Digital Purchases Only Entail Licenses for Games, Not Full Ownership, Steam Now Warns Users

That digital media has its advantages isn’t something that anyone is goin to argue against, but as has become increasingly clearer with time, it also comes with significant drawbacks that are difficult to ignore, chief among them being how it encroaches on the concept of ownership. A game that you might pay full price to purchase is, after all, something that you still don’t fully own with a digital purchase, with publishers always having the final say and having the ability to revoke your license for said purchase, and that’s something that a major platform is now beginning to make clearer to users.

Spotted and reported by VGC, Valve’s digital PC platform Steam now informs users at the time of checkout that the digital purchase they’re about to make doesn’t grant them ownership of the title, but instead only grants the user with licenses to play the game in question.

“A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam,” the warning reads.

This follows a recent change in regulations in California, following which digital storefronts now have to make it clear to users that their purchase is for digital licenses that can expire, rather than for permanent ownership. That is currently applicable only in California, but Valve seems to have made that change to its platform already.