Yes, the games are on your hard drive, they are yours. Does anyone think valve is going to do anything to separate you from your games?
Are Steam games your property?
- Thread starter Azernak0
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Besides the point, I'm afraid. Just ask people who bought George Orwell books on kindles. That we don't "feel" that any given company actually will engage, or not engage in retroactive revocation of software we buy does not factor into whether or not we actually do "own" that software (again, what it means to "own" in this context is a little ambiguous).brainslurper said:
To put it another way, that *promise* not to do it it not the same as they *cannot* do it.
You buy a license, allowing you to download the game X amount of times. However, Valve are probably the mainstream developer least likely to revoke a license without a REALLY good reason.
I'm pretty sure, even when it comes to games and software the come on some sort of physical medium, that as far as the company that produces it is concerned they are not selling you a product for you to own; they are selling you a license allowing you to use their product. The obvious and mos prominent difference being that a license can be suspended or revoked at any time and for any reason (or for no reason). The same applies regardless of whether you bought the game on Steam or from a retail store; only it's a lot easier for Valve to revoke the license of anyone on Steam then it is for any company the still distributes physical copies to retailers.
You do not own anything on steam. if you bought a physical copy of any game within the past 2 years on the PC, you probably don't OWN anything there either. In regards to Steam, you own the LICENSE to play it. The publisher (Valve and the publisher of the game) have the right to block access to your license without a notification or reason. Normally they won't because that would be hard even for the Valve apologists to cover up.
I'm sure gaben would never do anything like taking our games away from us... That would be horrible. Almost as horrible as delaying episode 3 for 4 fucking years. He would never do that either. Oh wait...Zappanale said:
any piece of software, that you buy, is never your's to begin with, because you buy a licence to use it, not the software itself
I'll reiterate then. NO you don't own the copies of the games you've bought, if they can be taken from you by Valve then it's not 100% ownership you have to stay on their service to use them.BeerTent said:
As many have already said, no, you don't own the games you buy from Steam or anyone else. You don't own movies that you buy on dvd and take home with you, either. What you own in that case is the plastic coaster. Steam at least tries to accommodate its customers by limiting the "always online" feature to publishers who absolutely demand it and MMOs that, obviously, require it. It's not ideal, but it could be worse. Personally, I prefer GOG as a download service--older games, yes, but fewer restrictions on access and use.
Until Steam goes bust and unlocks all of the games we buy from them, they're glorified lifetime rentals.
I thought this was common sense among PC gamers by now.
I thought this was common sense among PC gamers by now.
Not really. You are subject to the same terms as an MMO.tobi the good boy said:
Unless you're talking about monthly fees only, which wasn't really the question.
In terms of ownership, the two are equal. Roughly. They can terminate your Steam account and leave you without access to the games you purchased, so you don't really "own" them.
You mean "unless." I'm sorry, but I don't care that Gabe Newell pinky-swore it. Unless it happens, I remain a skeptic. Especially since the people who distributed their stuff on Steam do so because it's ostensibly a secure system. I doubt major publishers are going to be cool with these titles being "unlocked" under any circumstances.Kevlar Eater said: