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.

[GRATS]

ReBoot の投稿を引用：

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

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. And then there's religion which is all about people "seeing" things they want to see.

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

No they don't, that's not something "seen", that's just fairy tales they make up to feel better or scare themselves to feel safe. and wow what a post the rest of that was.. Having an account inaccessible is very black and white.

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

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.

:qr:

Already posted, welcome to how software and control over it works.
Read OP's question.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

ReBoot の投稿を引用：

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. And then there's religion which is all about people "seeing" things they want to see.

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

No they don't, that's not something "seen", that's just fairy tales they make up to feel better or scare themselves to feel safe. and wow what a post the rest of that was..

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

Official documentation and/or reputable news sources please.

Already posted, welcome to how software and control over it works.
Read OP's question.

I see no links to what you claim to have happened here.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

I see no links to what you claim to have happened here.

Why does what you see matter at all? You're nobody. Question has been answered.

You made a very specific claim about something that happened and I just want to verify it with something more than, "because I said so."

[Halo]

If a book is taken off your Kindle - put it back on.

I have converted free classics and put them on there, I can put them back on.

And if you take the Kindle offline they can only access it when you put books on it, which from memory you can do with the cable so never have to go online.

It also saves battery life.

And if you now can't turn the wifi off - forget the router and it can't connect.

If you hadn't noticed - there are no laws stopping Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. doing what they want, so are you really surprised?

[Crazy Tiger]

Banned accounts still can be used to play games. Locked accounts can be recovered. Only terminated accounts lose things, but for that actual proof (and not "people have seen") is needed.

[ReBoot]

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

Only terminated accounts lose things, but for that actual proof (and not "people have seen") is needed.

There's at least proof of account termination by request of owner (or whomever the owner gives proof of ownership to pass as owner).

May be another case of "I'm infailable->others bad". Someone thinking of themselves as perfect may leak proof of ownership for someone else to abuse and "see" their account being terminated to no fault of theirs (like that's never seen on the Steam forum).

[GRATS]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

Why does what you see matter at all? You're nobody. Question has been answered.

You made a very specific claim about something that happened and I just want to verify it with something more than, "because I said so."

:qr:

No that isn't relevant, try hooked on phonics to help you learn to read first.
The question is "can they take it away" yes they can, in fact they can delete the entire platform if they wanted.

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

Banned accounts still can be used to play games. Locked accounts can be recovered. Only terminated accounts lose things, but for that actual proof (and not "people have seen") is needed.

Yep, it happened to people, they saw it happen to themselves. Required to say "they're going to remove it" luckily nobody claimed that though. That's not required to know an owner of a program can manipulate the program.

ReBoot の投稿を引用：

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

Only terminated accounts lose things, but for that actual proof (and not "people have seen") is needed.

There's at least proof of account termination by request of owner (or whomever the owner gives proof of ownership to pass as owner).

May be another case of "I'm infailable->others bad". Someone thinking of themselves as perfect may leak proof of ownership for someone else to abuse and "see" their account being terminated to no fault of theirs (like that's never seen on the Steam forum).

Yep, that's all that is needed to answer the question.
"Can they do this"
yes they can. They can do that, they do have the capability to do that. Not much of a question.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

You made a very specific claim about something that happened and I just want to verify it with something more than, "because I said so."

No that isn't relevant, try hooked on phonics to help you learn to read first.
The question is "can they take it away" yes they can, in fact they can delete the entire platform if they wanted.

But you made it relevant by claiming it. I only asked for sources to back up your claim and you still failed to provide any.

[Archform]

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

Banned accounts still can be used to play games. Locked accounts can be recovered. Only terminated accounts lose things, but for that actual proof (and not "people have seen") is needed.

How do you prove it? If all critical info is housed in an account you don't have full control over?

[Crazy Tiger]

Archform の投稿を引用：

Crazy Tiger の投稿を引用：

Banned accounts still can be used to play games. Locked accounts can be recovered. Only terminated accounts lose things, but for that actual proof (and not "people have seen") is needed.

How do you prove it? If all critical info is housed in an account you don't have full control over?

Reputable sources. If Valve played loose with terminating accounts, it wouldn't go unnoticed.

[GRATS]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

No that isn't relevant, try hooked on phonics to help you learn to read first.
The question is "can they take it away" yes they can, in fact they can delete the entire platform if they wanted.

But you made it relevant by claiming it. I only asked for sources to back up your claim and you still failed to provide any.

:qr:

Claiming what? I posted a fact. They can take away anything. They can change the background color of their website, they can refund your games, they can ban you, they can delete your profile picture. Will they? who knows. (I doubt it, as I said no cases in ~8+ years) I didn't claim they would do it. I answered the question. The fact is they can do it. There is no disputing what I said.
I'd suggest you go learn how to read.

[JellyPuff]

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

The question is "can they take it away" yes they can, in fact they can delete the entire platform if they wanted.

But is this relevant to OP's concern, which is taking away their games for no apparent reason? The answer is a big and resounding "No".

It's not about what VALVe can do to Steam users in theory, it's what they do in actuality. And limiting people's access to their Steam library on a whim or just taking away games randomly is not what VALVe does. Otherwise, there'd be lawsuits up the a**.

And if devs/publishers revoke games, it's not without either a good reason (e.g. game has been refunded) or lasting consequences for those devs or publishers, if they're just doing so out of spite.

[Aachen]

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

Claiming what? I posted a fact. They can take away anything. They can change the background color of their website, they can refund your games, they can ban you, they can delete your profile picture. Will they? who knows. (I doubt it, as I said no cases in ~8+ years) I didn't claim they would do it. I answered the question. The fact is they can do it. There is no disputing what I said.

So (setting aside capability) would you say it’s realistically likely to happen, or not?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

But you made it relevant by claiming it. I only asked for sources to back up your claim and you still failed to provide any.

Claiming what? I posted a fact. They can take away anything. They can change the background color of their website, they can refund your games, they can ban you, they can delete your profile picture. Will they? who knows. (I doubt it, as I said no cases in ~8+ years) I didn't claim they would do it. I answered the question. The fact is they can do it. There is no disputing what I said.
I'd suggest you go learn how to read.

You said they "have done this to many people in the past."

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

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.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3057363849864857539/?ctp=4#c3057363849867178552

But you did not provide and source for it.

Posting a fact should be very easily verifiable with a linked source otherwise it is just your opinion.

[GRATS]

Aachen の投稿を引用：

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

Claiming what? I posted a fact. They can take away anything. They can change the background color of their website, they can refund your games, they can ban you, they can delete your profile picture. Will they? who knows. (I doubt it, as I said no cases in ~8+ years) I didn't claim they would do it. I answered the question. The fact is they can do it. There is no disputing what I said.

So (setting aside capability) would you say it’s realistically likely to happen, or not?

I've already answered that, several times. Unless steam as a company ceases to exist I doubt it.

cSg|mc-Hotsauce の投稿を引用：

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

Claiming what? I posted a fact. They can take away anything. They can change the background color of their website, they can refund your games, they can ban you, they can delete your profile picture. Will they? who knows. (I doubt it, as I said no cases in ~8+ years) I didn't claim they would do it. I answered the question. The fact is they can do it. There is no disputing what I said.
I'd suggest you go learn how to read.

You said they "have done this to many people in the past."

S ∀ɹפ の投稿を引用：

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.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3057363849864857539/?ctp=4#c3057363849867178552

But you did not provide and source for it.

Posting a fact should be very easily verifiable with a linked source otherwise it is just your opinion.

:qr:

Learn to read