Terms and Conditions

1. Provider and scope

The provider and your contracting party is the operator of sideload.games named in the legal notice (“Sideload”, “we”). These terms apply to contracts for the purchase of digital games and related digital content between us and you as the buyer.

Sideload sells in its own name and for its own account (merchant of record). The purchase contract is concluded exclusively between you and Sideload — not with the studio that developed the game. We are therefore your point of contact for everything concerning the purchase.

Our offering is directed exclusively at consumers and businesses who have reached the age of 18. Any differing terms proposed by the buyer do not become part of the contract, even if we do not expressly object to them.

2. Formation of contract

The presentation of titles in the shop is not a binding offer but an invitation for you to make one. By clicking “Order with obligation to pay” you submit a binding offer. The contract is formed when we expressly accept it or make the title available in your library.

Before submitting your order you are shown a summary with the title, the edition and the total price, and you can correct your entries using your browser controls or the back navigation. You can retrieve, save and print the applicable version of these terms and of the withdrawal policy on this site. The contract languages are German and English.

When you submit your order we create it and record which version of these terms you agreed to; what we store is the version identifier of that version, not its wording. We do not send a separate acknowledgement of receipt — you receive confirmation of the contract after successful payment, as a receipt by email (section 5). If you abandon the payment process after that, no contract is formed; the order we created remains stored with us as an open transaction.

3. Account and sign-in

You need an account with a valid email address in order to purchase. We work without passwords: you sign in using a six-digit code we send you by email. Keep access to that mailbox protected — anyone who can read it can sign in as you.

By creating an account you confirm that you are of legal age and that your details are accurate. The account is personal and must not be passed on to third parties. You can delete it yourself at any time; what happens to your data and your purchases in that case is set out in section 13 and in the privacy policy.

4. Age verification and access to content

Everything offered on sideload.games is intended for adults only. Our catalogue is divided into two access levels. Titles at one level are freely accessible once age-rated. Titles at the other level contain material which, under § 4 (2) of the German youth media protection treaty, may only be offered within a closed user group; these become purchasable and downloadable only after a successful age verification.

Age verification will be carried out by a provider positively assessed by the German Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM). Sideload will then receive only the result — of age, yes or no — and a record of it. We do not see identity documents or biometric data. Details are set out in the privacy policy.

As at this version, no age verification service is connected and no age verification takes place. Titles requiring a closed user group are therefore currently not purchasable. We will name the provider here before the first verification is carried out.

Age verification will be a one-time step: it will then remain linked to your account, and for any subsequent use signing in is sufficient. We may suspend access where there are concrete indications that the verification does not belong to you or that an account is being used by more than one person.

5. Prices and payment

All prices are total prices in euros. No shipping or additional charges apply; your internet connection may incur costs payable to your own provider, which do not accrue to us.

We are a small business within the meaning of § 19 of the German VAT Act. Our supplies are exempt under § 19 (1); we do not show VAT separately on receipts (§ 34a UStDV). No input tax deduction can be derived from them.

The purchase price falls due immediately upon conclusion of the contract. After you submit your order we redirect you to the payment service provider; the available payment methods are shown there. You do not choose a payment method in the order form itself. The payment service provider's terms additionally govern the relationship between you and them.

You enter card details and comparable payment data exclusively with the payment service provider; we do not collect them. Whatever they send us in response regarding your payment, we store unchanged as proof of payment — which details that response contains is determined by them.

As at this version, no payment service provider is connected. Purchases are therefore currently not possible. We will name the provider here before the first purchase becomes possible.

We provide you with a receipt in text form for every purchase: after successful payment we send it to the email address of your account. If sending failed on our side, you can trigger it again from your account; the number of attempts is limited. In the event of a chargeback for which you are responsible, we may suspend access to the affected content until the matter has been resolved.

6. Provision and continued access

After successful payment we make the purchased title available in your library under “Account” without undue delay. We generate the download link only when you request it there; on every request we check whether your account holds a valid licence for the file. The link is valid for 15 minutes only. It is not tied to your account: anyone holding it during that time can download the file — so do not pass it on. Once it expires it is worthless, and you can generate a new one at any time. You may download your titles as often as you wish. To guard against abuse we limit the number of requests per account to 20 per hour; after a short wait, downloading is possible again.

For the purpose of this limit we log every request with your account identifier, the edition requested and the time. This log is deleted together with your account.

What you have bought stays yours. If our cooperation with a studio ends or a title is withdrawn from sale, you retain access to the versions you purchased. The only exception is where continued provision is legally prohibited for us — for instance following an indexing decision or an official order. In that case we will inform you and refund the purchase price paid for the affected title, provided the removal is not attributable to your conduct. Refunds are processed via the payment service provider and cover the affected order in full.

We aim for continuous availability but do not owe uninterrupted access. Maintenance, disruptions at upstream providers and events beyond our control may cause temporary interruptions. We recommend that you keep your own backups of downloaded files — they carry no copy protection and work independently of us.

7. Rights of use

With your purchase you receive a simple, non-exclusive right, unlimited in time and territory, to use the title for your own private purposes. You may make any number of backup copies and install the title on your own devices.

Our titles are delivered without copy protection (DRM-free). That is a deliberate decision, not an oversight — but it does not replace your obligation to respect the rights of use.

• You may not pass on, resell, rent out or lend the title or your access credentials.
• You may not make the title publicly available, for example by uploading it to file-sharing services, file hosters or social networks.
• You may not remove or alter copyright notices.
• Recordings of gameplay (let’s plays, streams, screenshots) are governed by the respective studio’s statement on the product page. Where no statement is given, ask us — we will obtain the information.

Copyright in the titles remains with the respective studio. Mandatory statutory rights — such as those relating to backup copies or interoperability — remain unaffected.

8. Right of withdrawal

As a consumer you have a statutory right of withdrawal. The details and the model withdrawal form are set out on the “Right of withdrawal” page, which is linked from every page. The simplest way to declare your withdrawal is the “Withdraw from contract” button shown in your account next to every paid order; it takes you to a separate page on which you confirm the declaration. We confirm receipt by email without undue delay. You may equally continue to declare your withdrawal informally by email or letter to the address given in the legal notice.

Important for digital content: your right of withdrawal lapses early where we have begun providing the content, you have expressly consented to this and confirmed that you thereby lose your right of withdrawal, and we have supplied you with confirmation of the contract (§ 356 (6) no. 2 of the German Civil Code). We obtain this consent during checkout by means of a separate checkbox. For as long as we offer immediate downloads only, ticking it is a precondition for ordering: without it, no order is placed.

9. Defects and updates

The statutory provisions of §§ 327 ff. of the German Civil Code apply to digital products. A title is free of defects where it corresponds to the agreed specification, is fit for the contractually assumed use and has the characteristics you may expect of a product of that kind. The statements on the product page — in particular system requirements, language versions and scope — are also relevant.

If a title is defective you may demand subsequent performance; where that fails, you may reduce the price or terminate the contract (Rücktritt — a remedy for defects, distinct from the right of withdrawal in section 8). Please report defects to the address given in the legal notice and describe as precisely as possible what happens and on which system.

We provide you with the updates required to maintain conformity with the contract, and inform you about them, for as long as you may expect them given the nature of the title. We do not owe functional extensions, nor adaptation to operating systems or hardware released after your purchase, unless expressly promised.

10. Your obligations

• Do not circumvent or interfere with technical protection, age control or delivery mechanisms.
• Do not use automated means to retrieve content beyond the scope of ordinary use.
• Do not make false statements about your age or identity, and do not share your access.
• Report content you believe to be unlawful via the “Report content” channel.

11. Liability

We are liable without limitation in cases of intent and gross negligence — including that of our legal representatives and vicarious agents —, for injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act, and to the extent of any guarantee we have given.

In cases of ordinary negligence we are liable only for breach of material contractual obligations — that is, obligations whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance you may regularly rely — and limited to the foreseeable damage typical of this type of contract. Liability is otherwise excluded.

The titles originate from independent studios. We are liable for their content in accordance with statutory provisions; any liability beyond this for damage to your hardware or software arising from intended use of a title is limited to the cases set out above.

12. Curation, content moderation and reporting channels

This section contains the information required by Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act) regarding our restrictions and content moderation.

Sideload is a curated platform. Which content is permissible and which is not is set out in the Content Guidelines, which form part of these terms. Every title is reviewed by a human before publication; automated processes serve to pre-sort, not to decide. Following updates we carry out spot checks.

Via the “Report content” page you can notify us of content you consider unlawful (Article 16 DSA). The page prepares an email in your own mail program; you send it yourself. There is no form that receives the notice on our server, and no automatic acknowledgement of receipt is generated. We review every notice diligently and non-arbitrarily, confirm receipt and inform you of our decision, provided you leave us a reply address.

Where we remove or disable content, or restrict an account, we provide the affected parties with a statement of reasons naming the legal ground or contractual provision relied upon, together with the available means of redress (Article 17 DSA). Complaints against such a decision should be directed to the contact point named in the legal notice.

13. Term, account deletion and suspension

The user relationship runs for an indefinite period and can be ended by you at any time without notice — you delete your account yourself under “Account”. Deletion ends access to your library and therefore to downloads. Files you have already downloaded remain usable; they carry no copy protection. Please back them up before deleting.

We too may end the user relationship — for instance if we cease operating sideload.games. In that case we give three months' notice in text form and keep your library available for download until the end of that period, so that you can save all the versions you have purchased. The purchase itself is unaffected: we do not take back what you have paid for.

In the event of a serious breach of these terms, in particular of section 7 or 10, we will first send you a warning in text form and set a reasonable period for remedy. If that period passes without result, or if a warning is dispensable given the nature of the breach (§ 314 (2) sentence 3 of the German Civil Code), we may terminate for cause and suspend access. We will state the reason and give you an opportunity to respond, unless legal grounds prevent this. Where the breach does not concern individual titles, we refund the purchase price paid for them via the payment service provider; refunds cover each affected order in full.

We retain purchase records after deletion of your account to the extent required by tax and commercial retention obligations. In doing so we separate them from your account: the account identifier is removed from the order and from the consent record.

This is not full anonymisation, and we say so plainly. The record retains the title purchased, the amount, the country you stated, the time, as well as the payment service provider's transaction reference and their response regarding your payment. Through these details — above all the transaction reference under which the payment service provider continues to hold your payment — a link to you personally may remain possible. Details are set out in the privacy policy.

14. Changes to these terms

Each purchase is governed by the version of these terms published at the time you placed your order. We store the version identifier of that version with your order; for every substantive change we issue a new identifier, so that the stored identifier points unambiguously to one wording. Purchases already concluded are unaffected by later changes — including where you download the game only months afterwards.

For the ongoing user relationship — your account and your library — we may amend these terms where a change in the law, a decision of the highest courts or an official order requires it. We will notify you of the change in text form at least 30 days before it takes effect and set the previous and new versions side by side. The change applies only if you agree to it; we do not treat your silence as agreement. If you do not agree, the previous version continues to apply to you, and we may end the user relationship under the conditions of section 13.

15. Dispute resolution, governing law and final provisions

We are neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board. If something goes wrong, please contact us directly first — in our experience that resolves matters faster.

German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If your habitual residence is in another state, the mandatory consumer protection provisions of that state remain unaffected. If you are acting as a business, the place of jurisdiction is our registered place of business.

Should any provision of these terms be invalid, the remainder of the contract remains effective. The statutory provisions apply in place of the invalid provision.