Secondhand Game

[Danphair]

Hey guys, so heres the deal. I am new to simcity so i purchased a copy of Simcity Limited Edition at a store (Goodwill in fact). Upon getting home, i expected to install it like any of my other games. I got a rude awakening when i realized my product key was missing. Upon further research it appears that once a game is registered to someones account it cannot be switched over to mine. This sucks because i purchased the game legally, and now apparently i am forbidden to play it?? Seems rather unfair. Is there any way to play this game, even if it is only in a single player mode? Origin, youre not making a good first impression.

[EA_Nils · Accepted solution]

@Danphair Hi,

Sorry to hear that someone sold a game second hand against our permission. Our PC games are not transferable, and we cover this in our Terms of Service here: http://www.ea.com/terms-of-service#section4

Please return the game to the store for a full refund.

In the future, I strongly recommend buying from one of our official retailers instead, you can find a list here: http://help.ea.com/en/article/where-to-buy-ea-games-v2/

Cheers,

Nils

[EA_Nils · Accepted solution]

@Danphair Hi,

Sorry to hear that someone sold a game second hand against our permission. Our PC games are not transferable, and we cover this in our Terms of Service here: http://www.ea.com/terms-of-service#section4

Please return the game to the store for a full refund.

In the future, I strongly recommend buying from one of our official retailers instead, you can find a list here: http://help.ea.com/en/article/where-to-buy-ea-games-v2/

Cheers,

Nils

[Danphair]

Thank you for kindly explaining. So in the future I should not buy hard copies? Also, what is the harm in a player selling a game once theyre done with it so that someone else may enjoy it? (as has been done since commercial gaming has originated) Sorry for potentially sounding rude or not knowledgeable, but im new to this system. (most of my other games were made in the 90's LOL 

[EA_Nils]

@Danphair Hi,

No worries at all, happy to provide some context. I grew up with games in the 90s, so I can see where you are coming from.

In today's games industry, games are seen as services. Back in the day, a game was shipped and the studio would maybe create one patch and then move on the next game.

Today, our player's expect us to fine tune games even past their initial release to fix bugs encountered and hopefully also to release new content for the game, to improve the experience.

With this approach, we have to spend more resources on the maintenance, and especially for many games with multiplayer content, costs for server hosting and monitoring (to protect from the latest cheats and action any terms of service violations).

I have found an interview from 2013 available on Gamasutra that talks about this shift and what it means for the industry: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/202407/Whats_Next_How_gamesasaservice_is_changing_everything.php

As for hard copies, you can still buy them of course, but you will notice that they will most likely ask you to register the games and subsequently tie them to your personal account.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Cheers,

Nils