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Inxiles CEO made a store where you can sell used digital games. Split: 70% Dev/25% You. Unfortunately it's tied to Crypto

nsilvias

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,502
MS is also supposedly okay with Wasteland 3 being given away thru this service? the launcher also has a miner built in you can enable (off by default). Just get game pass lol
i guess selling your used digital games is possible if you wanna give the devs all your money. not worth it. at least someone tried it out i guess.

Here's where i found out about it: https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/N8huf/wasteland-3-free-on-a-beta-gaming-platform-robotcache
&
article confirming CEO
venturebeat.com

Brian Fargo would like his Robot Cache to ‘be the Steam of blockchain games’

We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of "Playing the Edge." Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game...
venturebeat.com venturebeat.com

What's the point even? this is worse then selling a used physical game when its still hot






IT'S YOUR RIGHT TO SELL

You can sell physical copies but not digital. This change in business practices is anti-consumer and we are doing all we can to restore your rights.







YOUR MONEY MATTERS MORE TO DEVELOPERS WHEN YOU BUY AND SELL

Every vote with your dollar matters more on Robot Cache. We give 95% back to the developers and take only 5%. Not the 'industry standard' of 30%. When you sell your used copy, we give 70% back to the developers, 25% back to you.







A BETTER INDUSTRY FOR ALL

Ownership yields ingenuity and independence. We believe creator and consumer alike hold these tenets true.







BUY. PLAY. SELL. REPEAT.

People buy more games a year when they're afforded a buy and sell ecosystem. That means selling = more more people playing more games.







THE FIRST TO SELL

Robot Cache is the first platform to allow you to sell your digital games. We're proud of breaking new ground for gamers and look forward to others joining our cause.
​
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Hrodulf

Hrodulf

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,493
I read up to "made a store" and my brain immediately said "I bet it's crypto related".
 
Windu

Windu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,027
Yeah it's been around for like a year or two right?

Edit: oh the article is from 2018. So probably longer than 2 years lol. Tbh I think he stopped being a part of it when he joined MS.
 

Deleted member 129418

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 26, 2022
3,717
"The future of gaming is already here," says the YouTube video introducing me to a thing that's been apparently around for a while that I had literally no idea ever existed
 
SCUMMbag

SCUMMbag

Prophet of Truth - Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,289
The blockchain is a good way of verifying ownership of a thing so it's not strictly a bad idea.

With that said, like almost everything blockchain/crypto related, it'll fucking suck and end up with people getting screwed over.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

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Oct 25, 2017
102,941
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Windu said:
Yeah it's been around for like a year or two right?

Edit: oh the article is from 2018. So probably longer than 2 years lol. Tbh I think he stopped being a part of it when he joined MS.
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2018, damn

is this store even still around anymore lol
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,792
Whenever I see stuff like this I just can't shake the feeling it's designed to fleece .eth/crypto bros of their pyramid gains, but just fyi, this article is old asf.
 
Kalor

Kalor

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,239
I forgot this existed. And apparently so did the team involved since they tweeted on July 4th last year and then nothing until July 4th this year.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

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Oct 25, 2017
102,941
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earning and selling finally got updated, hopefully its less laggy

y3CE4W8.png
 

Deleted member 68874

Account closed at user request
Banned
May 10, 2020
10,441
This article predates the acquisition, dont think Fargo is a part of this anymore to say the least.

Tobor said:
Microsoft, please come get Fargo. He's drunk and he's talking a bunch of trash and I think he took a shit in my bushes.

EDIT: sounds like they already came and got him.
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That edit got me good lol.
 
Iced_Eagle

Iced_Eagle

Member
Dec 26, 2017
1,027
Barf.

Their client has a cryptominer too, lol. They say it's off by default, but I don't want a cryptominer in any software of mine.

I also don't understand the economics of this... They say they give 95% to the devs, and only take 5%. Great! But upon selling back to them, they give you 25% of MSRP? So for a $70 game, they take $3.5 on the initial purchase, you sell and the company is now paying back $17.5 to you? Do the devs not get paid on used game sales or something? Is it because they pay you back in their cryptotoken and not USD, and that benefits them? There's $14 on that theoretical transaction that is missing that has to come from somewhere. Not sure if players or devs are getting screwed, or everyone is because it's crypto.
 
pg2g

pg2g

Member
Dec 18, 2018
5,902
Don't think the idea is inherently bad. The 75/25 split is kinda bad, but it does say it's ultimately up to the publisher.

If reselling digital ever becomes a thing, I kinds expect it to always be a split that favors the producer of the content. There is no way publishers would ever agree to it otherwise. A 'used' digital item and a new one are identical, unlike physical.
 
Kalor

Kalor

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,239
Reading their most recent investor filing and apparently the store alternates between offering a new copy and a "used" copy.

After 90 days, a User who wishes to relinquish his or her license to the
game can choose to list it for sale, at which time it goes into a queue. The Robot Cache Platform then alternates between offering a new
copy and a previously owned copy (if one is available).
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That basically means you'll be waiting forever just for the opportunity to sell your game. So if you're 100 in the queue, 100 new games and 99 other used games need to be sold before your used copy is surfaced on the store.
 
vixolus

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
61,873
Never heard of this before and it's definitely odd, but like, idk it doesn't seem... nefarious? Despite the stink crypto has with it

They have disabled the whole "mining" thing right now, and from the sounds of it you are using your computer to do Folding@Home type donation-of-compute and earning "Iron" in return. I'm not even sure Iron is a cryptocurrency itself...? It expires after 1 year and to me just seems like a loyalty credit type thing. VentureBeat article describes Iron as a cryptocurrency, but that doesn't seem right, though I don't have experience with crypto. I would imagine if this was crypto, you would have your own digital wallet that ensures you "own" the cryptocurrency rather than how it is current dished out and the policies surrounding it.

Blockchain doesn't seem to have many practical uses, but I guess digital game ownership to resell is.. an application.. but idek if that's how this storefront works atm. Odd all around.
 

Dekim

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,531
pg2g said:
Brian Fargo comes from the Wells Fargo (one of the largest banks in the US) family. He can do this kind of stuff without the support of Microsoft.
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The same Wells Fargo bank that's notorious for doing all sorts of shady stuff with clients' accounts behind their backs? Not surprising the family's also deep into crypto, then.
 
pixeldreams

pixeldreams

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,078
I mean it's not the best way to go about it, but it's something? If we ever want to reach a point where selling "used" digital games is a thing, we gotta start somewhere.

Not surprising that the developer/publisher would receive the majority of the split, not like there can be a "quality difference" between digital copies like there are physical that would fluctuate the price.
 
Det

Det

Member
Jul 30, 2020
13,877
Iced_Eagle said:
Barf.

Their client has a cryptominer too, lol. They say it's off by default, but I don't want a cryptominer in any software of mine.

I also don't understand the economics of this... They say they give 95% to the devs, and only take 5%. Great! But upon selling back to them, they give you 25% of MSRP? So for a $70 game, they take $3.5 on the initial purchase, you sell and the company is now paying back $17.5 to you? Do the devs not get paid on used game sales or something? Is it because they pay you back in their cryptotoken and not USD, and that benefits them? There's $14 on that theoretical transaction that is missing that has to come from somewhere. Not sure if players or devs are getting screwed, or everyone is because it's crypto.
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Here's the relevant text from their website:

Every vote with your dollar matters more on Robot Cache. We give 95% back to the developers and take only 5%. Not the 'industry standard' of 30%. When you sell your used copy, we give 70% back to the developers, 25% back to you.
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I think it's referring to two transactions, the cut you get when you sell it to the platform and the cut developers get when the platform sells it to someone else later on.
 
Kalor

Kalor

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Oct 25, 2017
20,239
In 2022 they made $1642 in game sales. Its only launching globally this year but 2021 had $2989. 2021 they made 790k from mining and $1477 in 2022.

Meanwhile the CEO got 300k in cash compensation last year.
 
construct

construct

Saw the truth behind the copied door
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Jun 5, 2020
9,176
東京
there's zero reason this needs to be crypto

i don't know how, because i'm not going to waste my time investigating, but this is a scam somehow
 
Fat4all

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Kalor said:
In 2022 they made $1642 in game sales. Its only launching globally this year but 2021 had $2989. 2021 they made 790k from mining and $1477 in 2022.

Meanwhile the CEO got 300k in cash compensation last year.
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where'd you find this, do they report that somewhere, like for tax purposes?
 
vixolus

vixolus

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Sep 22, 2020
61,873
Fat4all said:
where'd you find this, do they report that somewhere, like for tax purposes?
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In their investor relations page.
wp.robotcache.com

Investors - Robot Cache

Investor Update - Q4 2023 Hello Robot Cache Investors, We are currently in the process of preparing our annual audited Form 1-K for 2023 which when filed, will outline all of our financials for the prior
wp.robotcache.com

Ok yeah this is shitty lmao. You opt in to the mining to verify blockchain hash purchase things on some Hash platform. This awards the COMPANY with Bitcoin. The Company then credits the USER with "Iron" which is NOT a cryptocurrency and is surely a fraction of what the bitcoin is worth.

Edit: appears to be users get 85% of the post-fee amount in Iron and Robot Cache keeps the remaining 15% as bitcoin.
 
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The Lord of Cereal

The Lord of Cereal

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Jan 9, 2020
10,779
Is there any indication that Brian Fargo is even still involved in this? The investor relations board doesn't say anything about his involvement (and he'd be a big selling point) and he isn't the CEO or anything? Are we sure he isn't just someone who funded it for a bit? Because that article in the OP is almost 5 and a half years old, predating him selling his soul to MS
 
Brrandon

Brrandon

Member
Dec 13, 2019
3,124
Genuine question: Ignoring everything else about the store, why are people upset at the 70%/25% split? There is absolutely no value degradation in a used digital game compared to a used physical game, it retains the same exact value as a new copy, so why shouldnt the developers get a vast majority of the value from resale? Else the developers are just losing out on a massive ammount of money cause who in their right mind would buy a "new" digital game when you can get a "used" one for cheaper and then just resell it again when youre done with it. Even if it was hypothetically the same price, if you got a higher cut from reselling then they would lose money from the used sale compared to a new sale. At the best it should be 70% dev, 25% you, and 5% store cut to retain parity with the 70/30 split for new copies that most storefronts use.
 
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Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
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Oct 25, 2017
97,052
vixolus said:
In their investor relations page.
wp.robotcache.com

Investors - Robot Cache

Investor Update - Q4 2023 Hello Robot Cache Investors, We are currently in the process of preparing our annual audited Form 1-K for 2023 which when filed, will outline all of our financials for the prior
wp.robotcache.com

Ok yeah this is shitty lmao. You opt in to the mining to verify blockchain hash purchase things on some Hash platform. This awards the COMPANY with Bitcoin. The Company then credits the USER with "Iron" which is NOT a cryptocurrency and is surely a fraction of what the bitcoin is worth.

Edit: appears to be users get 85% of the post-fee amount in Iron and Robot Cache keeps the remaining 15% as bitcoin.
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sound like a mobile game currency system
 
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