Valve has officially stated that your Steam library can’t be transferred to your heirs or loved ones upon your demise.
Written by Blair Marnell on May 29, 2024 at 4:56AM PDT
It’s a common perception amongst digitally savvy gamers that the titles they’ve purchased digitally are theirs to keep forever. However, if anyone is planning to bequeath their Steam library to their heirs, Valve has stated that they forbid the transfer of rights. Simply put, your Steam library ceases to exist with you.
Through Ars Technica, a user informed on ResetEra that they reached out to Steam support to inquire about the process of including their Steam library in their will. The response from Valve’s representative stated, “Regrettably, Steam accounts and games can’t be transferred. Steam Support is unable to provide access to someone else or consolidate its contents with another account. It’s regrettable, but your Steam account cannot be included in your will.”
Some gamers have invested a significant sum into their Steam libraries, which can result in disappointment upon realization that these games might be lost after the Steam account owner’s demise. Yet, the most straightforward solution might be to pass on the login credentials to successors, keeping Steam in the dark. This doesn’t clarify the knotty concern of who truly possesses the digital games, but at least, the games would stay playable.
Another method to preserve Steam games is to transfer computers that already have the games downloaded. Nevertheless, without the original Steam account access, these games will be inaccessible for reinstallation on that very computer in case of a hard-drive failure or any system malfunction, nor they could be installed on a different machine. Therefore, this solution might be not entirely effective. But unless Valve provides a clear-cut way for users to pass their games, there are scant other choices to select from.
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