TECH NEWS – A Steam account is non-transferable and cannot be passed on to family or friends, although Valve doesn’t seem to be taking its own ban too seriously…

No one doubts that Valve has earned a reputation as a user-friendly company. However, the company founded and run by Gabe Newell is one of the toughest when it comes to enforcing its rules. This is exemplified by the punishments: if they ban a player, they will, with very few exceptions, punish him forever. However, the company’s obsession with its own rules is best demonstrated by the fact that there is no single scenario in which the Steam account we use can be transferred to anyone else. When we say “no scenario,” we mean death.

A Steam account is just a rental

A player curious about the company’s policies asked Valve’s customer service about the situation. Just a few hours later, the player support staff responded with a polite but blunt response. A Steam account cannot be transferred even upon death.

“Unfortunately, Steam accounts and their games are not transferable. Steam support cannot allow another person to access the account or to merge the content of one account with the content of another account. We regret to inform you that a Steam account is not transferable via will,” Valve staff explained (after ResetEra).

Everything we buy in the store is more like a “lease for life” and no longer ours. However, it must be said that this also seems like a rule that companies just “wash their hands” of.

Just because Valve doesn’t have an “official” system for passing your account on to a loved one in the event of your death doesn’t mean you can’t share your username, password, and two-step verification tool. The developer is unlikely to take action on accounts used by a single player. In fact, you may run into legal problems if you do so. Ownership rights are somewhat difficult to understand in the world of digital licenses. There’s even been a 60-page paper on the subject asking, “Can Bruce Willis Leave His iTunes Collection to His Children?”

It should be noted that although we are talking about Steam, since it is the platform that spoke about the situation, the rules are not very different with our profiles from other stores. Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation or Epic Games will have to come to terms with this issue in the future.

Source: NDLA, Digitalcommons