The Regional Court of Berlin ”dismissed the lawsuit” filed by the watchdog, which targeted Valve’s terms of service that prohibits ”sale or transfer of user accounts” on Steam.
The reason behind the ruling has yet to be clarified, but it’s unlikely the watchdog group will let this rest. Essentially, the Steam Library isn’t entirely owned by the end user.
When it comes to digital distribution the legal field is a total mess on who exactly owns what, especially when it comes to game licenses attached to accounts that need the seller’s server infrastructure to provide you that product. The fact that many of those digital products match their physical retail counterparts in price needs to play a role.
Hopefully Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband will gain traction in the next go around. Third time’s a charm…
Steam Machines are looking to take aim at the console market, as well as expand options for PC gamers. Well, the console market thrives on second-hand sales, and digital reselling would help it along. Already Valve has been experimenting with ‘sharing’ titles but that’s not what this is about.
