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[Sowelu]

You are allowed to gift your Steam games to other players it just doesn't have a built in mechanism for transferring payment to the sender

I am very sad to say that this is false.  If you have an EXTRA copy of the game, you can transfer it to another player.  But once it is locked to an account, it cannot be transferred out.  People who play MMORPGs might call this "bind-on-equip".

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

You are allowed to gift your Steam games to other players it just doesn't have a built in mechanism for transferring payment to the sender

I am very sad to say that this is false.  If you have an EXTRA copy of the game, you can transfer it to another player.  But once it is locked to an account, it cannot be transferred out.  People who play MMORPGs might call this "bind-on-equip".

You can also gift things on purchase, but yeah.  No transfer once it's connected to an account unless it's extra. 

[Soulwynd]

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

That's called Steam.

You have to pay 10$ every time you want to install it on another computer? I don't think so.

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

That's called Steam.

...No. Steam doesn't limit you to one installation. I've installed several games I bought on it on both my desktop and my (currently dead) laptop, and even includes "Steam Cloud" support in a lot of games, which means your in-game settings and/or saves are linked to your account (I typically just disable this feature because I couldn't play much on my laptop before it died and right now I only use my desktop). It does however limit you to one account. This means if you want to resell a single game you'd have to sell your account (and I'm unsure if that violates a Terms of Service or not).

You cannot resale at all. That's because I compared it to steam, not because of the first part.

You also cannot sell your account. Also if it gets hacked and your VAC status is screwed, you can say bye bye to all servers that are vac protected.

The purpose of the anti-multiple installations and DRM is to keep you from reselling your game. Steam is a master at that.

[buckets]

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

That's called Steam.

You have to pay 10$ every time you want to install it on another computer? I don't think so.

And was that worth your one time installation that you cannot resell?

That's called Steam.

...No. Steam doesn't limit you to one installation. I've installed several games I bought on it on both my desktop and my (currently dead) laptop, and even includes "Steam Cloud" support in a lot of games, which means your in-game settings and/or saves are linked to your account (I typically just disable this feature because I couldn't play much on my laptop before it died and right now I only use my desktop). It does however limit you to one account. This means if you want to resell a single game you'd have to sell your account (and I'm unsure if that violates a Terms of Service or not).

You cannot resale at all. That's because I compared it to steam, not because of the first part.

You also cannot sell your account. Also if it gets hacked and your VAC status is screwed, you can say bye bye to all servers that are vac protected.

The purpose of the anti-multiple installations and DRM is to keep you from reselling your game. Steam is a master at that.

It is a very nice DRM though. I mean it has alot going for it.

[nenjin]

Steam is the best DRM out there, because it offers just enough candy to sweeten the deal to the point where you'll accept it, not just for one title, but for dozens and dozens of titles. I think that when EA and Ubi and Activision have to deal with Steam, their execs secretly gnash their teeth that they even need Steam in the first place. They dream of people coming directly to their online store to buy.

And Steam isn't necessarily 100% effective either. But they do police, and pirating Steam copies of games can get you caught...but there are ways around that too.

Anyways, I'm not really that bothered by this for several reasons. I'm not big on reselling games, merely trading them to friends so they can enjoy them. And the last time that I remember EA trying something like this (Spore), the fall out was epic and they backed away from their policy. That was one game. What happens when you change your system configuration alone is going to shot gun this one....even before the pirates get around to learning how to forge fake licenses for authent, or how to just remove that stuff from the code and repackage it. I <3 those guys.

[Nirur Torir]

I don't generally support EA, but I see nothing wrong with this, if it works without harming the original buyer. I've haven't tried to sell a game I bought over Steam or Impulse, but I don't remember seeing any way to do so.

I haven't checked in a few years, but I remember Stardock linking CD-keys to an account, and only allowing people to download updates with the account that had the unique CD-key. Without updates, it's hard to play online.

I don't have a GoG account, but I'm pretty sure that GoG doesn't let people re-sell games after giving the them the ability to burn them to CDs. I've never seen a complaint about them not allowing people to sell games from their account.

Literally every one of these things you stated is at least theoretically false. You are allowed to gift your Steam games to other players it just doesn't have a built in mechanism for transferring payment to the sender, GoG has no lock-in of any sort being 100 percent DRM free, and Stardock only ever checks keys for downloading Patches. They will not restrict you in any way from doing what you want.

Of course the main difference is this: the mechanisms in Steam and Impulse are mostly anti-piracy. This is anti-resale, which if I remember correctly is probably illegal.

They're theoretically true, but realistically false. They use "nice" DRM or no DRM, which doesn't stop most people from giving/selling/copying the game to/for a friend. It's still breaking the license agreement and I believe it is technically a violation of copyright. They just don't go to extreme means of stopping it.

As Sowelu and Ioric said, Steam doesn't allow transferring used games.
Stardock does not currently allow resale of their games, but there are plans to allow it. IIRC, they plan to charge for this service. Wish I could find a source for this.
GoG also does not allow resales, according to their forums.

The main difference I see: it's easy to get around them to let a friend use the game, people trust these companies not to punish people who originally buy the game, and that buying a physical disc instead of purely digital media feels more like the game is actually owned. Steam and Impulse are probably just as much for anti-resale as for anti-piracy.

Disclaimer: I don't like EA doing this, but it's not unexpected. My viewpoints may be different as I'm already boycotting them, and had no intention of buying their games anyway.

[EuchreJack]

It is important to note that EA has thus far only done this for their sports titles, which tend to have a market life of one year. 

Think about it: EA releases Madden '10!  People buy it, play it online, get sick of it.  EA releases Madden '11! Etc. 

It is a vicious cycle in which the market for used games is pretty small initially, and EA has a vested interest in getting gamers to buy their newest incarnation of their sports title instead of last-year's model.

Remember: When you pirate games, you pay for nothing!

[Micro102]

Steam lets you go on other computers with your account and play ti there though. EA's DRM makes you pay 10$ if you want to play on another computer, if your computer breaks, if you get a new piece of hardware, maybe even if your IP changes.

[Sensei]

I'm sure not boycotting EA, but I consider this sort of stuff a major detracting factor, combined with the fact that their philosophy for making games is "cheaper and faster", I haven't bought many of their games recently, except on consoles. And I haven't bought a single game (merely by coincidence, I was looking at dragon age) which used DRM like this.

On consoles, this doesn't bother me as much because my internet connection is a little lousy due to router issues I've never quite solved anyway.

Ninja'd quote:

Steam lets you go on other computers with your account and play ti there though. EA's DRM makes you pay 10$ if you want to play on another computer, if your computer breaks, if you get a new piece of hardware, maybe even if your IP changes.

Yeah, I predict riots if too many people have to pay for a game they already purchased from EA.

[x2yzh9]

Well if you actually read the article, you'll see that you can re-install the game, just not access online features if you don't pay the 10 bux for the code.

[MMad]

I think the backlash will be people not buying EA games anymore.

And what if all the other big retailers follow suit? Which I think is fairly likely. After all, to game developers and publishers, second-hand sales are at least as bad as piracy.

[Croquantes]

You know, I have absolutely no problem with this. In fact, they should do this to all games. I hate going to EB, and seeing used games on the shelf selling for nearly full price! Not to mention the fact that -all- their games are used, unless you specifically request a new game from behind the counter. The whole used-game/trade-in system is messed right the hell up.

[Sensei]

Well if you actually read the article, you'll see that you can re-install the game, just not access online features if you don't pay the 10 bux for the code.

I know. But given that that's the main draw of a lot of games...

[Soulwynd]

I only buy things on steam if they are on sale. Which is the only good thing going on about steam, if you ask me.

You can easily pirate steam games, and nope, you don't get caught, but the purpose of steam is not to avoid piracy, it's to avoid resale.

[Zironic]

Steam does a very important service to it's users. Once you own the game, it's your game forever. There is no need to hunt for CD's or CD-keys. No need to worry about how many activations you have left. All you need is the account, and you are set for life. You can play games released now ten years from now through steam, without needing to worry they will shut down the servers that receive DRM packets like People who bought Assassins Creed 2.