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Valve Responds to Steam Territory Deactivations

Posted by Zonk on from the read-the-fine-print dept.

An anonymous reader passed us a link to Shack News, which is reporting on official commentary from Doug Lombardi of Valve about the international Orange Box code problem we talked about yesterday. According to Lombardi, the folks who bought copies of the game from a Thai gaming store are pretty much out of luck. They'll need to buy a local copy to have a working version. That said, they should be able to replace the old code with a new one. "'Some of these users have subsequently purchased a legal copy after realizing the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts,' added Lombardi. 'Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account.'"

9 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Consumer rights by stryyker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What about those that were and are in regions of the world where importing software is allowed like Australia?

    1. Re:Consumer rights by Derek+Loev · · Score: 5, Funny

      Isn't Australia where they put people that import software as a punishment?

    2. Re:Consumer rights by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or people who move? I would have hated it if, when I moved from Europe to the US a few years ago, all my games stopped working.

    3. Re:Consumer rights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know that EULA stands for End User License AGREEMENT, right? The law still supersedes an agreement. This is why in most contracts there will be some wording along the lines of "If any part of this contract is illegal or unenforceable, the rest of the contract remains in effect".
    4. Re:Consumer rights by Silverlancer · · Score: 5, Informative

      Incorrect. It said ON THE GAME BOX of all restricted versions of the game that there was territory restriction.

    5. Re:Consumer rights by JohnFluxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I do get your point, and I do indeed also see their point of view.

      However, they are allowed to hire programmers from the poorest countries, in order to reduce their costs. So why aren't I allowed to buy from the poorest countries to reduce _my_ costs?

      It seems like a double standard.

    6. Re:Consumer rights by WNight · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No. Breaking the law and sabotaging legally purchased products make Valve into some sort of monster. Telling people that they're SOL and will need to buy another whole copy, that's monstrous.

      I imagine the houses of Valve developers, and their office, and filled with things that weren't made in the USA. Should we "remotely disable" (ie, break in and smash with a hammer) all of these products? It would help local industries, and it would make Valve pay what they can afford. No cheap overseas pencils, only the expensive made in the USA kind. No overseas RAM in their computers, etc...

      That'd be fair. They want to disable our products to push a buy-locally message. So they should start.

      And really, $15 is a lot more to a poor teenage gamer than to the owners of Valve. They'd need to lose $15,000 or more to feel empathy. Wouldn't it be funny if their cars were all disabled and they had to buy new ones. Like a joke. Except with justice attached.

  2. Re:Moneygrab by Town+Czar · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Drug companies refuse to sell low-cost HIV/AIDS medicines in Africa and other impoverished, AIDS-affected regions for fear that these products will be sold at a cheap price on the black market in the developed world. So because of the fear that drug prices in developed countries will drop, no drugs are sold at all to the people who need them the most. Drug companies "get away with" charging the same price for the same product when the ethics of the situation seem to dictate that the drugs should be sold at a discounted price in poor countries.

    Of course, AIDS vaccinations and video games are two very different things, but the same principle applies. If Valve didn't protect its regional sales like this, some kid in Thailand might not be playing Portal right now, because it would cost too much. Valve's actions are undoubtedly profit-motivated, but they also protect the game's international audience. Just some food for thought.

  3. Re:remote control disablement = stealing by WNight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's no law that lets you forbid importation of products. That's why it's done with DRM and illegal actions like remotely disabling software.

    I'm sure you'll find that the staff of Valve is wearing imported clothes, taking advantage of cheaper things overseas. They probably shop at Walmart.

    So what's the problem? We both like shopping overseas? Oh... I see. In one case they benefit, in the other I do.

    They're hypocrits, willing to take advantage of globalization to increase their own profits, but they sabotage the product to prevent you from doing the same.

    What's the value of having more money if everything you want to buy is proportionally more expensive?

    So you're right, they should keep the price the same in all countries. Or they should at least stop their illegal actions of sabotaging products of those who import.

    Anything less is criminal.