Steam Updates on Digital Game Ownership

Ubisoft and Sony have recently reignited a bumpy debate regarding video game licensing and ownership. Back in April 2024, Ubisoft canceled players' licenses, sending a chilling message about the insecure nature of digital ownership just weeks after The Crew's shutdown. With the former's shutdown, The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest would also lose all offline usability, effectively ending the game forever.

Both companies initially said they would be removing digital content from user libraries but then changed their minds. This followed a California bill requiring online marketplaces to make this information public, stating that downloading a game doesn't give users the same rights as buying it in a physical store. The company that took the most hit out of this seems to be Valve, which owns Steam.

Steam users were notified late last week that they would not receive physical product ownership when they made a purchase, thanks to a note that Valve began including in the cart. Not only has Steam implemented this disclosure for all regions, not just US users, but it appears to be the first digital gaming marketplace to do so.  An additional disclaimer has been added to Steam's shop to inform customers that they will not actually own the games they purchase.

In reality, Steam users only buy a license to play the game, and either Steam or the publisher can withdraw it at any time. It appears right before you go to checkout and after you've put a game in your cart. It's a fact that games can still be deleted from the marketplace and even user libraries, while Steam doesn't offer the ability to download games offline.

GOG, on the other hand, posted a tweet and stated that this same bill didn't restrict them. They posted saying that you can continue playing a game in the same way you were before losing the license, provided that you have the game installed. This is probably the closest thing we have to physical game licensing if the California bill stays unchanged. GOG made this in response to a California bill that mandates digital merchants to make this information public. Having the games installed beforehand is still an issue, but at least they can't take them away from you once you've installed them.

Obviously, we all thought that purchasing a game digitally gave us the same rights as buying a hard copy. Apparently, Steam is the first online marketplace for video games to implement this disclosure, and we're pretty sure others will eventually follow in their footsteps. Other online retailers like Epic Games Store will inevitably be required to comply with California law when they follow Steam's lead in posting disclaimers. Whether they do so exactly is anyone's guess. Whatever the case may be, it serves as a timely reminder that, despite retailers' claims to the contrary, we do not actually own the vast majority of the games for which we've already paid.