Game Ownership

[Ranger Laird]

If I buy a game on steam do I own it? Or does it still belong to steam? If it belongs to steam why am I paying full price for it? If I own it then why can I not give it away if I decide I don't like it / want it?

[Blargo]

You pay for a license - the game is bound to your Steam account.

"Why pay full price for it?" You don't have to. Wait for a sale.

[Snapjak]

Every game and piece of software you buy is like this, you pay for a license.

Unless of course you're paying thousands to millions of dollars for the rights.

[LowJack_VA1]

Read my post history if you want you're answer.

Edit

I even left the Steam forums because I was so pissed. I haven't bought a game from Steam since. Almost 3 years.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Ranger Laird:

If I buy a game on steam do I own it? Or does it still belong to steam? If it belongs to steam why am I paying full price for it? If I own it then why can I not give it away if I decide I don't like it / want it?

If you buy a game ANYWHERE you own a limited use license that can be revoked by the developer. That is standard for basically ALL software.

[crunchyfrog]

As others rightly point out, you buy a LICNCE to use the software. It's not the same as ownership of the physical goods exactly. Here's why.

When you own a licence for a game, it entitles you and only you (with certain exceptions, like family sharing) to use it to play as you wish. You cannot resell it, nor can you transfer the licence to anyone else, even for no money. Once activated it stays PERMANENTLY on your account.

Now how this differs with physical games is pretty straighforward. It's much the same in that you get the same rights to use the software on the disc or cartirdge or whatever. However, the big difference is transfer of ownership. You ABSOLUTELY can sell it on to anyone else or gift it away if you so wish.

The only thing you generally CANNOT do with either is to repackage or sell the contents as your own work.

That's it.


This is simply why I do this myself - when digital distribution became a thing, I still stuck to preferring physical copies. So I took the decision then that if I buy games digital licences I only buy them when they're dirt cheap on sale. Because then, to me these are merely acceptable losses if things go tits up.

So if this is concern to you, maybe consider that approach.

[Seneca4]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

... I took the decision then that if I buy games digital licences I only buy them when they're dirt cheap on sale. Because then, to me these are merely acceptable losses if things go tits up.

This.
Never pay full price.

[Muppet among Puppets]

I pay the price that i think is the game worth it for me.

Why would you pay a price that makes you wish to sell it again?
Doesnt that also make you pay for a game that you do not have after selling?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

I pay the price that i think is the game worth it for me.

Why would you pay a price that makes you wish to sell it again?
Doesnt that also make you pay for a game that you do not have after selling?

Very good point.

If you're having to factor in things like that, then it's far easier just to simply wait until it reaches a price you SHOULD wish to pay.

[Radene]

Going to take a decade or two before this matter is settled.

[Taebrythn]

Originally posted by LowJack_VA1:

Read my post history if you want you're answer.

Edit

I even left the Steam forums because I was so pissed. I haven't bought a game from Steam since. Almost 3 years.

lol why would anyone want to read your post history for an answer. you realize this has been the standard forever. even if you buy a game at walmart read the paperwork.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Taebrythn:

Originally posted by LowJack_VA1:

Read my post history if you want you're answer.

Edit

I even left the Steam forums because I was so pissed. I haven't bought a game from Steam since. Almost 3 years.

lol why would anyone want to read your post history for an answer. you realize this has been the standard forever. even if you buy a game at walmart read the paperwork.

Because they have pointed this out before, hence why searching their post history would provide answers to op, not you.

[Sifer2]

To be honest you don't really own basically anything you can't hold in your hands. And you never truly own the property you store it on either as you must forever pay property tax rent.

But anyway games on Steam are considered "subscriptions" technically. Can be cancelled by Valve or the Publisher at any time. But out of thousands of the games on Steam only a handful ever were I think. By that I mean fully removed even from people that already "owned" them in their library. Plenty that get pulled from the store all the time but still in people's library.

[ReBoot]

Buy games on sales. That way, not being able to second-hand sell it doesn't really matter.

[Irene ❤]

Don't worry about it, it is unlimited access and taking advantage of real time updates and downloads. It is even better than owning a hard copy and license. What's better, there are sales.

Other companies introduced monthly subscriptions and those games disappear when payment stops. It's horrible.

[Edifier]

I have a shelf full of old games that are still in CD/DVD format. My PC no longer have a DVD reader in it since at least 5 years back.

I'm also not planning to buy any DVD reader because I haven't had the need for one in the past 5+ years.

But on Steam, the first game I bought can still be played, even on Win10. So I have a much higher chance of being able to play my old games that I bought on Steam than the ones I bought through retail.

So owning a license of it isn't all that bad.