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We had my Dad’s password info and after he passed, his Steam acct pretty much passed over to my brother, since he was the one always using my Dad’s account anyways. We also have family sharing up, so we all still get to share from most of his games anyways.
I do wonder what they’ll do after an acct is 50-100+ years old and it’s still being used. Will they at some point start tying it to your SS# or find some other way to tie it to specific people?
I think everyone is eager to have Steam let them "pass on" their games...but if that happens, there'll probably be a lot of...
It'd be nice if there were an easy solution, but I don't think there is one.
A lot of the problems are already solved by probate/estate/etc.
Like, if you had property at a bank, you'd need a death certificate which you'll have requested tons of if someone you loved died... along with potentially some sort of proof that you were the rightful heir (Worst case, you'd establish this through probate, likely going to end up being a simple document). This would be more overhead for steam, but usually not complicated documents once everything is settled. As for splitting up the account, your steam account would probably be classified as a singular item and any attempts to break it up in a will would likely just end up being void.
They need to make up their minds. Yes or no question, when I buy something on steam, do I own it or am I leasing it? I've been buying there under the presumption it was the digital equivalence of buying CD's like I used to. That was how it was sold to me, and the law is very clear about transferring possessions after ones passing.
Pay closer attention to purchasing items on steam, they purposefully avoid using words like 'own' or even 'buy'. You 'Add to Cart' and 'Purchase' and when you buy something, it says: "Any digital items in this order are now registered to your account on Steam. To access your items, simply visit your library in Steam whenever you're ready." I felt like I owned it when I paid money for it and that's kind of the trick, but reading the wording definitely changes things.
On Steam's end, it was already decided long ago. I'd say a lot of it is contractual and Steam likely couldn't change it if they wanted to, but then they were also involved in drawing up the contracts.
I've been buying there under the presumption it was the digital equivalence of buying CD's like I used to.
Why presume when you can read the T&C?
That was how it was sold to me
I don't believe it was.
And I'm not here to support Steam/Valve. I much prefer GOG, because when you buy a game on GOG, the files are literally yours to use. Buy a copy, download it to your hard drive, copy it to a USB drive, plug the USB drive into a machine that's never been connected to the internet (let alone your GOG account) and boot up both copies at once.
YMMV when it comes to online multiplayer over severs. I'm a retro gamer, so that's not my area of expertise, lol. I think for those, you would need separate accounts to play online together.
They're just not going to move your library of games to another account's library. I highly doubt that, even though it does technically go against the TOS, giving your credentials to someone else is going to get that account banned.
They won't transfer it; but you still can. And with good reason, too. If they allowed it, people would try and use it to steal accounts.
I mean, as long as you don't give Steam any personally identifying info and make sure that your beneficiary has your password and 2FA, I don't really see how that's enforceable.
It's still not unreasonable in my opinion to have a legal route to pass our digital property down. Here we're talking about steam, a relatively good company, imagine what EA or Ubisoft would do without legal protections.
So don't be stupid. Got it
My son has the password to it and I'll make sure he gives it to his children. Lol
Makes you wonder, after 100 years they flag the account for review. It would also be impressive if this service still existed after that long as well. Who knows!
Right. I wish they let people download their games like GOG.
Remember kids; if buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.
Agreed. Same for every digital product we buy, games, movies, music, pictures, etc. We paid for it, we own it, we can pass our along.
My sister has my account info. So when I die, she can do whatever.