So, what happens to our games if Steam goes out of business?

[Sputnik]

Read a thread started by some guy boasting 1000 Steam games. Got me wondering roughly how much he paid for all that, and then what happens if Steam goes under one day.

[Sputnik]

I guess a Steam customer ought to keep hard copies of their all games on external hard drives. But it's hard to imagine how you'd manage 1000 games stored and updated.

[SpunkyJones]

Then I just start over somewhere else.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Another company will swoop in.

But you can also read the other 1,000+ threads on this very topic.

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Another company will swoop in.

:qr:

Maybe. They said that about Ansett Airlines' customer frequent flyer points, but finally no company wanted to step in and foot that bill. So I guess that kind of thing depends on the mood of marketplace at the time.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Tencent would definitely throw money at it. Not to mention MS or Google.

[Garou]

Highly unlikely.
You would probably have to download all your games, make backups and backups of backups in case your drives fail and maybe in 50 years your HDD will be a collector item worth thousands.

[Sputnik]

Anyways, the Steam service still compares well with its rivals. And if the if the worst ever happened, hopefully they'd give us enough warning to download all our latent games.

Lol, I can picture the Apocalypse going on outside, with all the gamers huddled in their basements desperately downloading their collections as the world burns.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Red_Hood:

Highly unlikely.
You would probably have to download all your games, make backups and backups of backups in case your drives fail and maybe in 50 years your HDD will be a collector item worth thousands.

Assuming anyone can actually dig up a machine that can read your old hdd and its antiquated filesystem. How many COmmodore PETs or Vic-20's do you see floating around?

OP It's one of those questions that you're advised not to think about. IT's one of those 'what would happen to my stuff if there was a major earthquake.

[Sputnik]

Anyways, those of us with 1000+ Steam games would have paid in well over US $20,000. That seems like an asset worth protecting somehow.

[GunsForBucks]

You know what would happen if someone took over don't you?

They would say "Oh sorry that was someone else, you have to buy your games over again."

[LowJack_VA1]

ROFL, Oh no, I'm not getting pulled into this discussion again!!

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by LowJack_VA1:

ROFL, Oh no, I'm not getting pulled into this discussion again!!

Don't Panic! The gravitational attraction of this discussion is still slight, and we have far to travel before crossing the moral event horizon beyond which there is no return to reasoned discussion.

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by Toast:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

you can also read the other 1,000+ threads on this very topic.

How often do people around here actually search for an answer to their question before posting? I guess we will never really know since we don't often hear from those people, because they don't need to make useless topics to questions which have already been covered hundreds of times over...

I this really a problem?

Anyway my previous comment outlines one reason why people like to necrothread.

[Hannibal]

Your games are gone. Just like any other digital service that's gone out of business. See telltale games stardocks impulse ect.

[Hannibal]

Originally posted by Eisberg:

Originally posted by GunsForBucks:

You know what would happen if someone took over don't you?

They would say "Oh sorry that was someone else, you have to buy your games over again."

While sure that is a possiblity, but doubtful it would happen, it would be the death knell for the newly acquired IP. Its why a store like Direct2Drive that went through multiple owners has never done something like that.

Stardocks impulse went to Gamespot who basically shut it down 6 months later. All the games gone. And during that 6 month period no one could get their original games back from the new owners.