Valve confirms your Steam account cannot be transferred to anyone after you die
www.techspot.com
The confirmation came from the Steam support staff earlier this month when Resetera forum user delete12345 asked Steam support if he can put his Steam library in...
  • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    If steam did allow transfers this way, I can imagine it being a new type scam where people fabricate death documents to steal steam accounts.

      • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Oh for sure, but it’s definitely a concern for stuff like this. It’s a lot easier for valve to just expect people to pass login info down as a way to pass on an account.

        Valve actually migrating purchases from one account to another risks upsetting publishers, and requires whole new policies on how to verify death and verify who should receive the account. Finally there’s the risk of scams and having to resolve them. Overall it’s a lot of headache for valve, I’m not surprised they’re not jumping to offer it officially.

  • Baggins [he/him]@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    Life Pro Tip: Register an LLC to buy your steam games under. The LLC will never die and you can transfer ownership of the business entity while it retains control of the steam account.

  • MudMan@fedia.io
    0·
    6 months ago

    To be absolutely clear, this is not new. Steam accounts being non-transferrable and not your property has always been how Steam’s terms work. It’s not even the first time the death situation comes up.

    Because digital ownership sucks, and that absolutely, very much includes Steam. If you can’t keep an offline copy you don’t own it.

    But honestly, given the new family groups Steam came up with this gets weirder now. Other accounts that are more closely tied to hardware are one thing, and I do wish we had a more effective and reliable way to hand over passwords and credentials to relatives in case of emergency, but it’s so weird that now your mom can have an accident and you slowly see the games she was sharing with you over that system fade away as her account gets shuttered. It’s such a grim, sci-fi distopian piece of minutia. This is not a great timeline we landed on.

  • Schwim Dandy@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    My family plays the games under my account now. I imagine not much will change when I’m dead.

      • Schwim Dandy@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Pretty sure I’m good. Account email is a forwarder to a family domain and they have access to everything relating to the account. For all intents and purposes, it’s just me logging in from the grave.

          • Schwim Dandy@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            6 months ago

            Sorry for not being clear, I wasn’t aware family sharing was even a thing. In my case, everyone is using my credentials to log into and use the games under my account. All the same property so same IP.

              • shottymcb@lemm.eeEnglish
                0·
                6 months ago

                Yeah, but Valve doesn’t really give a shit if it’s abused. Steam is a solitary positive example of the weird “(mostly)benevolent monopoly” idea. GabeN owns the company, there aren’t any shareholders to appease, so as long as he’s alive steam will be solid. I hope he has a successor picked out that can uphold his ideals.

  • Altima NEO@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    On one hand, that’s shitty.

    On the other hand, I cant imagine anyone in my family gives a shit about my games.

  • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    It’s unlikely that would survive a lawsuit. If they claim the games have value, as evidenced by then having a price, then that value can be transferred.

  • j4k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Means you don’t own anything then. It is a lost autonomy. Once lost, you will only lose more with time.

  • fox2263@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    “And to my son, I bequeath my steam account - user is blah and password is blah”

    Checkmate steam

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      6 months ago

      Less about enforcement than ease of transfer. If I’ve got a Steam account and you’ve got a Steam account and I die, Steam won’t let you transfer the licenses from my account to yours. You just have to maintain two independent accounts now - accounts with 2-factor authentication that you also have to maintain (so second cell numbers and emails, etc).

      Steam will simply let the administrative burden of juggling extra accounts take these licenses out of the pool.