What will happen to my owned games if Steam were to close?
Years ago, people would pay for physical discs in order to play games. With proper care, those discs could last years.
Currently for most PC games, people pay for Steam Keys.
So what will happen if Steam is shutdown? Are there any guarantees regarding if Valve shut down or turn off Steam that users would be able to still play the games that were previously obtained?
Best Answer
I would like to add to existing answers by also saying that Steam is the delivery method and storefront, for this they take a cut. But if they are to go under, Valve can not just decide to give you the games as the rights holder is still the publisher.
Publisher may choose to sell the game through Steam, using it as a storefront to attract market and gain sales. They may also use Steam services as part of their game.
For this, they agree to let Valve take a cut on the sale. But the game code itself merely resides with Valve, not the rights to it. It is not Valve choosing to put a game on Steam, it is the publisher USING Steam as distribution method.
So if Steam goes down, Valve may want to give you a means of accessing your game, but the publisher may decline.
Valve has no say in that, as they run a store, and they do not own the files they distribute, nor the IPs. The publisher retains the right to their product. So if Steam stops selling them the distribution service, the publisher has no obligation to give you a new copy on a different medium, unless THEY (not Valve) say so when you buy.
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What happens to your games when Steam shuts down?
If Steam is down, everything is down. You can't backup. So basically there is no drm-free on Steam.Do I own my Steam games forever?
According to the agreement that you agree to every single time you buy a game on Steam, "the Content and Services are licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Content and Services." You're not buying the games, you're buying the license to use them.Are Steam games tied to your account?
Games are tied to accounts not computers. You can play your games on other computers, just install them again.Will Steam last forever?
Steam will shut down. Whether that ends up being due to changing business realities or the eventual heat death of the universe remains to be seen, but nothing lasts forever, and that includes the biggest PC gaming platform out there.What If Steam Closed?
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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