A few days ago, Polygon reported how Bethesda was threatening a person with a lawsuit because he was hoping to resell “The Evil Within 2” on Amazon, and now we have the official response explaining the reasoning behind this action. Ryan Hupp told Polygon that he had bought a brand new copy of the game and for one reason or another, decided not to open the game and instead tried to sell it on Amazon Marketplace. Apparently Bethesda is paying people to monitor resells of their games online because a member of the Vorys legal team contacted Hupp to inform him that what he was doing was illegal. According to their policies, Hupp’s description of the game as “new” in his listing was the source of the problem.
Bethesda responded to Polygon stating that they have a problem with resellers listing their products as “new” because there is no way to verify whether or not the statement is indeed true. They are trying to protect their customers by ensuring that when they purchase a new Bethesda product, they are guaranteed to have “all enclosed materials and the warranty intact.”
In a statement to Polygon, Hupp had this to say about the situation:
“I understand the legal arguments Bethesda are relying on, and accept that they have some legitimate interest in determining how their products are sold at retail but threatening individual customers with lawsuits for selling games they own is a massive overreach.”
It’s easy to agree with Hupp’s opinion as Bethesda’s response seems rather extreme for such a small issue, but from my perspective, I’m rather impressed that the company cares so much about maintaining a certain standard of quality. Bethesda has virtually no monetary incentive to chase after resellers and honestly, probably spends more money simply funding a legal team to look for potential infractions than what they’ve made from winning lawsuits.
In an industry environment where many major developers seem more focused on making a quick buck rather than delivering a quality product, kudos to Bethesda for still prioritizing customer experience and trust.
Featured Image Source: Shopswell
