EBgames not accepting PC trade ins anymore

[Oppenheimer]

Gah! I just went out to an EBgames in my area to buy the PC version of Mass Effect and it appears that they won't take my old computer games in trade anymore! I don't know if this is across the board (as I live in canada) but I would imagine it is. If you're planning on trading in any computer games I recommend you rush out and do it just in case your particular store is still doing it.

[Chris_Lightfellow]

What the crap?! Why wouldn't they take PC games anymore? Ohh, I wonder if it's because nothing works with Vista, basically, so they don't think people would buy them and they would therefore take a loss.....

[amelia108]

i think it is across the board, because they told me the same thing (in georgia). so... oh well?

[Zeikcied]

I would think it's a piracy issue.

Let's say I buy a PC game. I install it on my computer, get a No-CD hack so I don't need the disc, and then take the game back to the store. I get trade-in credit and I get to keep the game on my computer. Or, I rip an image of the disc (ISO file) for use with virtual drive programs, or burn it to a new disc.

Either way, it would be way too easy to be able to keep the game while you're getting rid of it. With all the talk lately about piracy killing PC gaming, I'm not surprised the retailers are starting to reject PC trade-ins. Actually, I'm more surprised it took so long for them to put a stop to it.

Yes, it sucks for legitimate gamers, but I think the system was too easy to exploit.

[warmaster670]

buying used pc games is crap anyway, you dont know who could be using the cdkey, i suppose its not bad for a single player game, but anything with multi and its pointless

[LanceHeart]

It's a piracy case. In fact, EB Games and Gamestop haven't been supposed to take used PC games for quite some time now, though the memo probably didn't get out to most people. The only time they take back pre-owned games is if the box was never opened (which is usually hard to tell since very few stores vacuum seal or sticker-tag their boxes)

The implications for taking in a used PC game are huge, ranging from someone reselling a game with a banned CD Key from the online service to one where the game itself was ripped and is now used illegally. (Both were covered in detail above)

I can understand them for not wanting to have anything to do with the hassle related to PC gaming woes.

[Mikain Clan King]

As much as people probably don't want this to happen, this may lead to them making all computer games having to have the CD in while playing...or maybe they will just find a loop and make it so once its installed the CD is bad or something, maybe a registration code that you get in the box then once you use it only computers registered in your name can use the code...yeah it would suck, but do you think anything like this will happen (hope not).

[LanceHeart]

They're actually gunning way more toward the online distribution systems.

PSN Store, XBL/XBLA, VC/WiiWare are the console versions, while Steam is an extremely popular (and heavily backed) PC system.

That way they get to control and monitor who got what content and pull whatever they want whenever they want.
Sony has pulled Call of Duty 4 extra map packs that people needed to download in order to play online (though you normally need to pay for them) directly off of the owner's PS3.
Microsoft is looking into delisting low-revenue content from XBLA based on download rates and review ratings (from review aggregations like MetaCritic). Some people are fearing that these same delistings will mean no reimbursement for their purchase while Microsoft still has every right to nuke the game from your system.
Nintendo still hasn't done anything to put them in the spotlight, though it'll likely happen further down the road when some items will start creating far less revenue.

Steam is notorious for deleting and locking out accounts; locking out any saved up money on said accounts. Some game purchases also start mysteriously disappearing from active accounts. Very few success-in-recovery stories have been seen when such cases occur.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm not a fan of distributor-controlled downloads. I'd rather have a disc on my shelf gathering dust that I know I can work with should I call upon it rather than hope that Valve (or other publishers/distributors) never decide to pull and/or remotely remove content that they previously distributed; products that were bought and paid for.

[Oppenheimer]

Yeah, I'll just buy online download from now on. that way I don't have to wait for delays in delivery anyway. It's too bad because it's nice to have the box lined up on my shelf looking all pretty. Speaking of which what about the instruction booklet for a direct to download game? I usually read them when I'm bored and away from my computer so not having that would suck. Also if you're in the middle of a game and can't remember the quick key for a particular function it'd be handy if you had a physical instruction booklet.

[Mikain Clan King]

Your solution to the nice and neat box could be a nice and neat folded piece of card-board with printed out covers on them...but as for the booklet you could always write it, just kidding but you could probably print it out once you found it online...I think GameFaqs has the booklets. And yeah I usually read them too when I'm bored and can't play the game...right in front of me on my bulleton board (bulliton?) is the Suikoden 2 book.

[LanceHeart]

When it comes to direct download games, the instruction manual is usually bundled with the installer, actually.

Then again, most games have in-game control scheme screens and PSOne games (can't speak for VC or XBLA) bought from PSN have the manual integrated into the pseudo ISO you're using.