Steam has apparently made a miniature change to its cart page in the form of a fresh message that makes it very clear that you’re not purchasing a game – you’re purchasing a license.
I say the message is “apparently” fresh because I can’t swear it’s been gone for days, weeks, or maybe even months. But it’s definitely there, and the internet has only noticed it in the last 24 hours. Given the lack of virulence “you fool, you absolute buffoon” messages enabled Reddithowever, I strongly suspect that it is indeed fresh.
The message itself is very brief: “Purchase of a digital product grants you a license to the product on Steam.” There is also a link to the full Steam Subscriber Agreement. The change comes after Valve modified its subscription agreement last month to remove a forced arbitration clause.
I added the color red so you don’t miss it.
While the message may be fresh, the reality behind it is not. For practical purposes, all you need to do is forget your Steam password to get a true (though hopefully transient) idea of how many games you “own”; if you really want to challenge, you can commit a public, flagrant violation of Steam’s rules (repeatedly if necessary) to have your account and all “your” games revoked completely. You also can’t pass on your Steam library to anyone upon your unfortunate death, which of course you would be able to do if you actually owned its contents.
Conversations about whether anyone actually “owns” their games or other digital content have been going on for years: This Hacker News for example, a forum thread from 2012 warns users to read the Steam Subscriber Agreement carefully, as software purchased from the store is licensed, not proprietary.
“While Steam is nice to use, the ability to download software to any computer quite easily, and occasionally get discounted prices, I’m not convinced that giving up the right to own the things you buy is a fair price to pay for this convenience,” just2n wrote in a message that feels like it’s from about 100 years ago.
So if Steam’s lack of ownership is nothing fresh, why this fresh news? I assume this is due to the recent backlash against game publishers who have discontinued support for online games, rendering them inoperable and in some cases completely revoking licenses for those games. This isn’t anything particularly fresh either, but earlier this year Ubisoft broke its neck by ending services for The Crew and stripping the license from people who bought it. This sparked the “Stop Killing Games” consumer campaign and, more importantly, a fresh California law that requires retailers to warn consumers that digital games they have purchased may be taken away at any time – as is the case in this announcement.
This law only applies to California, but other states and countries could (and, I believe, will) adopt their own similar laws. Given this, and the difficulty of complying with regulations on a granular, state-by-state basis, it makes sense that Valve would take the simplest approach in this case: send this message to everyone, every time, and be done with it. It won’t prevent your games from being taken away, but as I noted when the California law was passed, it provides a legal layer for companies that seize them. And given Steam’s immense convenience, isn’t that all that matters?
Never missing an opportunity to express its opinion on such matters, GOG took advantage of it moment to consider your own message at checkout.
