Can you play steam games if after steam goes out of business?

[Speeder Light]

I really want to keep playing steam games but if steam goes out of business, then will all of my games and games saved data go away? And will I never get to play the steam games again?

[SpongebobTheHedgehog (Soul)]

The way I think I've heard it explained before is if Steam goes out of business, you'll still be able to keep the games you've purchased and be able to play them, BUT the main issue is the installation process as we all know requires an internet connection with the steam store. Take away the steam store and you won't be able to download them anymore. If you still have your games downloaded on your current PC, then I believe you should still be able to play the games.

I'm not entirely sure if backing up the games you own and then putting it on a different computer will still save it, that would be a question meant for someone more educated on the subject matter, but to hopefully make you not worried...

I don't believe Steam would ever go out of business, from what I've heard online... Steam makes billions of dollars every year through their games and that's probably not including merchandising from the Valve Store. The entire world would probably have to plummet before Valve would shut down and at that point if the entire world plummeted, would it even still be possible to play video games?

An unlikely hypothetical situation, but even if Valve were to make a whole bunch of bad decisions and lose a whole bunch of business, forcing them to shut down, I still think it would be possible to play your games as well...

Might be providing you with false hope since I know nothing about the business, but I'm just imagining that there could still be a way to salvage the games you've bought over the years if either A. Valve still kept the installation portion of the Steam Store up, allowing you to install your games, but just not add anymore to your collection. (Don't know how costly this is, but not having to worry about transactions and other stuff that takes up space like discussions and artwork could free up a significant amount of money needed to run a website that basically just transfers files from a server to your own computer) or B. Fans could inevitably take actions into their own hands and make a spiritual "Steam 2" which could basically be the same as what A is, just on a slower scale and no transactions still. Idk the legality behind it either, but the way I'm imagining it is if they're able to somehow take your Steam account, verify the games that you have on that Steam account, they could potentially allow you to download files from a server that has those games and only download the files that you are permitted to download from that server. Again, I know nothing about how it all works or the legality behind this since you'd be distributing games that you technically once owned, but don't anymore and I don't know if Steam itself has a clause that could challenge the legality of it. Still though, just trying to provide some positive hope rather than the negative fears we often see or have online.

TL;DR No, if Steam goes out of business you can't play the games you bought if you lose them. However, I believe this is a very small chance and would likely never happen unless incompetency surrounded the people in charge.

[MaDShadoW]

In general this is the main fear of online DRM. If the service goes down, so are your games too.

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by MaDShadoW:

In general this is the main fear of online DRM. If the service goes down, so are your games too.

The PS4/PS5 also have a very similar flaw - if your CMOS battery (the one that powers the internal clock) runs out, you lose access to every single game you bought as they crash and log you out the moment it tries to read or write trophy information on startup, and this applies not only to downloaded games, but also physical games you bought on a disc, with the only way to fix it after replacing the battery is to connect online again.

Meanwhile, I can still play my PS1/PS2 games like they're brand new with no issues whatsoever even after many years.

[Smugass Braixen-Chan]

Steam works offline. According to Valve, they will make it so that if that eventuality does arise (Extremely unlikely, at least within a human life-time, and not unless a strong competitor shows up) you will be able to download your games while the servers are still up, and then play them offline.

But the way I see it, if I bought a game now, and was still playing it by the time Steam dies, then it's probably worth buying it again on a different platform.