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I found a good deal for Starcraft 2 used on Ebay. Can I buy the game? Is it possible to transfer a game from one account to another?

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Its mentioned unused key but opened box. So Can I buy it ?

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    I doubt the word "legal" is appropriate here. There is certainly no law against it, though it can go against Blizzard's terms of service.
    – Oak
    Commented Oct 8, 2010 at 8:44
  • @Oak a violation of the ToS is a legal matter, though you'd have to be a lawyer to tell whether or not it'd get upheld in court. Since we're not lawyers I'd say alexander's choice of "possible" is more diplomatic.
    – tzenes
    Commented Oct 8, 2010 at 15:55
  • @tzenes It is likely that the term prohibiting resale is not enforceable in the EU due to a recent European Court of Justice case, or in the States, due to the first sale doctrine. While I can't offer any guarantees to the original purchaser it is unlikely in these countries to be illegal or problematic to purchase a second hand unused shrink wrapped copy.
    – Christi
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 10:46
  • @Christi - You can sell the retail product, what you cannot sell, is the authentication key and/or the account you created. This part of the TOS has been upheld numerious times.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 14:53
  • @ramhound I know little US law. I'm reasonably certain that this does not apply within the EU, however.
    – Christi
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 23:18

2 Answers 2

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Do not buy StarCraft II used. You will not be able to play.

StarCraft II is only playable via a Battle.net account with rights to play StarCraft II. There are 2 ways to get those rights:

  • Purchase the game online via the Battle.net website.
  • Purchase a boxed copy of the game and register the 1-time use key with your account on the Battle.net website

If you do purchase the boxed copy used, the 1-time use key will probably already have been used.

The only thing you could possibly hope to get from purchasing the game used is any of the physical media that comes in the box (the manual, the disc itself). If you haven't purchased the game already, chances are you don't care one whit about any of that stuff anyway.

Edit: @mousey adds that the key has not been used. If that's actually the case, technically you should be able to play it if you do get it. However, it's mostly against the End User License Agreement as stated in the manual:

No Transfer or Sublicense. THE GAME IS LICENSED, NOT SOLD. NEITHER THE GAME NOR THE LICENSE GRANTED IN SECTION 1 MAY BE SUBLICENSED OR TRANSFERRED TO ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY, AND ANY ATTEMPT TO DO SO SHALL BE NULL AND VOID. If a court of competent jurisdiction finds the foregoing sentence to be unenforceable, you agree that you will call Blizzard Customer Service at 1-800-592-5499 to arrange for the transfer of your rights under this Agreement to another person with a valid Battle.net account; provided, however, that Blizzard may charge a processing/handling fee to facilitate the transfer, issue a unique key to the transferee, and remove the preexisting key from the Battle.net account registered to you.account registered to you.

So it sounds like the seller is breaking the rules anyway unless he has actually contacted Blizzard about it. Not that I'm a EULA expert.

Personally, I would buy the game new. But I am incredibly biased because StarCraft II is pretty much my favorite game ever.

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    Albeit with the worst EULA ever.
    – Kyralessa
    Commented Oct 9, 2010 at 15:26
  • Doesn't sound like the seller is breaking the rules, because he claims to be selling the un-activated key, ie the unregistered license. This is no different to a retailer selling a regular legitimate shrink wrapped copy of Starcraft 2 with an unregistered key/license.
    – chobok
    Commented Apr 20, 2012 at 8:32
  • As a side note, if the seller is lying about the key being unused, the buyer has some degree of protection through, paypal, ebay, and even consumer laws (false advertising). I would recommend not buying it unless you are prepared to handle the possibility of the key being already activated (possible exception is if the seller's ebay account is in really good standing).
    – chobok
    Commented Apr 20, 2012 at 8:37
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You wouldn't be able to transfer a game from an account to another account, since Blizzard doesn't have that function. You can buy the game, but you wont be able to play it since the license key is already used on an account.

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