Selling Civ 5

[kooboo]

I've purchased Civilization V some time ago (real physical copy, not digital Steam version) and I'd like to sell it. I actually own this copy and it should be possible to unregister it (or register for someone else) like a car or a house.

Unfortunately - it's registered on Steam. Perfect solution would be to unregister it, but I have no idea if it's possible.
I've read somewhere it's possible to transfer games to other accounts with little help from Steam.
Has anyone tried that - and if yes - with any success? And is there a fee or special procedures for such transfer?

PS. Please refrain from hate/love CiV comments.

 

[Slowpoke]

Can't do it, sorry

 

[charon2112]

Have you tried Steam support?

I've purchased Civilization V some time ago (real physical copy, not digital Steam version) and I'd like to sell it. I actually own this copy and it should be possible to unregister it (or register for someone else) like a car or a house.

Unfortunately - it's registered on Steam. Perfect solution would be to unregister it, but I have no idea if it's possible.
I've read somewhere it's possible to transfer games to other accounts with little help from Steam.
Has anyone tried that - and if yes - with any success? And is there a fee or special procedures for such transfer?

PS. Please refrain from hate/love CiV comments.

 

[paperfire]

Can't do that. If this was possible, what's stopping you from selling every game you buy from steam after you beat it?

 

[demidyad]

If this is the first and only game you have on Steam (or if you dont mind selling all your other steam games as well) you can sell your Steam account to somebody. It's against their terms of service but I may or may not have bought a steam account about seven years ago and I still may or may not use it to this day.

 

[jprc]

Can't do that. If this was possible, what's stopping you from selling every game you buy from steam after you beat it?

yes? And then?
I do not see very well your point paperback, as selling something second hand obviously means that it has been used...
If you buy a house or a flat, do you refrain from buying it because some one else already slept in the bedroom you are going to use?
Except if you meant what I mean in the last paragraph of my post...

The O.P. wishes to transfer a license. a right to play, to someone else, or even do a gift if he wishes.
I am like him: I own Civ 5 on DVD, bought at Amazon.co.uk, and it is something I would like to sell second-hand as I am not pleased with the product...
Amazon always offers the possibility to sell your second-hand item. I asked them: they simply replied that the DVD is "part of the Steam system", and, as such, cannot be transferred without Steam allowing it.
I asked Valve/Steam. They said: it is against their policy. You buy. no refund. No transfer, only if - when buying - you say it will be a gift. With Steam, you can transfer the ownership of a NEW item, not if it has been "used".

The 50$/euro you paid did not give you the right to own the product !
Hence, you may not sell it (you can not sell something you do not own).
Your money bought a 1-way ticket that is barely the RIGHT to use the software.
You and me, we bought it. Even if you did not open the box and never play, the fact that you ACTIVATED the game has consumed your single right to play.

You can only sell the DVD and allow the purchaser to use your Steam account, using your login / password, which, of course, we will never do.

As English is not my language, I hope my explanations make sense...


In other worlds Kooboo, we bought (Steam) toilet paper, and the right to use it.
When used, you cannot sell it back.

 

[Slowpoke]

yes? And then?
I do not see very well your point paperback, as selling something second hand obviously means that it has been used...
If you buy a house or a flat, do you refrain from buying it because some one else already slept in the bedroom you are going to use?
Except if you meant what I mean in the last paragraph of my post...

The O.P. wishes to transfer a license. a right to play, to someone else, or even do a gift if he wishes.
I am like him: I own Civ 5 on DVD, bought at Amazon.co.uk, and it is something I would like to sell second-hand as I am not pleased with the product...
Amazon always offers the possibility to sell your second-hand item. I asked them: they simply replied that the DVD is "part of the Steam system", and, as such, cannot be transferred without Steam allowing it.
I asked Valve/Steam. They said: it is against their policy. You buy. no refund. No transfer, only if - when buying - you say it will be a gift. With Steam, you can transfer the ownership of a NEW item, not if it has been "used".

The 50$/euro you paid did not give you the right to own the product !
Hence, you may not sell it (you can not sell something you do not own).
Your money bought a 1-way ticket that is barely the RIGHT to use the software.
You and me, we bought it. Even if you did not open the box and never play, the fact that you ACTIVATED the game has consumed your single right to play.

You can only sell the DVD and allow the purchaser to use your Steam account, using your login / password, which, of course, we will never do.

As English is not my language, I hope my explanations make sense...


In other world Kooboo, we bought toilet paper, and the right to use it.
When used, you cannot sell it back.

Well, you gotta ask yourself, "but can they stay in business if they allow second hand selling?"

In this day and age of easily transferred information and data, they can't. So I just put up with it.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Technically 'selling' a steam account is against the rules and can get you in trouble.

Unfortunately games that require the user to accept the terms and conditions of the Steam Subscriber Agreement (i.e. including Civ5) cannot be resold. Once purchased they are forever tied to your account.

 

[Panda_Power]

If this is the first and only game you have on Steam (or if you dont mind selling all your other steam games as well) you can sell your Steam account to somebody. It's against their terms of service but I may or may not have bought a steam account about seven years ago and I still may or may not use it to this day.

I may or may not be condoning that this sounds like the best solution!

 

[lschnarch]

Can't do that. If this was possible, what's stopping you from selling every game you buy from steam after you beat it?

Well, you gotta ask yourself, "but can they stay in business if they allow second hand selling?"

In this day and age of easily transferred information and data, they can't. So I just put up with it.

One word: books.

How do publishers for printed books stay in business?

 

[Slowpoke]

One word: books.

How do publishers for printed books stay in business?

Do you see any book torrent sites on the internet? It doesn't happen because books cost less than 10 dollars.

How much of a staff and budget it take to publish and design a book? Pretty much nothing compared to a video game. So books can afford to go down to 10 dollars.

And guess what, pretty soon books are going to be on the internet for a price. And they're going to have the same darned system steam has.

 

[Rohili]

Well, you gotta ask yourself, "but can they stay in business if they allow second hand selling?"

In this day and age of easily transferred information and data, they can't. So I just put up with it.

If they can stay in business with a single game being duplicated and redistributed to thousands of people (via pirates), they can surely stay in business if they allowed one-to-one transfers of genuine copies of the game.

Furthermore, other games that don't rely on Steam (or similar systems) can be resold or given away to a friend after you were done with it. Did those game companies go out of business? I think not.

 

[jprc]

(...) "but can they stay in business if they allow second hand selling?"
(...)

It is a point.
Ethic? or business...
If "business" is the point, and obviously it is for Steam, so then it would be smart if it was Steam who was directly monitoring this internal second hand market, allowing Steam users to internally exchange titles, a kind of Steam-Ebay...
With steam taking a % on each transaction / auction.
Let us be "business evil"... I would then implement this ... with a time limit! You can sell your right, but it can be used only by the purchaser for a delimited period (proportionnel to teh commission received by Steam!). After it expires and if you want to play, you must pay for a full "unlimited" version, or perhaps [full price] - [purchased 2nd hand price reduced with commission]
Advantages:
- possible for players to play a game, and finish it within a given time (1 month to 1 quarter?)
- possible to users to sell it again, renew a new period, and Steam receive a new commission anyway
- possible to test a game, and if you are hooked, unlock its expiration date

Actually, it would be a kind of Steam renting system...

 

[Ashwind]

Do you see any book torrent sites on the internet? It doesn't happen because books cost less than 10 dollars.

How much of a staff and budget it take to publish and design a book? Pretty much nothing compared to a video game. So books can afford to go down to 10 dollars.

And guess what, pretty soon books are going to be on the internet for a price. And they're going to have the same darned system steam has.

Libraries exist for sharing books and knowledge.

The world is just getting greedier by the day. The end.

 

[Iranon]

Enough people treat software as fairy magic for this model to work.

'What's keeping you from reselling it once you beat it?'
Nothing keeps me from selling a boardgame once I've played it to death. Or a book once I've read it. Or a house I have lived in. Or almost anything else. At least a variation of the piracy argument has some merit ('easy to sell it while keeping a functional copy').

'Compare the price to the hours of entertainment and replayability, not the cost'
If pencils and paper were priced with this in mind...

'This program can infringe personal rights in the hands of malicious users...'
So can the pencil mentioned above.

This is occasionally seeping into the real world - a typical example would be mechanically identical car engines being sold at different prices with different settings and power outputs.
I absolutely despise the business and consumer culture this is trying to create.

*

To clarify: the strange and unwholesome thing isn't that the business model exists. You can buy stuff, rent it, lease it, or acquire rights in many ways. The strange thing is that we're generally willing to acquire a right to play a game (often 'for a time of their choosing') for what we consider a fair buying price.
It appears that not-quite-selling not-quite-complete not-quite-finished games for $50 is seen as more acceptable by the majority of customers than selling complete and finished games for $60.

 

[mattavich]

Damn it, I have a lot of friends who have played it/demo at my house and can not wait to buy it right now

 

[alpaca]

Actually I'm waiting for someone to sue Steam for this in Germany. I think you'd have a pretty good case because here, the original creator of something waives his right of distribution when he sells something for the first time. Since steam doesn't say that they only lend you the game, but you buy games via the platform, this would apply to them, and they could only refuse you to sell it if they have a good reason, and making it impossible is in my opinion illegal.

I'm not sure how it is in other countries but I imagine these laws are similar at least in the European Union.

 

[CTH]

Well, you gotta ask yourself, "but can they stay in business if they allow second hand selling?"

In this day and age of easily transferred information and data, they can't. So I just put up with it.

Or game developers could create games that people wanted to keep...

However the problem with selling digital product is that there is not much loss of value by using it, a book will be worn out but a game will not be affected at all, except that it will be older and new games comes along that might interest more.

 

[Slowpoke]

Actually I'm waiting for someone to sue Steam for this in Germany. I think you'd have a pretty good case because here, the original creator of something waives his right of distribution when he sells something for the first time. Since steam doesn't say that they only lend you the game, but you buy games via the platform, this would apply to them, and they could only refuse you to sell it if they have a good reason, and making it impossible is in my opinion illegal.

I'm not sure how it is in other countries but I imagine these laws are similar at least in the European Union.

International law is pretty hazy, though, when it concerns the internet. I highly doubt it would fly unless steam were based in germany.

 

[Horizons]

Since you can buy a game for another Steam subscriber's account as a gift I see no reason why you should not be allowed to 'deactivate' the licence to use a particular game on your own Steam account and transfer the licence to another registered Steam user's account ... in what way would this be bad for Steam, if they already allow you to buy games as gifts for other subscribers? (I.e. so that you don't have to buy two copies, one for yourself and one for them?)