Players began to notice a new message in their Steam carts on Thursday. Before completing a purchase, they saw a new message situated underneath the “Continue to payment” button, complete with a little computer graphic. It said: “A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam,” with a link to the subscriber agreement.
In clearer language, Valve finally makes it clear that you don’t own the PC games you buy. Instead, you’re granted a license for the software.
Steam now shows that you don’t own games
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But what changed? This is thanks to a new California law (AB 2426) that was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on September 24, which requires companies to make it clear that consumers don’t own digital goods — like movies, e-books, and, of course, video games — after a purchase. Otherwise, companies could be fined for false advertising. The law specifies that stores can offer a “license” only by providing easy access to the conditions and terms of service of said license.
A license specifically refers to a product that the seller can revoke access to if it no longer holds the license for it. This law doesn’t apply to a game that the store can’t revoke access to, like if you’re allowed to still play it as an offline download after it’s no longer available.
“As retailers continue to pivot away from selling physical media, the need for consumer protections on the purchase of digital media has become increasingly more important,” bill author Jacqui Irwin said in a press release.
This bill was signed in response to a number of incidents where users were no longer able to access movies, TV shows, and video games digitally after they’ve been removed from those platforms. The press release specifically calls out a number of recent video game delistings, such as Ubisoft removing The Crew from online stores and shutting down servers, making the game unplayable for previous owners. Following fan outcry, Ubisoft announced that it was exploring offline modes for future The Crew games.
While Irwin told Game File that the inciting incident for the bill was Sony announcing it would be removing Discovery shows from the PlayStation Store, “Ubisoft’s actions with The Crew further highlighted just how widespread this issue is.”
While the bill doesn’t go into effect until the new year, it looks like Valve is getting ahead of the requirement. It won’t change anything about how purchasing off the Steam store works, but it will just remind you that everything you buy is temporary.
This is just the latest change Valve made to its Steam subscriber agreement. It recently updated it to note that users will no longer be put into forced arbitration if they want to sue the company.
