I wouldn't suppose that people are required to inform steam that they're dead. Therefore, I'd assume the easiest way to bequeath games/DLCs, etc, is to get a wishlist from your loved ones, and then gift all of those games prior to death on a credit card that you might not be able to pay, due to being dead. Steam gets the money, the CC company gets shafted. Alternately, share your credit card details with a loved one and that list, and have them order within hours of your death (this depends on whether or not you were plausibly alive when those CC transactions took place)
this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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I would just give them the username and password of my account, then they can enjoy tomb raider 3 or something.
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Also like all steam applications bundles with Steam's DRM, right?
Wonder what happens when valve/steam shut down one day.
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How the hell can they know though?????
Check account age? Gotta be effective method after like 50 years or so
They can't, but if you don't give you password and safety codes away before you die they can't legally let you transfer ownership of the games. Just don't tell them and arrange for all your emails, security keys, and 2FA keys to be safely transfered to your children.
Damn...makes me want to take the time to pirate games I already bought and own...
And then write it in my will that those who inherit my few earthly possessions have to play through each of my games at least once in front of a lawyer in order to receive their inheritance. Lol, I kid, 😂...or am I 😈?
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Is this any different from selling an account, which I presume you're not allowed to do?
I would say in one sense yes, because typically property being bequeathed follows different customs than property being sold for profit.
But the point in this case is that your Steam library is not even "property" to begin with, it is a contract that becomes invalid when one of the parties (the customer) dies.
Yes in that you have to be dead to do this which is something most people can only do once.
It's probably they don't want to dive nose deep into all individual cases and local shenanigans* about that and probable scams that can occur. You can take other person's account if you have both password and email access, they don't oppose that under the table, but they don't want to be a party in account transit because it makes them responsible for that.
* Is it legal what's described in one's last words, can these games be lawfully transfered as they are under both legal code and game licensing agreements? If there's no more living relatives, would Steam transfer your purchases to the government? Or if the inheritance is disputable between two parties, should it decide anything there? They let anything happen as long as they aren't involved.
As another poster alluded to, digital goods aren't really considered property in the traditional sense. Digital property is protected under copyright (and other IP laws). The owner could sell the game, but then they wouldn't own it anymore (e.g. when one game studio buys another, they are buying the games as well). Instead, they grant a licence to use the game, which is how Steam works as well.
If Steam let you transfer your account to someone else (e.g. bequeath or sell it), then they would need this in the licence (which they could do in theory). Other than the logistics of that (especially how to handle people selling accounts - and the scammers that inevitably come with that), the AAA publishers are unlikely to agree to those terms. Ultimately the Steam licence is likely a compromise between Steam's vision and all the AAA publishers that wouldn't publish on Steam if they didn't get the licence they wanted. A bit like how Netflix doesn't really care if you use a VPN, they just have to enforce it so studios will let them use their content.
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You can inherit their debt, but you can't inherit their video games. What a time to be alive.
At least in America, you can't inherit debt.
You don't inherit debt but they're paid on the estate before inheritance.
So you can't get just debt as inheritance, but debt are only lost for the creditor if the person who died had a negative net worth.
Exactly. You don't inherit debt, because you can't inherit stuff the person was only borrowing.
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System is broken that's for sure
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Just turn your family sharing on for it
Or give them the password. They aren't going to check if your still alive.
It is bullshit tho. I feel like for how massive these libraries are, I should be able to do that. Even if it requires a death certificate to make the transfer.
Add it to the list of ethical circumstances for piracy.
In fact, for the titles I cared about, I would contact the studio/publisher themselves, explain the situation, send a death cert and a steam account, and see if they would allow a transfer or grant a new key. If not...they're part of the problem.
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This is what steam is: a lesser form of ownership in exchange for the perks of the platform. I've come to prefer physical media first, DRM free second, and steam third. It's just not as good of a value proposition to me compared to outright ownership (of the license to use the software, I know we don't own "the game").
(of the license to use the software, I know we don’t own “the game”).
No, you don't own the copyright, but you do own your individual copy. Don't fall for the "licensed, not sold" self-serving propaganda.
I added the caveat simply because I didn't want to get into it
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Physical media today isn’t really much better though, increasingly frequently all a disk gets you is a license to activate a digital copy anyways, with a “must be online for first play” requirement.
That's exactly how I ended up with a steam account. Bought a Civ V cd and the game isn't on the cd, just an installer for steam and a key.
It's sadly true. I have been lucky so far, but I know one day I'll accidentally give money to a developer who does this
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