Steam Confirms: You’re Licensing, Not Owning Your Favourite PC Games
For many PC gamers, Steam has been a reliable home for their favourite titles, but a recent change to its shopping experience has sparked concerns about what it really means to "own" a game on the platform. It turns out, what you're purchasing isn't a game at all, it's a long-term licence.
What’s Changed?
Valve, the company behind Steam, has updated its storefront with a new disclaimer that clarifies the nature of digital purchases. If you’ve recently added a game to your Steam cart, you may have noticed a small, easy-to-miss notice at the bottom right of the screen: “A purchase of a digital product grants a licence for the product on Steam. For full terms and conditions, please see the Steam Subscriber Agreement.” In plain terms, this means that when you hit "Buy," you're not actually getting ownership of the game. You're securing a licence that lets you access it as long as it remains available on the platform.
Digging deeper into the Steam Subscriber Agreement reveals even more about this "licence." The section labelled “Licences” makes it clear: "The Content and Services are licensed, not sold. Your licence confers no title or ownership in the Content and Services.”
In other words, despite spending your hard-earned cash on a game, it's more like renting it indefinitely. If a game is removed from Steam or its servers shut down, you could lose access entirely.
The Legal Push Behind It
So why the sudden emphasis on this legal technicality? The change is in part due to new legislation. A recently passed law in California, AB 2426, requires digital storefronts to disclose that consumers aren’t purchasing full ownership of digital media, but rather a licence to use it. This applies not only to video games but also to movies, TV shows, music, and ebooks.
This law aims to protect consumers from misleading advertising, but it also serves as a stark reminder that digital purchases are far more fragile than physical ones. If companies violate this transparency rule, they could face fines for false advertising.
The Real-World Impact
This shift isn’t just a matter of legal jargon, it has very real consequences for gamers. In March 2024, Ubisoft's open-world racer The Crew was delisted from Steam and its servers were permanently shut down. Players lost access to the game, and even those who had previously purchased it saw it disappear from their libraries once online play ceased.
For many long-time Steam users, this is unsettling. After all, losing access to a game you’ve bought feels like getting blindsided. And with Steam’s vast digital catalog, it's not hard to imagine this happening to other games in the future.
What Does This Mean for Gamers?
For anyone who has invested heavily in their Steam libraries, this news is a gut punch. While Valve has always operated under similar terms, having it spelled out so bluntly forces gamers to reckon with the risks of digital ownership. If a game gets delisted or servers go offline, that licence can be revoked, leaving you without access to your purchase.
Some players are now reconsidering their approach to gaming. The appeal of physical copies, especially for console players, has resurfaced. After all, you don’t need a server to run a disc and no one can take it from you once it’s in your hands.
For those of us who have built extensive Steam libraries over the years, it's a harsh reminder that the convenience of digital gaming comes with strings attached.