Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: arvindsudarshan53 on September 18, 2016, 07:51:40 am
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Guys help me i have a doubt!
Can i use purchased pc game and use it my custom made arcade machine and charge people for playing in it?
For instance if I own a NFS game can i install it in my car simulator and keep it in my game parlour or sell as whole unit to customer?
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It's no different than selling a PC with a monitor and a steering controller. So yeah, you can sell it.
Yeah you can charge people to play it. Not sure you'd want to pay an employee to stand next to the machine with a stop watch and collect money. The employee would probably cost more than you'd make.
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I don't think that is correct. You'd have to have a license for selling the experience to others IMO, you can't just buy games and install them on a cabinet and charge others for playing them.
When it comes to actual arcade machines, I think that is a different story, as those cabinets come with a license AFAIK, but you'd still have to register to pay taxes.
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Depends on where you live. Different places have different laws.
Typically in the United States, games sold to individuals have some stipulation in the user agreement that they aren't to be used for commercial purposes.
That said, you'd probably have more to worry about from the local authorities who tax amusement machines.
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What you probably could do is charge money for using the computer, so you're taking money for the time used, not the game.
Some EULA's are very strict, but some only says that there is one license per seat, that's it. Meaning you can't install the game on five computers just because there's probably only one that will be used at a time, you would need five licenses.
When it comes to earning money on letting others play the game, that's probably somewhere deep in that EULA as well. It seems to easy to just install any PC game you'd buy for $50 and be settled when you're making money on the players, and not the developer.
I think for arcade machines you had all rights if you bought the machine, but with lease you paid royalties.
You could probably sell it without any problems - it's a computer with licensed games, but you wouldn't be able to guaranty the buyer that he'd be able to make money on it.
If you're serious about building multiple driving cabs and installing games on them to earn money on it, you could probably contact the developers and see if you can get any license for it.
In the end, you'd probably want a different version on the cabinet anyways, not a game which everyone could just play at home.
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Ime UK based not US but...
Games you buy off the shelfs are licensed for you to play at home on your PC.
The license will not include public rights or the ability to pay to play.
So in short no you could not charge (atleast in the UK) to play.
Technically it is also illegal to sell PC games second hand but its never enforced because everybody does it and you cant prove it.
But I am not aware of any law that says you cant install a game on a machine and sell it all as a package as long as the CD etc goes with it.
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If he were in any danger whatsover then those lan gaming centers they used to have would have never been a thing.
On the one in a million shot you somehow get a cease and desist for renting out time in your simulator just uninstall that game and install a game from a different company.