Steam now notifies users that they are purchasing a game license

In most digital stores you do not buy the games, but rather you acquire a license that allows you to play it under certain conditions. This has always been the case, but to know this you have to read the legal conditions of the respective store. On Steam, this has changed after Valve included an advertisement in the purchase process explicitly notifying the user that they are purchasing a license and not a game.

“Purchasing a digital product grants a license to the product on Steam,” the notice reads. This text now appears in the shopping cart and includes a link to the terms and conditions of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, a legal document that sets out the rights and obligations of both parties. For now the message is displayed in the Steam desktop app and via the web, but not yet in the mobile app.

Why does Steam put this notice? The official reason is unknown, but everything seems to indicate that it is due to a new law that will come into effect in California next year and will require digital stores like Steam to clearly indicate that a license is being acquired. This Californian initiative, which Valve seems to have extended to the entire world, was born after companies like Ubisoft have removed games from their stores. The Crew case is a recent case that caused quite a stir. In Europe there is an initiative called Stop Killing Games which seeks to prevent publishers from removing games from digital stores.

The California law does not apply to games that can be downloaded and run with a client without the need for an Internet connection, which happens on GOG with DRM-free titles. When you have seen Valve’s new notice, GOG was quick to remember that games are purchased in their store.

Valve’s notice on Steam or the one that the rest of the digital stores have to place will hardly have any effect on users, who have embraced the digital format and even pay more if they are allowed to play a few days before. At the same time, they regret that there are no physical editions of some games. On consoles, the physical format still lives, but on PC, most companies have stopped selling games to issue licenses that can be revoked.