Why Steam’s New Purchase Policy Should Be a Wake-Up Call For Fans

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Why Steam's New Purchase Policy Should Be a Wake-Up Call For Fans

As a veteran gamer with decades of digital gaming under my belt, I can’t help but feel disheartened by Steam’s new policy. It’s like they’re pulling the rug out from under us old-timers who remember the days when we could truly own our games.

A fresh policy is making its debut on the Steam marketplace, shedding light on a questionable aspect concerning the future of digital gaming. This policy underscores the gradual erosion of gamers’ ownership rights over their purchases, with Steam playing a significant role in this development.

Due to a recent California law, Steam is altering its buying procedure. From now on, when you buy a game on Steam, you’ll be informed from the start that what you’re really purchasing isn’t the actual game itself. This has been the norm since digital marketplaces like Steam emerged, as they’ve always operated under the premise of selling licenses instead of games. Essentially, this means that platforms and publishers have the power to take back these licenses or make games unplayable, a practice commonly seen when a game is removed from the platform. A case in point is the game “Concord,” which was abruptly removed from players’ libraries.

Steam’s New Policy Reveals The Grim Truth About Digital Game Ownership

Absolutely great to finally have such accountability! Not everyone knows how digital games operate deeply, and it can be quite mysterious for those new to gaming. In fact, many fans were taken aback earlier this year when Steam dismissed the idea of transferring game collections.

From my perspective as a dedicated gamer, it’s clear that the gaming industry has found itself in quite a predicament. The debate over ownership has been gaining momentum, with the repercussions of game licensing and streaming becoming increasingly evident. This year, 2024, has seen this conversation escalate, igniting at the start when a high-ranking Ubisoft executive proposed that gamers should brace themselves for not owning their games anymore. While digital libraries offer numerous advantages, the potential dangers they pose to us gamers, the industry, and the medium itself can’t be ignored.

Digital Licensing Can Be Bad For The Play Experience

There are many benefits to digital purchases—namely the convenience of having whole libraries readily accessible. However, the fact that the licensing system is the same as ownership on its face, with the price and process of purchase both being alike, many fans are effectively blindsided by the disparity in ownership. This happened with Ubisoft’s The Crew 2, which saw a wave of backlash after the publisher made the decision to cut off access to the original The Crew. Anti-consumer decisions like this are becoming all the more frequent, and it’s likely only going to keep happening.

Gaming History Is Being Erased

Steam’s opposition to library inheritance, as previously mentioned, illustrates another concern linked with the elimination of ownership, particularly its impact on video game history. For instance, Concord‘s recent mass removal and the demolition of the original Overwatch to make way for Overwatch 2 are significant examples; not to overlook the recurring pattern of live-service shutdowns. Games deemed unsuccessful should still be preserved, if anything, more so as they serve as valuable learning resources or as historical milestones in gaming.

It could be stated more simply like this: The efforts by Nintendo and other publishers to combat emulation may worsen the situation significantly. This is because a large number of influential video games from the past might vanish completely, and initiatives among fans to preserve these old games and share them across different platforms are being suppressed – even if the companies involved have a legal right to do so. This is troubling given that many classic games are difficult to access; for instance, most of Nintendo’s classic titles can only be played on the Switch through their Switch Online service, which restricts ownership and longevity greatly.

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2024-10-15 14:03