impulse-marketplace posts

Last week we reported that Stardock would soon be launching Goo, a new DRM set-up that is less evasive than other systems for PC game copy protection. One of the elements of that system would be for PC gamers to actually sell their Goo-enabled PC games for others to use legally but details on how that would work were lacking.

During GDC last week our sister site Joystiq caught up with Stardock CEO Brad Wardell who gave details on how this new system would work. In a nutshell if you wanted to sell your Goo-enabled PC game you would go to Stardock's online Impulse Marketplace and sell off your license to run the game back to the publisher. A buyer could then get that license from the publisher at a cheaper price versus buying the game "new".

The publisher's advantage is that both transactions are under their control; they set the price for purchasing the "used" PC game license and also set the price for reselling it to someone else and pocket that money for themselves rather than see it go to a game retailer like Gamestop. Goo is set to launch next week and Stardock has said they will announce which publishers will use the system "soon".