Can Steam take my games like Amazon can take Kindle books?

[Eccentric Gentleman]

Yesterday I found out that Amazon can remove purchased books form anyone's Kindle library and even remotely go into anyone's Kindle and remove any books contained on it. And they can do this at any time for any reason they want.

This was very concerning to me, Not only because I had just bought a Kindle (which I will now be returning) but also because I have been using steam for years and almost all my games are on it. What's more, some PC games are only available as Steam downloads. The only hard copies were for consoles, and I gave up being a console gamer because console games are often only compatible with that console, they stop making them eventually and don't always include backward compatibility for new models.

I've done some internet searching to find out if Steam is similar to Kindle.
Some people say it is, that we don't own what we buy and if Steam shut down we'd lose all our games. But I think that last part only applies to online multiplayer.
Others seem to say that Steam cares more then Amazon, that they promise to create a "permanent offline mode" if they go under.

But I couldn't find anything either way to answer the question, can Steam take my games remotely? So I put the question to you.

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Ganger:

End of the day, valve doesn't own 3rd party games on steam and it would be upto the developer or publisher to let you continue access or/and downloads of those games.

Yes, but i don't think those developers or publishers wanna have a bunch of class-action lawsuits on their hands.
I dare any publisher to just go ahead and revoke all their games to put the "you don't own the games"-myth to the test.

[Archform]

Originally posted by Eccentric Gentleman:

Yesterday I found out that Amazon can remove purchased books form anyone's Kindle library and even remotely go into anyone's Kindle and remove any books contained on it. And they can do this at any time for any reason they want.

This was very concerning to me, Not only because I had just bought a Kindle (which I will now be returning) but also because I have been using steam for years and almost all my games are on it. What's more, some PC games are only available as Steam downloads. The only hard copies were for consoles, and I gave up being a console gamer because console games are often only compatible with that console, they stop making them eventually and don't always include backward compatibility for new models.

I've done some internet searching to find out if Steam is similar to Kindle.
Some people say it is, that we don't own what we buy and if Steam shut down we'd lose all our games. But I think that last part only applies to online multiplayer.
Others seem to say that Steam cares more then Amazon, that they promise to create a "permanent offline mode" if they go under.

But I couldn't find anything either way to answer the question, can Steam take my games remotely? So I put the question to you.

Yes they can, they don't hold themselves liable for anything, and they assume most people don't know about that. Most who are active on the forums are steam fans and will assure you they won't ever do it. This is of course something they have have no way of knowing anything about. All you can do is hope you don't fall through the cracks or put your games somewhere else.

[ReBoot]

There's historical precedence for
1. Games being removed from Steam
2. Steam users committing fraud & getting booted off Steam

In case of 1, you keep the game. You can still download it, it doesn't count for profile high scores (which doesn't matter if you bought the game to actually play it), you can play it, you can even keep posting on it's forum.

In case of 2, companies like Facebook indeed remove your games thus burning your money but with Valve, you still keep your games, you can still download & play them. You just can't buy any more games.

[GRATS]

Yes, steam has done this to many people in the past. If you get banned you will lose everything tied to your account as well.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Yes, steam has done this to many people in the past. If you get banned you will lose everything tied to your account as well.

And that, lads & lasses, is a lie. Losing everything tied to your account only happens if you a) delete your account or b) give your account away.

[GRATS]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Yes, steam has done this to many people in the past. If you get banned you will lose everything tied to your account as well.

And that, lads & lasses, is a lie. Losing everything tied to your account only happens if you a) delete your account or b) give your account away.

Wrong. People who break rules (try to sell their accounts etc), get completely banned. Losing all of their bought content. Don't make stuff up.
this is the nature of DRM and why people are against it. If steam ceases to exist it's likely most of your games won't run too.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

And that, lads & lasses, is a lie. Losing everything tied to your account only happens if you a) delete your account or b) give your account away.

Wrong. People who break rules (try to sell their accounts etc), get completely banned. Losing all of their bought content. Don't make stuff up.
this is the nature of DRM and why people are against it. If steam ceases to exist it's likely most of your games won't run too.

Don't make stuff up. What has happened in the past (and will certainly keep on happening) is accounts with severe misconduct (i.e. credit card fraud which is a real-world crime, I might add) losing access to the Steam store. Not to the library though.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Yes, steam has done this to many people in the past. If you get banned you will lose everything tied to your account as well.

Source?

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Yes, steam has done this to many people in the past. If you get banned you will lose everything tied to your account as well.

Source?

Unless you're a grade-A fraudster to a point of committing crimes, VALVe won't ban you. The worst i've seen were store+community bans against users, who, for example, changed their store-region to that of a weak-currency country, to buy Steam-games en masse for up to 75% cheaper (so AAA-games usually at $40-60 would be 3-7 bucks on sales for them, depending on individual regional-pricing).

[GRATS]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Yes, steam has done this to many people in the past. If you get banned you will lose everything tied to your account as well.

Source?

:qr:

Reality? History? Steam hasn't locked people out of accounts since like 2012. The question was "can steam take my games"
yes they can, and legally. The end.

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Yes, steam has done this to many people in the past. If you get banned you will lose everything tied to your account as well.

Source?

Unless you're a grade-A fraudster to a point of committing crimes, VALVe won't ban you. The worst i've seen were store+community bans against users, who, for example, changed their store-region to that of a weak-currency country, to buy Steam-games en masse for up to 75% cheaper (so AAA-games usually at $40-60 would be 3-7 bucks on sales for them, depending on individual regional-pricing).

You guys keep posting "unless" or "b-but i-if"
read the question, look at history. I know several people who have dead accounts from the 2004-2010 era.
Can they? Yes

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Source?

Reality? History? Steam hasn't locked people out of accounts since like 2012. The question was "can steam take my games"
yes they can, and legally. The end.

May i have your official source on that?

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

yes they can, and legally.

Not where i live. At least here in the EU, a digital license is considered a good, that you own. As i've mentioned earlier, you might not own the game itself, but the particular instance of the game, you have purchased is yours.

Edit:

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

You guys keep posting "unless" or "b-but i-if"

The "unless" part is really quite important, though. OP is concerned that VALVe will just cut off access to their steam library on a whim.

[GRATS]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Reality? History? Steam hasn't locked people out of accounts since like 2012. The question was "can steam take my games"
yes they can, and legally. The end.

May i have your official source on that?

:qr:

I just told you an official source. People see things happen and talk about things happen. Do I need to go tell a news site to post my post for you or hold your hand?
Plenty of old reddit threads about it as well.

Once again read the question, because it still looks like you haven't. Gabe could delete everyone's games if he wanted. That wouldn't go down well for him though and it'd most likely get restored. The answer to the question is "yes" regardless of what you continue to complain about.

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

yes they can, and legally.

Not where i live. At least here in the EU, a digital license is considered a good, that you own. As i've mentioned earlier, you might not own the game itself, but the particular instance of the game, you have purchased is yours.

Yea good chance that's true for a lot of EU countries, which is why nobody's seen it happen in ~8+ years

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

May i have your official source on that?

I just told you an official source. People see things happen and talk about things happen. Do I need to go tell a news site to post my post for you or hold your hand?
Plenty of old reddit threads about it as well.

Once again read the question, because it still looks like you haven't. Gabe could delete everyone's games if he wanted. That wouldn't go down well for him though and it'd most likely get restored. The answer to the question is "yes" regardless of what you continue to complain about.

Official documentation and/or reputable news sources please.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by S ∀ɹפ:

People see things happen and talk about things happen.

People also "see" vaccines causing autism and talk about this. Newsflash: there's no requirement to NOT talk ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. In Germany (which, as a matter of fact, has a rather intimate history with hardcore racism) people "see" how our daughters will have to wear hijabs in 20 years. Come to think of it, religion is all about people "seeing" things they want to see.

And that's the point: people see what they want to see.