Not For Resale is a documentary feature film from director Kevin J. James. The film examines the decline of physical media in the video game industry and the rise of digital distribution. The documentary focuses on local game stores and the final days of physical media and the rise of digital distribution.
Changing technology has affected everything from secondhand mom and pop retail stores to independent game developers. With digital storefronts becoming the norm, shoppers are skipping trips to the store to download at home.
A documentary spanning dozens of independent video game shops across the United States. The documentary features interviews with several game store owners across the US and Canada. The film is available for purchase on Amazon.
You can watch the trailer of the documentary below.
Chris was born in the early 80’s along with the very birth of home gaming. After spending many maaany drachmas on arcades, his father decided to buy him a PC instead of going bankrupt. He lived through the advancing and development of the gaming industry, having played TONS of games on all platforms. He is always honest and will never hesitate to give his true opinion on a game no matter what. Loves stealth games and dislikes microtsansactions, DLC and pre-ordering…who doesn’t after all?!
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CHRIS. WAIT. IS THE DOCUMENTARY NOT FOR RESALE OR THE NAME OF THE MOVIE NOT FOR RESALE? THIS ONE IS CONFUSED.
ask chris.
OOPS
don’t oops me young man, you know better not to make this type of rookie mistakes, unacceptable.
THIS ONE ERASED HIS WHOLE FIRST COMMENT AND FORGOT TO ADD THE CHRIS TO IT. STILL A MISTAKE. FIXED NOW.
Honestly, massive retailers like Gamestop who gobbled up every store kind of killed off local videogame stores before digital media even had a chance to do so.
Watched this a couple weeks ago, very good documentary – and it touches on the things most of us here complain about regarding digital only content which can disappear on you at any time.
It’s been going on for a long time but when I bought Doom 2016 on disc and popped it in, it had to download a lot of the game in order for me to play it. Since then I havent bought any games.
Blur was a great game, but when they went under so did the servers, cant play anyone anymore.
There’s a ton of examples but it would be great for people to fight back against this stuff.
“Blur was a great game, but when they went under so did the servers, cant play anyone anymore.”
It makes me wonder why publishers don’t allow their communities to host their own servers. Didn’t a lot of games used to do that back in the days? The only reason why I could see them avoiding this pro-consumer option is so they can force their customers to buy their next annual installment of whatever franchise, knowing that their player base would die off in a matter of months. Longevity is something not worth valuing to these companies.
Most all the FPS games from the 80’s through mid 2000’s let you create your own “home box” server or “rent a server” which you had total control over. I still run a HLDM (and AG mod) server for Half Life, lol.
I guess for us older than 50 folks, the new way of getting games and also multiplayer is a turn-off.
Man those were the days, spent quite some time in HLDM. Upcoming titles like Star Citizen will let players pay for their own servers as far as I’m aware, so maybe there’ll be a resurgence when it comes to that kind of thing. Like anything else multiplayer can be great when it’s done right. But yeah I’m more of a single player guy myself.
It’s difficult to say. As someone who first started gaming in the early 90s and is soon approaching my 30s, I’ve come to accept some of the changes we’re seeing. I don’t think physical games are ever going to go away, at least not for indie titles, because there are companies who typically produce limited copies for games that end up doing so well in digital sales. Perhaps those sites might be of interest to you.
As much as I value physical copies of games it’s impossible to have an entire library in my house due to limited space. That’s why I’m okay with getting most of my games digitally. Perhaps it will become problematic once companies like Valve try to enforce cloud gaming on us which I don’t see it ever happening. Giving consumers choices on just about anything is the only way forward I think.
The only way to buy a game and own it these days in on GOG. No DRM. GOG could go out of business and you still own the games you paid for and can play them.
They now give you a 30 day return policy no matter how many hours you play the game. Of course there is a footnote that customers will not be allowed to abuse this return policy.
It doesn’t seem likely right now that Steam could go out of business or be sold but what might happen after Newell passes away? What would the new owners be like?
Epic Games also has no DRM. There are games on there with DRM from the publisher, but Epic is not like Steam in that they don’t have their own DRM layer on the games. I could take Nuclear Throne, for example, copy it to another barebones Windows laptop and just run the exe.
“I could take Nuclear Throne, for example, copy it to another barebones Windows laptop and just run the exe.”
The same exact thing could always be done on Steam. There are games that are DRM-free, most of which are indie titles. You can see a list of those games if you Google it. Epic is just following the same method established by Valve, which is to allow companies the right to add extra layers of copyright protection or have none at all and let users run their copy without the client after installation.
Would have just been a better move if Epic had a strict DRM-free policy to prevent any encouragement of publishers adding DRM into their games. Which is exactly what Steam and other clients do. Could’ve been a positive step forward for the industry. Not sure what it’ll take for all clients to take that approach, likely for the government to step in like how they did for other cases.
Google Steam DRM and it’s like the first link. Epic does not have this.
“The Steam DRM wrapper is an important part of Steam platform because it verifies game ownership and ensures that Steamworks features work properly by launching Steam before launching the game.
The Steam DRM wrapper by itself is not is not a anti-piracy solution. The Steam DRM wrapper protects against extremely casual piracy (i.e. copying all game files to another computer) and has some obfuscation, but it is easily removed by a motivated attacker.”
Those rules apply to the games that use Steam DRM. If you Google “Steam DRM-free games” the first link will tell you otherwise. A bunch of games are indeed capable of doing what Epic Store games can do (playing without the launcher, copying the game folder to other systems and playing it with no hassle, etc). Those are the games that choose to use the DRM-free method.
It doesn’t matter. Epic doesn’t have that it’s own DRM, Steam does. Quit being dense.
Lol what?? It matters because you’re making an entirely false statement. It’s hard to know whether you’re serious or just being a shill right now. Both Epic and Steam are on the same level when it comes to their DRM policies. Perhaps with some minor differences here and there.
Some of the games on Epic Games Store may not have DRM but if it requires a launcher to download and install them then that defeats the purpose of calling Epic Store DRM-free. Still to this day you can download games through the browser on GOG. You can’t do that on either platform. I’ve already done my research on all of this ages ago.
You lie. Epic doesn’t have it’s own built in DRM. STEAM DOES, YOU MORON. Find the source regarding Epic Game Store brand DRM. Otherwise, stfu.
“Epic Games also has no DRM. There are games on there with DRM from the publisher, but Epic is not like Steam in that they don’t have their own DRM layer on the games.”
This is what you replied to originally. It’s absolutely 100% true. What is shillsome about that? Do some game makers release their games on Steam without the default Steam DRM? Some do, okay, great. How about a list of games WITH Steam DRM. Kind of a big list, ain’t it pal?
“that defeats the purpose of calling Epic Store DRM-free”. Uh, for you it does, for some weird fking reason I’ll never understand. GOG requires a website and login and password. Oooooo wow, big deal man. Stupid and needless addition to the conversation. Because you lost.
“You lie. Epic doesn’t have it’s own built in DRM. STEAM DOES, YOU MORON. Find the source regarding Epic Game Store brand DRM. Otherwise, stfu.”
The link you provided from Valve’s statement on their DRM for some reason doesn’t make it entirely clear but it is optional. When you scroll down the page to the “Using the Steam Wrapper with Other DRM” section you will see the following statement: “The Steam wrapper can and should be used in combination with other DRM solutions.” The keyword is “can” meaning it’s optional. They say that developers can apply whatever DRM they want onto their games but it’s encouraged for them to also use Steam’s proprietary solution.
Also found on Reddit: “Steam does not include any DRM on the games sold on its store (the developer/publisher adds those features when they upload the game file).” That was from the most upvoted comment on a subreddit.
One user responds, asking why their comment is getting a few downvotes and someone else responds back: “Possibly because there has been an ongoing attempt to purposefully conflate ‘Steam store’ with ‘Steam DRM’. The two are completely different things but, anytime I point that out, I get downvoted to hell.
They both have the word ‘Steam’ in their names but they are not the same. It’s like insisting that Kraft mayonnaise is the same thing as Kraft macaroni-and-cheese.”
Source: https://www.reddit(DOT)com/r/GameDealsMeta/comments/beuj83/epic_games_store_drm_free/
Additionally, TechRadar investigated the matter and came to this conclusion about EGS: “However, at this point, there doesn’t seem to be a consistent DRM policy on the Epic Store. Of the three games we’ve tested – Fortnite, Subnautica and the Jackbox Collection – each one seems to play by its own rules.
The Jackbox Collection seems to be DRM-free, and can run irrespective of whether you have the Epic Store open or not.
Subnautica is DRM-tied to the Epic Store, though we did find a neat workaround should you want to run it without the Epic Store (directly through the executable, say, or through Steam as a ‘non-Steam game’.). ”
Source: https://www.techradar(DOT)com/news/epic-games-store-vs-steam-battle-of-the-online-stores
I checked out Subnautica’s DRM list via IsThereAnyDeal, and just like many other titles I’ve seen in the past on that site, any game that usually gets sold on Epic Game Store gets marked with the Epic Game Store DRM. It doesn’t necessarily mean it has Epic’s propriatary DRM tied to it but it does mean that it requires Epic Games Launcher (which is a DRM platform, just like everything else, including GOG Galaxy) in order to download and install the game.
We’re simply wasting our precious time here talking about something that has already been disputed from various outlets already. It’s also just plain common sense: if a game’s download and installation process requires a piece of third party software then it’s coated with DRM, plain and simple.
I skipped the Reddit stuff, because: nah.
It’s simple as heck: Both Epic and Steam have games you can get without any DRM, but Epic doesn’t have any of its own ‘brand’ DRM. Most Steam games DO get the Steam DRM. That’s all. I am not getting into the weeds with “in order to download”, that’s not what I’m talking about.
And my age? You wanna take a guess or just call me… young? Or old? I think young, but I can’t decide for sure.
Look, it’s all hypothetical. You could buy storage these days to accommodate your library, or even more realistically just like ones you want to play a lot, or play from time to time. I just don’t get the fuss about it the launcher example you made. It’s a very easy system, regardless if one has better features than the other. Still not difficult. Sorry for calling you a moron, but you said I lied about something that is known. I
That’s what I’m saying. Just because they don’t have a brand for their DRM (yet or that I’m aware of) doesn’t mean it’s not there. It boggles my mind that there’s people out there who don’t see launchers as DRM software.
Like I said before, GOG are 100% against DRM and yet they still made a launcher for their service which they keep ushering that it’s optional for the user. But it sure as hell makes things a lot more convenient. If you’re able to download games on Epic Store without having the need to install the launcher then you’re right about it not being a DRM service. As far as I’m aware I’ve yet to find that shortcut of being able to download the games via internet browser.
“GOG requires a website and login and password.”
Yeahh… and? How else are you supposed to claim your licensed copy that you purchased? Do you also have an infinite amount of storage on your PC to keep every single title you bought? Honestly dude you’re showing your age from the way you type.
Sweet trailer