What you need to know
- The State of California recently made it law that digital stores have to be upfront about whether a consumer is only buying a digital license to a product.
- Ahead of this, Steam appears to have rolled out a new feature in its cart that makes it clear to its customers that this is what’s happening.
- It isn’t limited to California, or even the U.S., as the same message shows up in other parts of the world.
As someone who has been gaming for over three decades and witnessed the evolution from cartridges to digital downloads, I find Valve’s recent move to be a breath of fresh air. The new disclosure on Steam about digital licenses is a step towards transparency that is long overdue in the gaming industry.
Lately, the state of California has enacted a significant law safeguarding consumers in relation to digital content purchases. In essence, this legislation requires vendors to clearly inform buyers when they are purchasing a temporary license for digital content, rather than an eternal, offline product.
The law won’t be enforced until 2025, however, Valve has taken the initiative and implemented it early in their Steam game store, according to Engadget.
Now, when you go into your cart to checkout, you’ll be greeted with the following message:
“A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.”
In the United Kingdom, I find myself on Steam, and surprisingly, a message appears before my purchase. I’m extremely pleased that Valve didn’t just implement this change due to legal requirements, but extended it to all their customers globally.
Most recently, the situation escalated with Ubisoft, as they shut down the servers for The Crew, leaving behind every player who had ever purchased the game without any means to play it again. Since there was no offline mode available, when the servers disappeared, so did the game, fading into obscurity like grains of sand in the desert.
The reaction was significant, revealing that we no longer hold ownership of our video games, especially games like The Crew, where even those who bought physical copies are left with little more than a souvenir. Ubisoft has taken note and will include offline modes in future installments of the series to prevent such an occurrence.
Today’s gaming landscape is drastically different from what I experienced when I first started gaming more than 30 years ago. Back in those days, we would purchase a game and enjoy it without online play, often until a younger sibling or friend accidentally damaged the cartridge. In contrast, in this digital era, ownership of music, games, movies, and TV shows seems to be merely a temporary license that can be revoked at any time by the service provider.
It’s sad. But at least Steam has made the right move and is finally being ultra clear about what it is you’re getting. Over to the rest of the crowd, now.
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2024-10-11 14:09