But Valve I’m dead? Why can’t my family play the Steam games I have bought?
As gamers, we are being conditioned to believe that the games we now buy aren’t really ours a lot of the time. However, the big companies may choose to phrase things, it is apparent that no matter how much we spend on a game, they can, certainly in the case of multiplayer games or online-focused games, just turn it off whenever the business decision seems right for the members of the board and shareholders.
It’s difficult not to constantly refer back to the horrific quote from a Ubisoft exec about gamers needing to get used to the idea that we don’t own our games anymore. There are several four-letter responses to this theory I could give them, but the fact remains since we stopped purchasing or being able to purchase, physical versions of our games, we actually have zero say and own nothing.
At least with digital storefronts like Steam, we own something, right? The collection may be ethereal, but I own those games and can do with them as I please, even after I die. I mean I bought them and if I want my kids to reminisce over my untimely demise with a collective game of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit or even to crack open dad’s old No Man’s Sky save one last time, that’s fine right?
