Online video game sales have entered a new phase. After California approved a new law that requires proper identification of 'acquisition of licenses', we are seeing some official responses. One of them comes from Steam: its cart section now warns the user that the purchase of a digital product grants a license within the platform. A symbolic change, but very important to remember the situation of our games...
Earlier this month we talked about the AB-2426 law of the state of California, which seeks to limit the use of expressions like 'buy' or 'purchase' for processes of rental or license acquisition in digital products. Considering the size of California (it would be the fifth world economy as an independent country), the impact of the law is not minor, but technically it goes into effect next year. Now, that doesn't stop the main platforms from getting ahead of the changes, and the first signs come via Steam.
'The purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam'
This message appears in the cart section, below the price. It also includes a link to the so-called 'Steam Subscriber Agreement' (which was recently updated), and beyond the slight redundancy, it confirms what we already knew: Steam grants licenses, not ownership. Personally, I can't guarantee that this is enough to comply with the legal requirements of AB-2426, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.
The English version of the message can be seen in the image above, via Engadget.
Now the question is: How do we feel? I have 179 games. Most of them are still stuck at 'zero hours', but if something happened to Steam, I would be furious about losing titles like Alan Wake, Astroneer, Blasphemous, the Borderlands series, Carrion, Don't Starve, Doom 2016, Jedi Fallen Order, the seventeen versions of Skyrim (!), and many more. Additionally, licenses can also receive something equivalent to an artificial limit or expiration date, a dreadful and aberrant possibility (which we have already seen in action, like the 'number of activations' in some titles).
So, what comes next? Do we continue accepting this status quo of 'buying without owning'? Should we support platforms like GOG that offer offline copies, and demand that others follow the same example? Or will we go to the extreme of cracking our own games? The comments are open.
Source: Engadget
