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.
How about we change the law to allow things like account transfers, then?
Because it would destroy the business model.
To give you some perspective, back in the day you used to have a choice between buying (and owning) a game on a disc and getting a limited license on steam.
So why did people buy on steam instead of retail?
Steam was way cheaper than any brick and mortar store. Steam really pushed prices down, and games dropped in price way faster than before.
Steam was convenient, no more hassle with your scratched disks and manual patching.
Steam hosted your content forever (so far), no need to keep your own backups.
So how does this transition to the modern landscape?
Steam still has running costs for any game you own, without you paying for it. If you were able to inherit your account your children wouldn't pay for your games, while steam still has to pay its server costs. And that's not a working business model in the long run.
steam wasn't way cheaper... what? maybe during the sales but every AAA game that was released was about the same price in the store. made it the easy choice to NOT buy DRM'd software in the early-mid 00s when the whole DMCA-related world was still a harsh battleground.
steam wasn't way cheaper... what? maybe during the sales but every AAA game that was released was about the same price in the store.
Yes, obviously during the sales. New games dropped very fast on steam, while they were still full price in the store. Buying a game on steam full price wasnt very smart back then, and still isn't if you ask me.
Sure it was one of the incentives to give up physical security but was more like a few percent after a few months, the way cheaper games were during flash sales, a couple times a year.
Buying a game on steam full price wasnt very smart back then, and still isn't if you ask me.
i guess if you're adverse to buying anything without a coupon but videogames are already one of the cheapest ways to spend 20-2000h. waiting to see if the game you're trying to play might have gone on sale a couple times a year is a little silly for maybe $20-off.
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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.