If you are going to buy a game on Steam, pay close attention to what the store says on the Shopping Cart screen. Right below the "Continue to payment" button, there is now a small message that explains what you are actually about to buy. From now on, you will not be buying games on Steam; you will be buying licenses:
A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.
The message makes it clear that purchasing digital games does not mean owning them.
The update comes after a few controversies about "owning" digital content purchased from various marketplaces. Ubisoft, for one, ended up in hot waters after deleting The Crew from everyone"s libraries following the servers" shutdown. Sony also received its fair share of hate for plans to remove access to certain purchased TV shows in the PlayStation Store (the company changed its course after the backlash).
Besides getting under everyone"s skin, practices like that raise serious concerns about gaming history preservation.
Controversies like this not only led to some considering raising a black flag but also to governments stepping in to regulate the market. Next year, a new California law will mandate that digital stores communicate the limitations of digital purchases properly and explicitly state that buying is not owning.
With the latest update, Steam might be playing safe ahead of the new regulations, which will impose fines and accusations of false advertising on companies failing to abide. Also worth noting is that the updated message is not exclusive to California—it is present in other states and countries as well.
While the problem of spending money on what you do not own is not going anywhere, at least Steam is now making things a bit clearer for gamers.
Via Engadget