After you die, your Steam games will be stuck in legal limbo
Can Your Steam Games Outlive You?
Valve's Steam platform does not allow the transfer of game accounts or libraries after the owner's death, as per the Steam Subscriber Agreement. This issue has resurfaced as aging gamers question the fate of their digital collections. Despite potential loopholes like leaving login information, legal ownership cannot be transferred, impacting both personal estate planning and efforts toward digital game preservation.
Why might the Video Game History Foundation face difficulties in legally owning digital games and accounts donated to them?
The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) may face difficulties in legally owning digital games and accounts donated to them primarily due to the terms outlined in subscriber agreements like those from Steam13. These agreements generally state that accounts and the digital games they contain are non-transferable. This means that even if an individual wishes to donate their account or digital games to the VGHF, the subscriber agreement would likely prevent the legal transfer of ownership.
Furthermore, the preservation of digital-born video games is complicated by these restrictions. For instance, Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil's intention to donate physical machines with downloaded games to the VGHF wouldn't solve the issue, as the legal ownership of the games and accounts themselves cannot be transferred under the current terms of most digital distribution services6. This situation underscores a broader challenge in the field of video game preservation, where the inability to legally transfer digital game licenses limits access to digital-born games for archival and historical purposes136.
What implications does the inability to transfer digital game licenses have on video game preservation efforts?
The inability to transfer digital game licenses significantly impacts video game preservation efforts. This issue was highlighted by Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil's experience, who invested around $20,000 to secure every digital game available for the 3DS and Wii U platforms2. Khalil's intention to donate these games and the devices they are installed on to the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) underscores a major challenge in the preservation of digital-born games1. According to Kelsey Lewin, a co-director at VGHF, there is no "reasonable, legal path for the preservation of digital-born video games." The subscriber agreements that govern digital content ownership pose a legal barrier to transferring these digital assets to another owner, even for preservation purposes. This limitation is not just a personal issue but a significant obstacle for institutions dedicated to preserving video game history, especially as the industry moves further away from physical media1.