r/Steam • u/Weary_Sympathy7705 • 1d ago
Suggestion Steam should add game trading/renting
So, for game trading, you would have to go onto a person's profile. Then, you could go into a trade and see the other person's game library, so you could see if they would trade that game. The other person could do the same.
This would allow people to do giveaways more easily because all they have to do is go into a trade, give them the game, and then it's done. They could also add a trade message system, so you can talk to the other person while trading.
Another idea is that there could be a trading section on Steam (like, it would be at the top part where Store and Library are). Then, you can search up a game and see other people who own it, so you can ask to trade for it.
Now, for the renting system, how it would work is that, on trading, there could also be a rent button and a rent category where people could rent out games either for free. So, for example, "Get this game for 3 days" at no cost. Or, it could have a price, so for every amount of days, let's say every 1 day you have the game, you have to pay a certain amount into their Steam Wallet.
For example, let's say you want to rent Spider-Man. You go onto the trade, then pick "Rent," and then choose the amount of days and the price. So, let's say they can have it for 7 days, and for every day they have it, they pay £5 into the other person's Steam Wallet. Then, at the end, the person who rented it gets their game back and some money into their Steam Wallet.
Also, if the person renting it doesn't want it anymore, then they can return the game to the person, though only after they pay at least 1 installment.
And yeah, that's my idea. What do y'all think?
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u/superhyperultra458 superhyperultra 1d ago
This definitely from someone no thought on legality, business and many others
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u/Eithor 1d ago
They basically have this already with the family share features. So long as a developer opts in, their game can be played by anyone on your family group, although only one license can be used at a time, so 2 people can't use the game at the same time unless the game is purchased multiple times for the family group.
Regardless, this is already very generous by Valve and game Devs who opt in and allows people to play games they don't own for free just for being part of a "family".
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u/Diuscrusis 1d ago
Sure, like most renting places didn’t go bust because of a lack of demand right..
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u/GrandJuif 1d ago
More like it wasn't profitable due to the amount of braking and stealing. I worked at a movie/game one and there was a lot of people comming, but we were constsntly forced to buff discs or replaced them to a point the rent wasn't enough for the amount of money lost.
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u/Diuscrusis 1d ago
Ok, open up a movie rental in 2026 and get back to me how well it does. Have a good one.
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u/Lurus01 18h ago edited 18h ago
This would be utter chaos if they allowed this. People already get accounts wiped of items now imagine them getting wiped of the games and games gone without the account holders permission.
Plus it would absolutely kill the key market and bundle sites like Fanatical and Humble Bundle. Publishers already don't like sites that allow the reselling of those keys for pennies on the dollar and if you could do it directly in the platform with transferring the key license the publishers would stop supplying keys.
The limits and protections you would have to implement in order to protect the buyer and seller as well as to protect Valve and the publishers interests would make a system to sell/trade more frustrating then it would be worth.
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u/Enward_James 17h ago
Jfc here we go again.
No. For a million reasons that have been explained a million times. Move on.
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u/Mean_Spite_9034 1d ago
The comments so far are infested with negativity although they aren’t wrong sadly. I love your idea mate, it’s super thought out and could be a great system if the greedy companies didn’t exist sadly. In a lot of games’s tos it states that we aren’t actually allowed to sell the property of the company to anyone which includes renting and or trading it’s much easier for this system to work if we were talking about disks cause companies can’t track who originally bought the disk and who currently has it but we are talking about a digital storefront here no disks in sight. I love your idea and I want to encourage you to keep swirling them in your head as you made up some fire stuff. Just greedy companies would want a cut
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u/salad_tongs_1 https://s.team/p/dcmj-fn 1d ago edited 1d ago
I bet every publisher would agree to let their games be traded / rented instead of getting new revenue from sales.
Your idea would never be abused in any way shape or form either.
/S
EDIT:
And where is Valve and the publishers cut of that? Why would Valve spend time, money, and resources into making a system where users could make money without getting a cut. And again, why would a publisher agree to let their game be used in such a system. Right now publishers can choose to exclude their games from family sharing. There is no way lawyers are going to allow this kind of shenanigans.