had been listed as “Pre-Owned,” this would not have been an issue."

This is a much more reasonable position than the one that everyone thought they were taking. I still don't support it, and I basically think they're full of shit. But, it's not nearly as bad as what was alleged.



Alby_da_Wolf on 13 August 2018

Well, this solves the issue in the best way, luckily.



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Aeolus451 on 13 August 2018

Bethesda is playing with fire that will consume it if they keep poking at it.



Chris Hu on 15 August 2018
Ka-pi96 said:
Chris Hu said:

Well GT6 no longer being available digitally is a combination of two things expired licenses and the servers for the game being shut down.  So even if manage to get a used copy you can't experience the full game anymore since the online portion of the game is no longer is available. 

Well for people like me who couldn't give a shit about online there's literally no difference, it's still 100% the full game to me. Besides, I've never heard people claim the older GT games were lesser games due to not having online, in fact don't people usually say they were the best GT games?

The online portion was actually a big chunck of the game.  Plus part of the single player campaign was bi weekly online single player races that gave you massive credit payouts and a chance to win certain cars.  Without the online portion being there anymore its now a massive grind to make any type of credits.