Steam has reignited the discussion of whether players own the games they pay for. This discussion started a few months ago with the company Ubisoft and angered thousands of players at that time.
What is this discussion about? At the beginning of 2024, Ubisoft sparked major discussions by stating that players do not own their games. A few weeks later, Ubisoft deleted a game from players’ libraries and clarified once again that as a company, they have the option to do so. This made many players very angry.
Now the discussion about ownership
is being discussed again, as the Steam platform is also getting involved.
Steam points out that you are only buying a license
What does Steam do? On Reddit, players report that Steam is now displaying a notice at payment indicating that you are not buying a game, but only the license. We have checked this and confirmed: The notice is also displayed on Steam in Germany:
What does license actually mean? The manufacturer grants you permission and the right to use the game or the paid product until the license is canceled. Some online games have a clause stating that they can revoke the license without reason and thereby cease the operation of the game.
In certain cases, games are removed from the shop due to expired rights but remain playable for buyers. For instance, Microsoft is removing Forza Horizon 4 from digital stores in a few months because the licenses for the car brands are expiring (via forza.net).
At least Steam offers the feature to share games with family members: Therefore, you do not need to buy a game three times, but one single license is now enough.
How do players react? Very differently, but mostly dissatisfied. Some wonder how the future of gaming will proceed. Others believe that such discussions will actually lead players to seek illegal sources for games. For this reason, the Stop Killing Games initiative was launched to legally prevent games from being taken offline.
However, another explains that players have never really owned a game, not even at a time when they bought CDs, DVDs, or other physical media. Because they bought the medium, but never the software on it:
I know you don’t want to hear this, but technically you never owned a game. You always received a license to use the software that was delivered to you on a physical medium. You own the medium. Not the software.
By the way, the same applies to microtransactions: If you play a free title and the developer shuts down the game, then your microtransactions are also gone. Even if you have invested several hundred euros.
That you only own the disc but not the game is also shown by the racing game The Crew
: Because here players had to find out that despite having bought the disc in the store, they could not start the game anymore. Since March 31, 2024, the racing game is no longer playable: “Revolutionary MMO racing game” disappears from Steam, upsetting fans: “Not playable even with disc anymore”
