PUBG Items "Temporarily" Not Tradable

[3.50]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/578080/announcements/detail/1651010346588615246

 

 

"Hi everyone,

Starting today, we're going to temporarily turn off access to "personal trades" for all PUBG items.

Some context: Normally, players can trade items using either the "Market trade" or "Personal trade" features. "Market trade" lets you sell items through the Steam market system. "Personal trade’" is supposed to allow friends to trade items without any costs attached.

Recently, though, we’ve seen a few cases of players using the personal trade function to sell items using third party sites. This is essentially an abuse of the system. To prevent this, we're temporarily turning off personal trades while we search for a better solution. Once we figure out a way to prevent abuse, the restriction will be lifted.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you understand!
PUBG Corp. "

 

So basically, no, I don't understand.  (I don't play or trade in PUBG myself, but I'm very curious about the whole situation)

 

- Are they actually mad enough to turn off trading just because some people are selling items on third-party sites? 

- Or is there more to the story? (perhaps it's related to gambling sites?) 

- What would a "better solution" entail?  (i.e. what exactly are they trying to prevent: any instances of selling items outside the SCM?  Involving third-party sites that are profiting? Gambling?)

 

[WannaBe]

I guess this is their way of fighting the gambling, but prolly also mad they(and Valve) are losing the cut they'd get if people sold on scm

[3.50]

45 minutes ago, Bunny the Fluffy Slay3r said:

I guess this is their way of fighting the gambling, but prolly also mad they(and Valve) are losing the cut they'd get if people sold on scm

I feel like it's really shortsighted to prevent people from buying/selling items outside the SCM, if losing the SCM cut really does play any part in this. 

 

Sure, they might be losing their SCM cut on that one transaction, but:

 

1) They do not lose the item or its potential for making them money in any permanent sense--it still might be later sold on the SCM any number of times, and

2) Even if a person buys the item to keep and never re-sells it, and never spends any more money in the game, they still win--that person not only had to pay for the game in the first place, but they're also likely to keep playing the game since they've spent more money on it, as well as

3) People are probably more likely to spend money on a game if they see it as in investment that they can enjoy now and sell later, as opposed to a final purchase that they can't get anything back from.  (And no, restricting items to SCM sales doesn't make the purchase final, but it does make 15% of it, or whatever the percentage is, final).

 

I'll use my own purchasing and selling experiences as an example:

Over the years, I've made hundreds (or thousands, I've lost count) of dollars worth of Paypal transactions for TF2 items.  You could argue that those transactions represent lost dollars for TF2 and Steam, but if you look farther, you'd see...

I've straight up loaded probably close to $1k total into my Steam wallet at various times--and beyond the first $5, I would never have even considered spending any of that money if I hadn't had the option to cash out.

I've also made tens of thousands of dollars worth of SCM transactions, and again, I would not have bothered with any of that if I didn't have the option to cash out at the end.

So the option to use non-SCM means to sell my items is the only reason I (heavily) use the SCM.

 

And I know I don't have the same priorities as everyone else, but it seems to me that making it harder to sell items for real money makes them less attractive, meaning fewer people will spend less money on them.

[ksolis01]

This is fucking stupid and they are not going to reverse it. I am guessing they realize that restricting trade prevents their items from being cashed. Cashing out meant their lootboxes can be classified as gambling which is what they are scared off.

Tf2 is the last holdout with a sizable economy with no trading restrictions. This is bad...

[WannaBe]

11 hours ago, 3.50 said:

I feel like it's really shortsighted to prevent people from buying/selling items outside the SCM, if losing the SCM cut really does play any part in this. 

 

Sure, they might be losing their SCM cut on that one transaction, but:

 

1) They do not lose the item or its potential for making them money in any permanent sense--it still might be later sold on the SCM any number of times, and

2) Even if a person buys the item to keep and never re-sells it, and never spends any more money in the game, they still win--that person not only had to pay for the game in the first place, but they're also likely to keep playing the game since they've spent more money on it, as well as

3) People are probably more likely to spend money on a game if they see it as in investment that they can enjoy now and sell later, as opposed to a final purchase that they can't get anything back from.  (And no, restricting items to SCM sales doesn't make the purchase final, but it does make 15% of it, or whatever the percentage is, final).

 

I'll use my own purchasing and selling experiences as an example:

Over the years, I've made hundreds (or thousands, I've lost count) of dollars worth of Paypal transactions for TF2 items.  You could argue that those transactions represent lost dollars for TF2 and Steam, but if you look farther, you'd see...

I've straight up loaded probably close to $1k total into my Steam wallet at various times--and beyond the first $5, I would never have even considered spending any of that money if I hadn't had the option to cash out.

I've also made tens of thousands of dollars worth of SCM transactions, and again, I would not have bothered with any of that if I didn't have the option to cash out at the end.

So the option to use non-SCM means to sell my items is the only reason I (heavily) use the SCM.

 

And I know I don't have the same priorities as everyone else, but it seems to me that making it harder to sell items for real money makes them less attractive, meaning fewer people will spend less money on them.

All your points are valid but they didn't look it that way.

They are just looking it like this:

you pump 100$ into your Steam wallet to buy something off the market.

The dude that is selling gets ~87$ and Valve and game devs split the 13$. Now the seller that has 87$ can't do anything with the money outside of steam so he'll either buy a game or in-game items via SCM(again, more taxes). Their end goal is to get 100% of the money you put in your steam wallet after a number of SCM transactions- If you sell your unu via SCM and then buy keys with funds and want to cash out via paypal they only get ~12% of the value someone invested in the Steam wallet.

[3.50]

18 hours ago, Bunny the Fluffy Slay3r said:

 Their end goal is to get 100% of the money you put in your steam wallet after a number of SCM transactions- If you sell your unu via SCM and then buy keys with funds and want to cash out via paypal they only get ~12% of the value someone invested in the Steam wallet.

Well, sure they want all your money.  But you're saying (? Or just saying that they think?) that cashing out prevents them from getting all of your money, which is not the case at all.  Once the money is in a Steam wallet, it can not be cashed out.  It can only be spent on items.  You can cash out, but funds or items can not be moved outside of Steam.  Items just change hands, going to another person who's just as likely to sell them on the SCM.  Same with wallet funds...the only place that wallet funds can go is game devs' pockets.  (As I understand it, Valve gets all the money the moment it goes in someone's Steam wallet, and game devs get their cut of that money from Valve after you spend wallet funds in their game).

 

Selling items outside the SCM doesn't remove the items from Steam, nor are you removing the items' ability to be sold on the SCM in the future.  You're just removing yourself from the cycle of profit and substituting someone else, which shouldn't make any difference at all to game devs.  And they HAVE to know this, unless they are dumber than a box of rocks.  It's how they make money, so you'd assume they know...

 

If you turn items into cash and leave, they don't get more than one round of tax from you--but it doesn't matter, because the items are still there, and they still get tax from the next guy to sell the items on the SCM, and the next guy, and the next.  Selling items for cash in no way breaks the chain of profit, it simply removes you from the chain and puts someone else in your place.  And the chain goes on without you.

 

And like I stated before, allowing items to be cashed out on the secondary market allows them to become investments to a greater degree.  This will increase their value, demand, and actually (as a product of those two things) very likely, the volume sold on the SCM.

 

It just makes no sense from a profit perspective to limit what you are allowed to do with items.  Smart game devs know this.  Items that you can do more things with, and are more easily accessible, mean happier players.  Happier players spend more money.

OPSkins, scrap.tf, and similar sites are allowed to exist because they help the game and increase profit for the devs in the long run, despite generating zero revenue for the game in the immediate moment.  Again, game devs know this. 

 

I'm really skeptical that they're just mad about losing money, because they aren't losing money.  If that really is it, then they really have no understanding of their game's economy.

 

So, I think it's something else.  They do seem to imply that selling for cash is abusing the system, but they don't come out and say, flatly, "selling your stuff for cash is abusing the system", so I'm not sure that's it.

 

If you look at the language they use, they specifically mention using third-party sites.  If they chose their words carefully, that would imply that they aren't mad about the cash transactions themselves. (which makes sense, as they have no reason to be)

If they aren't mad about cash transactions, but are mad about cash transactions on third-party sites, that means that certain sites are doing certain things that they can't tolerate (Gambling?  Unwittingly aiding in scams?  Something else?)  If that's the case, I'd expect them to figure out a way to prevent those sites/accounts associated with them from doing business, and then turn trading back on.

 

That's assuming they chose their words carefully, though.  Perhaps they didn't, and really are mad about any cash transactions.  If that's the case, then they badly need a lesson in economics, because they're shooting themselves in the foot.

[Horsestepping]

I'm ready for my unusuals to become a waste of money.

[Rohen Tahir]

On 4.05.2018 at 6:59 AM, ksolis01 said:

This is fucking stupid and they are not going to reverse it. I am guessing they realize that restricting trade prevents their items from being cashed. Cashing out meant their lootboxes can be classified as gambling which is what they are scared off.

Tf2 is the last holdout with a sizable economy with no trading restrictions. This is bad...

 

What about CS:GO?

[ksolis01]

55 minutes ago, Rohen Tahir said:

 

What about CS:GO?

One week trade cool downs. Not an absolute ban but a really big, ivy laced nail in the coffin.