You will die one day. We all will. But what happens to your library of digital games when you die? It may not be the first thing your family or friends do, but digital assets Do have value – some people spend thousands of dollars on video games over their lifetime, many of which are likely digital, through a store like Valve Corp.’s Steam.
A user of the ResetEra forum, delete12345contacted Steam customer support in May and asked: Can I include my Steam library in my will? Technically, you can if you share your login information—don’t forget two-factor authentication!—but the games you bought aren’t really transferable to another person. The response delete12345 got was basically: We’re sorry, but no(Polygon has reached out to Valve for clarification.)
It seems quite absurd that you cannot pass on something that belongs to you, but the thing is, you not You own the games in your Steam library. The same goes for games you purchased from other digital stores, such as Microsoft and Sony’s online stores. Digital games are simply licensed digital assets. Valve makes this clear in the Steam User Agreement.: “The content and services are licensed, not sold.” One could argue that physical media are glorified license keys, but the important detail is that these licenses are transferable: you can legally lend your game to a friend to play, or sell it entirely.
According to Gerry W. Beyer, a professor at Texas Tech University School of Law, and Kerri G. Nipp, a trustee, this is not a problem unique to video games. Beyer and Nipp wrote in the Estate Planning Journal About a ultimately incorrect report this actor Bruce Willis wanted to sue Apple about his iTunes music library, which he wanted to leave to his children. Regardless of the credibility of the original claim, it brought the issue into the public eye: The user agreement you click through when purchasing digital assets like games means you agree to the platform’s licensing agreement. Some digital storefronts also have rules around account ownership and password sharing, which further complicates the transaction. Steam Terms of ServiceFor example, they prohibit the sharing of accounts. Some states have laws regarding digital assetsbut they mostly relate to virtual currencies – and here, too, the licensing issue complicates things.
Attorney Claudine Wong wrote in the Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal In 2013, it explained that “digital content is transferable to the survivors of a deceased user if legal copies of that content exist on physical devices such as iPods or Kindle e-readers.” That presumably applies to your laptop, too, meaning a laptop with games on it could be included in a will and passed on. “So far, it’s not disputed that the devices and the works installed on them can be passed on,” Wong wrote. But it’s less clear when the digital content itself is obtained elsewhere. Regardless of the legality of it all, Wong suggested you put your entire wishes in your will anyway.”[An] “Estate planning is an expression of his wishes for what should happen after his death, and knowing his wishes provides his family with a compelling argument to make with service providers,” Wong said.
What is clear is that video game preservation continues to pose problems for users in our increasingly digital world. As more and more games become available online or digitally only, access is largely controlled by a publisher. This has always been a challenge, for video game preservationistsbut it also seems to be a looming problem as we all get older.
To update: This story has been updated to clarify that Polygon has reached out to Valve for comment.
