What would happen to all your games if Steam ever goes under?

[shadowedge]

I have the vast majority of my PC games through Steam. I wonder though, what would happen to all of them if Steam ever goes bankrupt or somehow goes away? A lot of people have a lot of money tied into their account. Would the games just vanish or would you get the option to download them directly to your computer as a stand alone product?

It is not the same as having a physical copy of a disc based game. Even if the company goes under you can always play the disc version (at least Single Player mode). If everything is tied into Steam then things aren't as concrete.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Valve has said, multiple times, that they'd send out a patch to make all your games run without the online check. Sure, I'm taking it with a grain of salt, but I haven't played a lot of my Steam games in ages - and the ones I really do love, by that time I could probably net them on GoG or Humble Bundle or something.

 

[shadowedge]

Valve has said, multiple times, that they'd send out a patch to make all your games run without the online check. Sure, I'm taking it with a grain of salt, but I haven't played a lot of my Steam games in ages - and the ones I really do love, by that time I could probably net them on GoG or Humble Bundle or something.

Valve said that? That's good to hear!

 

[number2301]

Even a lot of physical copies of games need Steam to run so that wouldn't do you much good. I'd be surprised if Valve actually did make it so you could play offline so I'd just pirate them, I don't think anyone could hold that against you!

 

[Zhukov]

Best case scenario: Valve release a patch that removes the DRM.

Worst case scenario: I just download Steam cracks for the games I want.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

To answer the title of the thread before actually reading OP:

*looks to my left* Absolutely nothing unless my NES decides to start working again, in which case it those carts will stop gathering dust. Now, let me check that OP...

If Steam were to go away, the only thing I would lose would be TF2 which I got free anyway and haven't been able to play because I vastly over-estimated my lap-top.

 

[Vault101]

if steam went under?

 

[Skeggers]

I suppose it's an inevitability that eventually Steam is going to go in some way or another; whether it evolves into something else, gets scrapped or goes under, but by then, I get the feeling that the games we're playing at the minute will be mostly just used for nostalgia purposes and we'll be emulating them like we do the N64 today.

 

[Luftwaffles]

I currently own 77 titles...

 

[teqrevisited]

In the event that it does I've got everything backed up on DVDs anyway. I'd imagine they would unlock the platform themselves but if not I don't doubt that someone will get creative.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

They've said they'll take off the DRM so you can still play it. It's different to diablo, where you need to be online because parts of the game are on the servers - for steam it can work offline. We'll be able to keep our games, they've planned ahead.

Diablo III on the other hand, will go down once the servers do, although there'll be emulated servers by then.