The leaving a steam account in a will discussion

[hatchet5891]

So I imagine many have seen the discussion lately about whether a steam account can be left in a will to a friend or family member. And it would seem that is not a possible thing. Somewhat understandable since we really only have licenses to play the games and don't actually own them.

But according to this PCGamer article

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/you-cant-take-it-with-you-but-you-cant-leave-it-behind-either-valve-says-you-arent-allowed-to-bequeath-a-steam-account-in-a-will/

it is also against the end user agreement to share your log in information for a person to say.... leave behind for someone to use. BUT, how would they know? I mean serious question considering it's not like we have to submit a death certificate to steam and they shut the account down. If my wife were to log in should I die and continue to use my account, how would steam/valve know?

I think it is interesting that there is no way to legally transfer an account to a family member considering the amount of money many of us spend on it. What are your thoughts?

[Start_Running]

Same way you can';t transfer your health insurance.
Or your gym membership.
Buty whikle you aren't officially allowed to. The thing is. Valve is on the 'don't ask don't tell'. side of things.

[Chompman]

This is nothing new as it's always been the situation.

It's just steam has no way to detect if this has happened really if done correctly.

[A Gamer]

I will leave everything in my sons name. Derek Jr.

[( ( < < <2🤖1> > > ) )]

for some reason i remember in a old discussion
it was said the accounts were will-able by law regardless
of what steam/valve tos say..... i can live with either..

i still dont think people are thinking it thru... if people arent playing your games
while your living... why would they want a account of possible hundreds
of games they wont play when you have passed away....

i dont want family to know i spent 1000s of hours in clicker heroes..

[Komarimaru]

Better idea, quit even bringing it up. Everyone knew this. Bringing it up just causes Valve to change things for the worse due to media attention all due to trolls.

[miakisfan]

Buy your own games. I'd prefer that if you want gaming to continue.

No one Is getting my account. They'd have to be a RPG fan anyways seeing as a high percentage of my games are just that.

[XartaX]

I know I will leave mine, because it's worth like 15K USD (todays prices using discounts). I'm also quite well off, so my kids will have both the means and motivation to actually take Steam to court if they try to take the account away from them. And good luck fighting against Norwegian consumer rights when both of those things are true. I doubt they will take it away, though.

[J4MESOX4D]

Kinda silly PC Gamer doing an article on this now as this topic arises at least once every 6 months for discussion. Funnily enough, responses have been varied from Support over the many years and there has been instances where accounts have been transferred with the aid of Support and others where it's an explicit no as per their written policy. So this article doesn't really change anything - just demonstrates PC Gamer doing basic journalism after a slow news weekend.

[m662]

Lets create a hypothetical scenario.
For those who do not want to read the entire thing the solution to the legal issue is offline mode.

Lets start what rights a dead person has. Not many it seems. (beside very few related to burial and human rights) Thus a personal agreement stops when either of the parties is dead or there has to be clause that allows someone else to take it over. Steam does not have that so that goes out of the window.

So the data at time of dead from the deceased itself becomes free to use because a dead person can not hold license property only the bequeathed would if both parties agreed (which is not the case). Steam would have to remove the data and remove the license which is there responsibility. The dead can't act after all and there has never been a agreement with the survivors to do so either.

But Steam is not allowed to ask health information in most countries in the world so unless the survivors state the account owner is dead they can not verify it. And they can't say either after X years the account becomes void because life expectancy changes which would be a legal minefield. How are you going to enforce that when the licenses are not renewed but one time activated. And the dead person also holds no copyright over the product so it can't be judged under copyright holder expiration either.

The survivors also have never signed the agreement to use Steam from this specific account and can't be held responsible for what the deceased did. (in this type of case) And the deceased is allowed to have written there password down just not with intent to share it. But again the deceased is no longer in a agreement once the so called violation would happen because they are dead thus not enforceable.

The survivors are also not legally obligated to tell Steam the person is dead because again that is health information and that has to be only legally shared to very limited entities. Steam certainly not being one of them.


But here is where it becomes a problem.
The survivors are however now allowed to impersonate the deceased that is where the legal trouble would actually start for anyone that tried to login.

And here is a very simply solution
Steam itself offers *offline mode*

If an account is put in offline mode no login is required there is no agreement to be signed for its use there is no login even shared and there is no impersonation happening. So for offline games legally it is truly impossible for Steam to enforce this unless they time limit the offline function. Which they flirted with in the past but never followed through with. Because imagine the screams of a million users when they do implement it.

You can however no longer get updates of the games or play multiplayer as you have to sign in with the license for that and that would be again impersonation and could consist fraud. And Steam is still legally allowed at any time after dead and actually obligated to remove the licenses but again how are they going to verify this.Even if they did as long as you are offline your not getting any license activation updates and Steam can't delete local data either.


So in this hypothetical scenario the solution is as follows. The person who owned the license and account has to put his her account into offline mode *before* dead the survivors are allowed to access local data on the system if the will states the system goes to them. They can no longer receive updates they are not allowed to put the account online and they can't login from any other device in the future. There is no agreement to be broken this way because there is no agreement ever shown to the survivors.

[76561199648916059]

Write your passwords and logins and emails in a little book, at death gift the book to your loved one, no need to mention what's in the book, call it a journal.

Your loved one will then have full access to all of your online accounts and games, also. Good idea to create joint bank accounts in the event one of you died the accounts will stay active for the other

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

All digital assets that you own and that have a monetary or tangible value will be included in your estate when you die.

You may pass on the Steam Account, PayPal, digital stocks and bonds, etc... as it is included in your estate.

[D. Flame]

Told ya so.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

How would they know if they never ask? There accounts that haven't been active for 20 years, yet some of them become active again all of sudden.

What stopping you to just write down login details to pass it on to your next of kin?

There no obligation to provide information to entertainment services of someone passing for the account. Not just Steam, Sony, Microsoft, and so on... So if you go out of your way to let services know owner passed, well clearly shot yourself in that regard as you made them aware which then they ask hence the point from start of this post.

[GGcake]

for years I've been telling my friend when he dies, i want all his game stuff. But I forgot about passwords, emails and all that, so i gotta make sure he has it written down some where like on his tombstone for easy access

[Xautos]

Accounts are rented from Valve by the end user/customer. it doesn't matter who uses it, these accounts belong to Valve and they can do what they like with them within reason, because Valve is still bound within certain laws in those countries which the service operates in.

That's the bottom line no matter what.

So when someone dies, that account can not be passed on because that user did not own the account or anything on it and the person they believe they can pass it off to has no right to claim it since it's Valve's property.

The level of entitlement that exists from end users/customers from time to time makes it hard for them to realise and understand they never had a claim on any of it. Money they used to "buy" a game is actually the ability to purchase a copy of the game licence in the form of a key which is linked to the account, you don't actually own the game in any way. That game licence can be revoked by the game developer/publisher or by Valve depending on the circumstances, and that can be done without informing you of it.