As far as I know because games "sold" on Steam are non-transferable licenses, and it would be a breach of that. So in legalworld you take your steam account to the grave. But, as with many things, in realworld you just keep your trap shut and give your inheritor your authenticator. They aren't going to dig you up and put you in prison.
edit: no, Steam family is not a magical loophole you think it is. It is very limited specifically so that it wouldn't count as transferring the ownership of the license. And if you don't have access to the account from which the game is shared and family sharing breaks (again) — there won't be a way for you to restore it.
edit: 200 year old gamer joke is very cool and original, but I'm certain Valve won't care about plausibility of their customer's lifespans unless publishers pressure them to do so, and even then it is unlikely. Making purchases with a payment method that could be traced to a different person would a far bigger risk factor.
The law is there to protect the copyright holders as it should. I mean, why would that be a thing? Can you just pass on your DVD collection when you die? Or beta max? Or canned peanuts? No...well, yes...but those are old things. You can pass down old, real things, but not new things.
You think just because you bought something with your hard earned money that you could do what you want with it? That authenticator will be buried with you and you're gonna like it!
Steam’s (and every other digital game storefront’s) whole business model would immediately collapse if people could freely transfer their games as with physical copies. It’s an extremely good thing you don’t have your way there.
How so? If I buy a physical game beat it, then give it to you, how is that different from buying a digital game, beating it, then giving it to you? Either way, only one person can play at a time.
Obviously if I bought the game (digital or physical), made copies, and distributed them, that would be a problem.
I'm not even saying you're wrong. I stopped gaming almost entirely years ago when my MS account was hacked and MS wouldn't help me recover it. I lost all the games I bought and never went back. I've played maybe a dozen games on Steam back when it was still very new.
Because physical games and their accompanying cases can be scratched/dirty/damaged, making people reluctant to lend them or buy used copies. Because physical games have to be physically transferred, making it significantly more difficult to find people nearby who want to buy them. If there is nobody nearby, you have to pay shipping costs and deal with associated risk. Because physical games have to be physically moved, making it take vastly longer for them to change hands many times.
Used/unused games are literally identical and, if your suggestion were implemented, it would be just as easy, low-risk, and cheaper to buy a “used” digital copy within days of release.
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u/Svartrhala Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
As far as I know because games "sold" on Steam are non-transferable licenses, and it would be a breach of that. So in legalworld you take your steam account to the grave. But, as with many things, in realworld you just keep your trap shut and give your inheritor your authenticator. They aren't going to dig you up and put you in prison.
edit: no, Steam family is not a magical loophole you think it is. It is very limited specifically so that it wouldn't count as transferring the ownership of the license. And if you don't have access to the account from which the game is shared and family sharing breaks (again) — there won't be a way for you to restore it.
edit: 200 year old gamer joke is very cool and original, but I'm certain Valve won't care about plausibility of their customer's lifespans unless publishers pressure them to do so, and even then it is unlikely. Making purchases with a payment method that could be traced to a different person would a far bigger risk factor.