How do we access the game if it's removed?

[Arugela]

If the game gets removed how do we get the ability to play the game later on? Will it be left up for download for people who payed for it already in case they want to access it? Or will it be permanently gone? There is a use for games to exist for historical reasons regardless of circumstances.

[PopinFRESH]

Games that are delisted are not removed from your library if you purchased it before it was delisted. You can still play, uninstall it, reinstall it, etc. the store page just is no longer public and new purchases can no longer be made.

[MaduxOG]

Better question is why its still being sold...

[Dr.Bourinos]

There is no game.

[Arasine]

Steam TOS states you never own games when you buy on this platform. You only ever buy a licence which they can remove at any time for any reason with zero legal comeback as you already agreed to it at point of sale.
You literally do not own anything on Steam. No games, no movies, no trading cards nothing. And when you dont own something, you have no rights to it.

[DaS]

Originally posted by Arasine:

Steam TOS states you never own games when you buy on this platform. You only ever buy a licence which they can remove at any time for any reason with zero legal comeback as you already agreed to it at point of sale.
You literally do not own anything on Steam. No games, no movies, no trading cards nothing. And when you dont own something, you have no rights to it.

this. if you want to "own" the executable go through GOG, or physical, not Steam.
EDIT course that prevents you from ever doing EAccess, but scams like KSP2 make that a benefit not a negative.

[MindTreat]

Originally posted by Arasine:

Steam TOS states you never own games when you buy on this platform. You only ever buy a licence which they can remove at any time for any reason with zero legal comeback as you already agreed to it at point of sale.
You literally do not own anything on Steam. No games, no movies, no trading cards nothing. And when you dont own something, you have no rights to it.

Can you find the section that states these things? It's too long of a TOS to just quickly skim through, so maybe you could point me to the right section of the TOS so I can look this up.
Each section should have a very distinct naming, if you can quote the naming of the section it would be easier to search and validate or disprove the information you're giving out.

[mreed2]

Um, perhaps the license section?

Steam and your Subscription(s) require the download and installation of Content and Services onto your computer. Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a non-exclusive license and right, to use the Content and Services for your personal, non-commercial use (except where commercial use is expressly allowed herein or in the applicable Subscription Terms). This license ends upon termination of (a) this Agreement or (b) a Subscription that includes the license. The Content and Services are licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Content and Services. To make use of the Content and Services, you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet.

Emphasis added.

[Skorj]

I own several titles that have been removed from the store. All launch just fine from my library. Removal from the store is something the publisher can do at any time, as is surprisingly common for Warhammer 40K games because of how licensing for that works.

AFAIK, Steam has only ever removed a handful of games from people's libraries, and those because the publisher never had the legal rights to distribute the game. Very rare, but it has happened.

[DaS]

Originally posted by Skorj:

I own several titles that have been removed from the store. All launch just fine from my library. Removal from the store is something the publisher can do at any time, as is surprisingly common for Warhammer 40K games because of how licensing for that works.

AFAIK, Steam has only ever removed a handful of games from people's libraries, and those because the publisher never had the legal rights to distribute the game. Very rare, but it has happened.

kinda sorta this. depends on game type. Something like ksp yea it's still in your library and you can still play it,delete it, re-download it after removal, Unless the IP owner request Steam remove it for some reason. and even then as long as you don't delete it you can still play...just not re-download it(copyright, fraud, license dispute, they are making a new product they see the old competing with...rare but does happen sometimes). Even more rarely some regiaons can get locked out on removed titles, I have never figured, specifically, what triggers this and what doesn't(but I suspect it's multiple shared party IP holders with different nations having different laws/interpretations). I think Steam just picks a poison and says fuggit. Seems to occur with Russian removed titles most often, but the sample size is so small no true correlation is apparent.
Any type of Live service game, like at all goes bye bye, any that req online connection,or one that had any "official"server connection (PSN,bliznet, etcetera) even if it's not multiplayer or one that is "always online" goes poof(unless the company specifically removes that req(which they rarely do) And obviously any true mmo won't work without servers(so it's probably good they never got that MP thing worken)

[City Builder]

Hell, back in the days old CD-Rom and DVD's the TOS were about the same telling you that you can use it but don't own it.

In any event if Steam were to close tomorrow and not have provisions in place to allow renters of the games to play, we'd lose access to all our games. Direct2Drive went belly up once and I lost access to some of my games that I bought on their platform.

Anyway, if the delist it, like others have said current purchasers still have access to uninstall, reinstall etc.