games
22 Bit 2024, 14:32
The issue of inheriting Steam accounts keeps recurring in user discussions. Valve’s latest response didn’t make players feel better.
Image source: Still from the animation “Goodbye, Soldier – Rick May Tribute” / PluffyFX / YouTube.
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Steam does not allow inheritance of deceased accounts. At least that’s what the user received from the answer Reddit From technical support to the valve.
theoretically The valve clearly stateswhich Steam accounts cannot be transferred, sold or given away. However, users were very disappointed with the company representatives’ answers. The important point here is that this is not the end of the story, or even the beginning.
Valve Support has long received questions about the “inheritance” of the account. 9 years ago Another user Received the answerwhich Although the owner of Steam does not allow the transfer of account rights, the company “would be happy to cooperate with the legal authorities in the event of such an unfortunate event.”
The Internet user himself admits that this is not a very detailed or binding statement. He suggests that Valve could at least consider such a solution. In the following years, numerous reports indicated that the company did not allow account inheritance.
Of course there is one problem: Can video games outside of physical media and other digital goods be considered heirloom goods? This is not a problem for Valve, but it is an unresolved problem in many countries. In Poland also this is not regulated in any way, despite numerous discussions among specialists on this topic (trans NoweMedia.org.pl / Infor.pl).
However, there are precedents that may support this form of inheritance. In 2020 The German court ruledThat parents should be given access to their deceased daughter’s Facebook account, despite not being able to use it (i.e. add new entries, etc.). Two years ago in the same situation The Supreme Court approves the idea of “digital inheritance”.
This issue will certainly be discussed more and more. After all, gamers and netizens are definitely not getting any younger, and sooner or later the issue of dead accounts will gain publicity. For now, it looks like Steam users will be taking their games to their graves like the treasures of the pharaohs.
He completed his Master’s degree in Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw with a thesis dedicated to this topic. He started his adventure with GRYOnline.pl in 2015, where he wrote for the Games Newsroom, and then also for the Film and Technology Newsroom (he also participated in the Games Encyclopedia). He’s been interested in video games (and not just video games) for years. He started out with platformers and is still a huge fan of them to this day (including Metroidvanias), but he’s also interested in card games (including arcade games), fighting games, Soulslikes and basically anything gaming related. He can admire pixel characters from games dating back to the Game Boy era (if not earlier).
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