A new policy is hitting the Steam marketplace, and it reveals something unsavory about the future of digital gaming. It serves to highlight how gamers are slowly losing out on the ability to own their purchases, and Steam is at the heart of it.
Thanks to a newly-signed California law, Steam is changing its purchasing policy. Now, when users purchase a game on Steam, players will be made aware upfront that they aren't actually buying a game. This has been true since the advent of digital storefronts, with platforms like Steam always operating on the idea that users are buying licenses to games as opposed to games themselves. This gives platforms and publishers carte blanche to revoke these licenses and/or make games unplayable, which often occurs when a game is delisted. Concord was an exceptional example of this, as the game was forcibly ripped out of player's libraries.
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Steam's New Policy Reveals The Grim Truth About Digital Game Ownership
By all means, it's fantastic to have this sort of accountability at last. The knowledge of how digital games truly work is by no means universal, and can be especially esoteric for those new to the medium. Many fans received a rude awakening on this subject earlier this year, in fact, when Steam rebuked the possibility of inheriting game libraries.
On the other hand, it does signal the level to which the industry has backed itself into a corner. The question of ownership continues to become more and more of a talking point, as the consequences of game licensing and game streaming grow more apparent. 2024 has seen this discussion reach new heights, flaring up at the start of the year when a top Ubisoft exec suggested that gamers should get comfortable with not owning their games. Despite the benefits of digital libraries, the risks they pose to gamers, the industry, and the medium as a whole cannot be understated.
Digital Licensing Can Be Bad For The Play Experience
There are many benefits to digital purchases—namely the convenience of having whole libraries readily accessible. However, the fact that the licensing system is the same as ownership on its face, with the price and process of purchase both being alike, many fans are effectively blindsided by the disparity in ownership. This happened with Ubisoft's The Crew 2, which saw a wave of backlash after the publisher made the decision to cut off access to the original The Crew. Anti-consumer decisions like this are becoming all the more frequent, and it's likely only going to keep happening.
Gaming History Is Being Erased
Steam's aforementioned stance against library inheritance is an example of another issue with the erasure of ownership, that being its effect on gaming history. Concord's recent mass delisting was one instance of this, but the destruction of the original Overwatch to make way for Overwatch 2 was also hugely consequential—not to mention the constant cycle of live-service shutdowns. Some of these games were considered failures, but even failures should be preserved—if anything, they should be preserved all the more, as testaments to learn from or as moments in gaming history.
The war on emulation by Nintendo and other publishers is arguably making the situation more dire. Not only are many of gaming's most formative titles at risk of being lost to time entirely, but grassroots efforts to preserve old games and spread them to other platforms are being dismantled, even if Nintendo and other publishers are legally in the right. This is especially concerning when considering how inaccessible many classic games are; using Nintendo as an example, many of its classic games are only available on the Switch through its Switch Online service, which gravely limits ownership and permanence.
Steam is a digital video game storefront and program developed by Valve that allows gamers to purchase, play, and mod their titles all through one convenient program.
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