In physical as in digital format, video games are goods subject to user licenses, which, even if we buy them, do not belong to us.
It’s a debate that has been talked about for months on social networks: the video games that we buy, whether in a boxed version or in a digital version, do not really belong to us.
The reason is simple: it is technically not the game that you are buying by spending several dozen euros, but rather a user license. The thing is known to anyone who has fun reading the hundreds of lines of the general conditions of use that one is obliged to accept before launching a game. But for those who do not read them, the information has enough to annoy.
A new, clearer warning on Steam
The debate took on another dimension when California Governor Gavon Newsom signed a law at the beginning of October 2024 stipulating that the words “purchase, purchase or other terms which a person could understand as giving him an unlimited right of ownership in a digital asset” could not be used. A law which has therefore put a chill on the digital goods industry, including Steam, which has put a new information panel online.
Spotted by Engadgetand that Tech&Co has verified, Steam now indicates that “the purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam,” in the United States, but also for other countries where the platform is available, including France .
In other words, the warning specifically explains that the game you are going to purchase will only work on Steam and that your purchase will grant you a license, not exclusive ownership over it.
Will this allow Steam to escape California’s wrath? This will depend on the assessment of legislators who require that a digital goods store use “clear language” to continue to use the word “Buy”.
For Jacqui Irwin, who participated in the bill in California, it becomes “necessary” to protect consumers who are increasingly turning to digital formats. It nevertheless fails to specify that the same conditions apply for a physical game: when you buy a boxed game, you certainly have the object, but all intellectual property goes to the publisher and the developer. This again involves players having a simple license.
