Valve Denies Steam Trade-in Plans

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Contrary to statements made earlier today, Valve is not working on a game trade-in system. Ugh, why do people listen to analysts in the first place? They should be called “educated guessers” and then it wouldn't be so bad.

We contacted Valve for comment on this and received the following response from Doug Lombardi: "Untrue. We've never met with Mr. Pachter."
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Yeah I'm not a big fan of Michael Pachter.
He either states the freakin' obvious or is completely ignorant.
Total skitzo!
 
It would be a potential logistical nightmare. How would you implement something like that?
 
Doug Lombardi: "Untrue. We've never met with Mr. Pachter."

A PR guy saying untrue means that maybe one aspect of the overall story is incorrect. This is not a flat denial that they are planning trades, just that they did not meet with Mr. Pachter.
 
Is this purely for trading in a digital copy as credit towards a new game? I'm not sure how that'd work digitally. However, I think there is value in a system that allows player to player trading of games. I bet it wouldn't be super complicated to implement, either, just re-assign the cd-key/license to the other account and boom, done deal.
 
inotocracy said:
Is this purely for trading in a digital copy as credit towards a new game? I'm not sure how that'd work digitally. However, I think there is value in a system that allows player to player trading of games. I bet it wouldn't be super complicated to implement, either, just re-assign the cd-key/license to the other account and boom, done deal.
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Implementation would be easy, but the game companies would never go for it. Not being able to transfer licenses is one of Valve's big selling points to the publishers.

The inability to gift duplicates of most games from packages other than Valve's is also a limitation I'm sure is required by the publishers, but quite annoying. There are so many times I would have boughten a package deal, but it wasn't worth it since I already owned half the games.
 
darkpaw said:
Implementation would be easy, but the game companies would never go for it. Not being able to transfer licenses is one of Valve's big selling points to the publishers.

The inability to gift duplicates of most games from packages other than Valve's is also a limitation I'm sure is required by the publishers, but quite annoying. There are so many times I would have boughten a package deal, but it wasn't worth it since I already owned half the games.
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Everytime I've had a duplicate (ie. had the games, then bought Orange Box) I had the option to gift the game away. It's the only reason my wife's Steam account has any Valve games on it.
 
Hop-Scotch said:
Everytime I've had a duplicate (ie. had the games, then bought Orange Box) I had the option to gift the game away. It's the only reason my wife's Steam account has any Valve games on it.
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Thats why I said other than valves games. If you buy the Take2 pack, or Relic Pack, or id pack, you can't gift. The valve packs you can.
 
darkpaw said:
Implementation would be easy, but the game companies would never go for it. Not being able to transfer licenses is one of Valve's big selling points to the publishers.

The inability to gift duplicates of most games from packages other than Valve's is also a limitation I'm sure is required by the publishers, but quite annoying. There are so many times I would have boughten a package deal, but it wasn't worth it since I already owned half the games.
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Agreed a trade-in system wouldn't make Valve money. Logistically it just doesn't gel.
 
Q-BZ said:
It would be a potential logistical nightmare. How would you implement something like that?
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The only way to prevent cheating would be to remove the ability to play without phoning home for license validation first; and since cheaters could just keep all their old games unpatched even that isn't foolproof.
 
That's not a bad idea

i could just trade in the games i don't play anymore

but look at it from another perspective

isn't the reason you buy games on Steam so you can redownload them as you WISH for later play? You can delete off what you aren't playing now . . . only to download them again later when you feel like it.

I would trade in Bioshock 2 and BFBC 2, i paid full price for both yet don't play either, POS games.
 
Would like to see something like this (if only to get the blemish that is MW2 off my account), but highly doubt we will.
 
There is nothing to trade in on steam. All you have bought is a setting that tells steam to activate your game. The money has gone to the old developer already. There is no incentive or motivation for the new developer to sell cheaper or for valve to absorb the discount hit. And, why would valve ever work to damage the legitimacy of their own delivery system in the minds of game makers who probably already hate the second hand physical market?


RAAAGGGGGGEEEEEE
 
must be nice getting an immediate response from Valve because it takes at least five days for a paying customer to get a response from their support division
 
darkpaw said:
Thats why I said other than valves games. If you buy the Take2 pack, or Relic Pack, or id pack, you can't gift. The valve packs you can.
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Actually, this is not completely true.
Some Take2 packs on sale have been labeled as "Giftable" in the package. I think one prepurchase of some game in the last few months came with a "giftable copy of Titan Quest and its expansion". I remember that clearly because I considerd buying it and gifting the games to someone else, but I decided not to buy the new game..
 
And what would be the trade in value?

Oh you want to trade in your copy of "Dirt" that you bought in the Codemaster's pack when it was on sale? Let's see. You got 8 games for $40. So, that means purchased it for $5, so at 30% value, we'll give you $1.50 for it.

Wooop De Dooo....
 
Knyte said:
And what would be the trade in value?

Oh you want to trade in your copy of "Dirt" that you bought in the Codemaster's pack when it was on sale? Let's see. You got 8 games for $40. So, that means purchased it for $5, so at 30% value, we'll give you $1.50 for it.

Wooop De Dooo....
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Thats about par for trade ins. Still who wants to buy my copy of half-life 2 deathmatch? 30% of $90 = $27? any takers?
 
Valve actually just denies speaking with the analyst, not that what he said was untrue. I actually remember reading something similar to what he's talking about, but I forget where I read it now.... :(
 
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