Is it wrong to download a cracked copy of a game you've already legally purchased? One which I've already bought a pre-order for on Steam. I already own this game and a license to download. On the few occasions where I have bought a game on Steam from my mobile phone, the app gave me the option to start downloading and installing the game on my desktop. How can I use the Steam app to download a game I already own? Is there a way to remotely kick off a download for a previously purchased game through the app, or does the.

Steam is without doubt the most popular gaming service for desktop systems. It is used by millions of gamers at any time of the day and while things could be better in some regards, it is working quite well considering the huge number of users that Steam has to service throughout the day.

An option for users of the platform to refund purchase was introduced recently. It allows users to get refunds for contents purchased on Steam if certain conditions are met.

Basically, if you you purchased an item on Steam, you may request a refund for it. Some conditions apply, for instance that you cannot request a refund for items that you have consumed already (think DLC).

The details

Refunds are available for games and software applications within two weeks of purchase that have a playtime of less than two hours total.

Refunds are awarded within a week of approval to the account's Steam Wallet or through the original payment method depending on whether that is supported or not.

Valve notes that some payment methods may not support refunds and when that is the case, Steam Wallet is used to refund the payment instead.

• Downloadable Content (DLC) - Refunds are available for DLC as long as the title the DLC was purchased for was not played for more than two hours after the purchase and the DLC has not been 'consumed, modified or transferred'.
• In-game purchases - Refunds are offered for in-game purchases within Vale-developed games within 48 hours after purchase provided that the items have not been consumed, modified or transferred. Third party developers need to add refund options to their games before this option becomes available for non-Valve developed games.
• Pre-purchased titles - Games that you have paid for in advance are refunded at any time prior to release. After release, the standard 14 day and two hour playtime rule applies.
• Steam Wallet - If you transfer money to your Steam Wallet, you may get a refund for it within fourteen days of purchase if purchased on Steam and not used in the meantime.
• Bundles - The same refund rules apply to bundles (multiple games or DLC in a package). You may return a bundle if no item of it has been transferred and if the total playtime of all items of a bundle is less than two hours.

Refunds are not provided for the following items or in the following situations

1. Vac banned users cannot return items.
2. Gifts cannot be refunded.
3. Games purchased outside of Steam cannot be refunded.
4. Moves cannot be refunded.
5. In abuse cases, refunds may not be permitted anymore. For instance, if a user abuses the refund system. Valve notes however that it is perfectly fine to refund a game you bought for full price to purchase it in a sale instead.

How to request refunds on Steam

• Visit the https://help.steampowered.com/ to get started.
• If you are not signed in to your Steam account already, use the sign-in option at the top to do so.
• Steam displays all recent products on the start page after you sign in.
• Select the product that you want a refund for from the list.
• A list of problems is displayed on the next screen. Select either 'I purchased this by accident' or 'It's not what I expected'.
• On the next page, select 'I'd like to request a refund'. Information about the purchase, price, date and name of the product are displayed then along with the refund method.
• This opens a form on the same page. Valve requests that you tell them why you need to refund the product. Once you have added the information, hit the submit request button to complete the process.

Closing Words

Refunds improve the user experience on Steam significantly. While the process is rather complicated right now, as you have to use the Steam website and add a reason to the refund request, it still improves the overall experience on Steam.

It remains to be seen however how well this is handled by Valve after all.

Now You: Are you a Steam user? What's your take on Steam Refunds?

I don’t think anyone understood how important the Steam games service would become when it was released in 2003. The general mood, as I recall it, was skepticism. Valve was a great game developer, but opening a digital game store was an entirely different business with different challenges.

Steam is now approaching 10 years old. Its impact has been undeniable. Millions of gamers enjoy the service’s seamless community services, low prices and excellent selection. I have been one of them – until now. While I will be keeping my current Steam games (of course) I will no longer be buying products there. If a game is released only through Steam, I will not play it. Here’s why.

The Turning Point

Valve recently released new terms of service that deny users the right to a class action lawsuit. This is, at least in the United States, entirely legal. The only way to resolve a dispute is through binding arbitration with Valve.

That’s a bad thing to do, but it’s also understandable. Every company has moved to exclude class action lawsuits ever since the United States Supreme Court struck down a California law that forbids companies from excluding class action suits in their terms of service.

What really struck me, however, was Valve’s response to those curious about what would happen if they denied the updated terms of service.

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

We can permanently deactivate your account for you, remove any stored payment information and clear your Steam games profile.

Disabling your account will not result in a refund, as explained in the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

The games in your account will not be accessible for future use. It is impossible to make your games available once your account has been deactivated and your information deleted or archived. Once we have permanently deactivated the account, we will not be able to reactivate the account upon a future request.

Yep. If you don’t want to accept the new terms of service you have the right to have all the games you purchased deactivated. Forever.

A Problem Of Precedent

This is troublesome not just because of the class-action issue. It’s troublesome because Valve is saying it has the right to changes the terms of service at any time. If the user choses to reject the new terms, Valve will not give the user the chance to continue using games purchased under the earlier terms. Those games will simply vanish, along with the user’s account.

I’m not a legal expert, but as far as I’m aware, there’s no precedent in law that prevents Valve from doing this. You could sue, but there’s no guarantee you’ll win. Companies change their terms of service all the time, in fact, and this is okay as long as users are notified.

I’ve heard fellow gamers speak in horrified whispers about this exact problem, but most assumed it would happen only after Steam was bought out by another company. They haven’t been bought out, but those worst nightmares are coming true.

If Valve thinks it is okay to hold games hostage in order to force users to accept terms of service that deny their right to a class action lawsuit, what else might they do?

We’re In Deep

In 2010 I wrote an article for The Escapist titled Steam: A Monopoly In The Making, in which I shared my concerns about Steam. I was troubled because Steam had such a large share of the digital distribution market, and that share seemed to be growing. This puts gamers in a position where Steam is sometimes the only choice or, because of the success of Steam sales, the only logical one.

The fact I’ve purchased titles through Steam since I wrote that article is a testament to the service’s strength. In many cases, I had no choice – the games were not available without a Steam account. If I were to leave Steam by disputing their new terms of service I would be giving up access to about 100 games that I have paid for.

Most of us are in deep with Steam, and we’ll only get in deeper as time goes on. This gives Steam additional leverage to use against us when they change the terms of service. The situation reminds me of the Penny Arcade cartoon that made fun of Microsoft’s subscription music service. Yeah, you can leave any time you want. So long as you don’t mind killing all your favorite games.

What Can You Do?

Leaving Steam isn’t really an option, and wouldn’t do anything besides destroy access to some of my favorite titles. I will, however, stop buying games from the service.

Download Games For Windows 7

What are the alternatives5 Sites Where You Can Download Old PC Games for Free5 Sites Where You Can Download Old PC Games for FreeWant to try downloading some old PC games for free? Here are the sites where you can find the best games of old, free to download.Read More? Well, there’s GOG. Formerly known as Good Old Games, the service changed its title because it no longer restricts itself to old games. They’re 100% DRM free. You need to log in to your account to download, but that’s it.

The Humble Indie BundleThe Humble Indie Games Bundle: Pay What You Want!The Humble Indie Games Bundle: Pay What You Want!Read More and similar offers provide another solution. They can deck you out with numerous games for one affordable price (which you get to choose). Again, it’s DRM free.

And then there are the rare developers that release games entirely on their own. One example is 2×2 Games, whose recent strategy game Unity Of Command can be purchased directly from the developers.

I’m not saying this will be easy. There are a lot of games that I’ll miss out on because I don’t want to purchase from Steam any longer. But I think that, in the long run, it will be the better choice. I don’t want to have 100 more games tied to my account when Steam inevitably takes some other disruptive action that I don’t agree with.

Steam Download Game Already Bought To Go

What do you think of Steam games? Will you be walking away from Steam? Or are you sticking with them? Tell us your opinion in the comments below.

Image Credit: Jason Jones, Keith Burtis, Penny Arcade

Download Game Pc

1. I also actually decided to stop buying game from steam because some of their decisions morally disgust me and now with this more reason to no longer buying at steam.

   Anyway, If there's no alternative to steam why don't you consider piracy? Though some people will object that piracy itself is morally wrong (it's not for me), you can argue that supporting steam is morally worse choice.

2. So let me get this straight, you won't buy steam games because you can't sue? That the dumbest thing I ever read! I mean your choice, but I have been with steam for about six years and never really had a problem with them. As for California, you people are loosing industry left and right because of socialistic laws being passed that hurt businesses. Anyway, just dumb to base not buying a product because you can't sue! Please grow up man!

   • wow, so you are rather ignorant if that is what you got out of his post. What he said is that Steam has taken the stand that if you refuse their changing terms of service they give you - you the person that paid full retail price for an application that if you had bought from any other location, you would have full right of use for the rest of your life - that they will take your money and tell you to F*(& off. Close your account and you have no further access to that application you bought. So you actually are not buying a game - you are renting it.

3. Steam support is awful, It is the worst support ever, the worst I've encountered within last 20 years.

   The ignorance of support members is HUGE. They completely ignore the question and close support ticket without even answering it.

   Apparently, there is no control of their work, and there is no place for official complain about negligent performance of official obligations, Any unscrupulous employee can just close your ticket marking it as 'solved', his stats will go up (as if he indeed helped to solve the issues he closed).

   One such the most dishonest support members is Sarah Lynn. She rises her personal stats of closed issues by just writing something irrelevant and closing the ticked as if she resolved it.

4. I am also very disappointed with steam. After spending thousands of dollars on one of their games and dedicating almost a year of my time I found out that they have been over charging me. They play the blame game back and fourth with GameLoft. Just really disheartened that they would treat a long time good client like me the way they have. Now I'm balls deep and stuck.

5. hi interesting article, I too will not buy any more steam or origin game for that very reason, if I buy a game I would like it on disc to play alone like in the old days. why do peeps think that steam is the be all and end all of gaming, I guess it`s the end of my gaming days, how sad is that.

6. I have also decided to leave Steam. For me, it is because their customer support is abysmal, but this is certainly some interesting info about their terms of service.

7. I initially purchased Civ V, and that came with Steam attached, I found out. At the time I had an old PC and bad internet connection, yet every time I turned on the PC, Steam effectively blocked my access to the internet for 5-10 minutes while it went through my HD's looking for pirated games (so they said, more or less).

   I never owned a pirated game in my life, so that offended me no end! Especially as Steam checked for those every day for weeks on end! So in the end I uninstalled Civ V, and Steam, and I swore never to buy another title using Steam ever again!

   Lately, I've been tempted by Football Manager and such, as people I know say Steam is not intruding that much these days.

   But in the end I can not bring myself to PAY for a game, then find out I only leased it if the seller changes the rules later. So thank you for this article clarifying what is going on!

   • I don't know where you got your information from, but Steam doesn't 'search your hard drive for pirated games.' I've pirated well over 100 games in my lifetime (broken/lost discs, try before you buy, etc.), and I've had Steam for about half that. Never was my internet cut, or access restricted to my library of Steam games. They do not care what or how you pirated games, as long as you're not cheating in a VAC enabled game.

     But it is true, Steam is just a subscription service. At any time they can choose to charge you $20 a month to continue to be an active Steam user, and you would have no choice if you wanted to continue playing your games.

     • Just as you corrected the above individual for bad information, I must also correct you.
       Steam CANNOT charge you a monthly fee to access the games you already purchased. They CAN charge you a fee to access the base social services, the store, and any new elements they decide to offer. However, this won't happen because it is not financially responsible for them to do so. They get 30% of each sale made on Steam as payment for expected services rendered. This entails the ability to download and play your games. They have stated that there is a plan in place to make all of your games accessible in the event that they stop operating as they currently do. An associate of mine said that most companies offering this type of service are forced to show such a plan and set aside operating costs for this very contingency plan. Steam is not some big evil corporation looking to screw you over. They are a business that serves a particularly nasty customer base with wild conspiracies and litigious attitudes. This behavior is what lead to the new terms and policies. Anyone that owns a business serving rowdy patrons has to set strong rules into place to protect their business and loyal employees so that they can continue to serve customers and provide living wages for employees.

       People are constantly looking at the worst case scenario protections and then fantasizing and stretching the reality into a full on doomsday scenario. I have worked with Valve for a number of years and while I think their percentages are out of whack, I have witnessed a lot of good and generous behavior from them to developers and users.
       To those who think Valve will miss your few thousand dollars in purchases...they have well over 100 million accounts worldwide and estimates put individual sale averages at just over $50. Even if 15% of all users(about 14% of this is too optimistic), the company would barely feel it. As a private company with ENORMOUS cash reserves and income, the idea of a boycott only hurts you. They are a force to be reckoned with and they aren't going anywhere in your lifetime. Reckon with it or don't but blabbing about it online isn't going to change anyone's life but your own. Just like this comment I wrote.
       ;)

       • Just pirate any game on steam, or buy it on a console where you actually own it. I am not a fan because they lock down the used market. You buy a game with an activation key and as soon as you register it, the key is no longer valid under any circumstances. I'll keep playing my games on consoles for this exact reason. If it isn't available on a console then I will find a crack for it. Valve isn't an evil corporation, but only because it's impossible for an inanimate object to be evil. But they could absolutely lock your account behind a pay wall and you would eat it. It is literally no different than deleting your account for not agreeing to the new terms of service.

         I purchased my games under a certain set of terms and those terms are the only ones that apply to the game I purchased. If the game in question was purchased before the revised terms that state no class action then guess what, class action. I purchased my game under a contract. You can't change that contract 5 years later without my consent. Everyone should reject the terms and then file a class action once the accounts are deleted. If you think the mega corp you speak of that is valve could sustain the losses of even a third of their subs after the payout then you don't know business that well.

         Liquid assets are any holdings that can be turned into cash within a year. A class action will cause business to slow. It will also immediately cost in retainers for legal fees. While they are scrambling to turn those holdings into cash they will most likely lose more subs, ultimately slowing the flow of capital into the accounts. It's amazing how fast a company starts to sink once operating costs start to outweigh the money coming in.

8. Look, you're a journalist, and a game journalist at that. Here's a little thing you don't know. You can in fact file a class action lawsuit against Steam even if their ToS says otherwise. It would be a point of argument in court and nothing more. You think if it worked the way you think it does, doctors would still be fighting malpractice suits? The healthcare industry has the best lawyers in the game. You think if there were a way to circumvent human rights through contracts, they wouldn't have done so already? Tell me, how binding do you think a slavery contract is under US law? That's right, not binding at all. The law > contracts.

   • Thank you for bringing common sense and stable thought into the mix.

9. Plus, I Don't Care For Playing The Monopoly Game With The Steam Company As
   To Compromise My Star Trek Dell 4K Enterprise Laptop Security. Red Alert Sound.
   Raises The Anti-Virus Shields On My Star Trek Dell 4K Enterprise Laptop. Loads
   Anti-Malwarebytes Tank Named 'DATA' And Ransom Stopper 'Warf' @ My Own
   Disposal With The Website And Program Exclusions Option That's Built Into The
   Anti-Virus. Cuts Off The Communication With Steam.

10. Steam Won't Stop Picking On Me With Their Sexual, Nudity And Fantasy Games,
    Including The Virtual Reality Games, Because I'm Not Buying Into Them. NOT INTERESTED. Plus, I Don't Have The Virtual Reality Gear And I Would Not Care
    To Buy One. I Would Only Care For The Augmented Reality Gear For Steam For
    The Cheaper Price, Since I'm Not Employed And I Don't Have A Job To Earn The 1000s Of Dollars Every Month As To Purchase One. It Would Be Ten To Twelve
    Dollars Per Hour For Five Days A Week, If I Were Hired For A Part-Time Job.

11. sure i can no longer sue steam but why would i even want to?

12. You can easily sever steams hold on single player games that dont require you to log into a server for the actual game. Multiplayer games you can kiss goodbye tho.

13. I bet half of the people on here siding with Steam are steam spin doctors. I Find it hard to believe customers would feel so strongly in favor of Steam's DRM and new anti class action suit policy.

    I'm in the same boat. I just want to buy my games from the developer directly and cut Steam out of it entirely. I'd be willing to pay more for the titles I want to support their storefront costs. I'd even be willing to register my licence with my name and address to ensure that it would not get shared out.

    • You are already paying the developer too much and now you are advocating paying them more. When games moved from physical media to digital distrobution one of the biggest benefits was supposed to be lower cost do to the reduced/ eliminated cost of manufacturing.

      The game would simply be mad available for download saving the devs and end users lots of money. This never became the case. Origin titles are still 50-60 bucks with no need to press, package and ship DVDs/BluRays to Gamestop, Wal-Mart etc. EA also doesn't have to share profits with the distributor either. EA got so greedy they also cut out steam from the profits. Bottom line they are making and saving money hand over foot. Your suggestion is to give them more money?

    • I get it, but if you cut steam out then you are cutting out PC gaming all together, and then you get a similar situation on consoles. Sony and MS are no different. If Sony decides to disable your account, or if MS decides to ban your Xbox for not accepting TOS you will loose the ability to play games. Multiplayer games will 'die' at 100% functionality, and you may have single player support for a time, but your library will gradually shrink.

      During the PS3 launch the system was advertised as the only system that could install a linux OS and become a super computer with Cell CPUs. One day Sony decided that they no longer wanted the system to be capable of this feature. This means one of the major benefits of owning the PS3 for many consumers would be patched out. I could have chosen not to accept the patch, but to do so would end all multiplayer gaming on the console, many PS3 digital accessories like the BR player, Netflix and web browser would also be left unfunctional, and gradually my ability to play single player games was reduced to almost none. 1 or 2 games did continue to work, but basically either you accepted the update or you lost 98% functionality of your PS3.

      After a few weeks of having a bricked $400 blu ray player on my entertainment center I was forced to get the patch. Ironically in the end I was part of a Class Action suit against Sony. 10-12 years later I was just recently awarded 10 dollars for my portion of the settlement.

      My point is Steam is not the only gaming company who does this. They are all guilty of the same practice. You either click accept or your library and sometimes the entire console is lost.

14. Who cares if you are ever going to never purchase another game from Steam! What actually made you think people are interested in reading your drivel? Read the first sentence and thought to myself life is too short for reading this rubbish.

    • Life's too short to read, but yet not too short to reply with your own drivel reeking of self importance? GTFO

15. Steam would lose in court in a heartbeat with this policy. The policy might be in effect, but it is illegal from one angle or another.

16. Why not just accept the terms of use and get on with it. not a big deal to hit Accept

17. Steam would lose in court in a heartbeat with this policy. The policy might be in effect, but it is illegal from one angle or another.

18. Funny you did this article, because I had a problem with Steam over a year ago and filed a small claims case in my state after Steam made a mistake, and instead of correcting it, forced me to do a chargeback and they retaliated by putting an entire block on my account. I in turn hit them with a small claims subpoena and in my state, the law is strict where I can file and refuse arbitration. But best of all, no one is allowed to use attorneys in small claims. After steam got the subpoena, they acted fast to fix the issue instead of sending those normal macroed messages. I have known about drm for years, and what worries me more is the fact that one day steam can fold and then none of my titles will work. I had this same issue with Corel Draw who took me for $750 early 90's. Since then, when I buy anything, unless its one of those $2.00 titles, I will not buy it unless it's either drm free or offers both a steam license and drm free version which humble bundle is great for. As far as worrying about accepting Steams new policys or losing what you pay for, as far as courts are concerned, threatening to wipe someones system out if they do not agree to new terms is the same thing as sticking a gun to ones head and forcing them to sign an agreement. It's under duress and most courts will side against companies like steam for attempting it.
    Btw, here is something else similar to drm, which is online services. They do the same thing and try to scam US customers because their based out of the country. I had this issue with a german company who thought they could get away with similar garbage. Easy fix again was small claims against the US card merchant that processed sales for them.

19. Well done!
    But after reading some that first response by ' super dumb' I think our country is in deep doo doo.

20. Please go cry somewhere OFF the internet,..

    You seriously come here to write about how you won't buy on Steam anymore? Get a life!

    Most of you crying obviously never read anything about the games your buying in the first play, that a Developer clearly states at the 'TOP' of ever game page! Nobody if forcing you to play thee games, or go on Steam! So how about just stop playing these games if you don't like Developer games! They were never meant to be finished, many of them never will be, they will be 'CONTINUED'. So I hear they still sell consoles at Walmart, please go buy one and find something to cry about, about your new console,..that has a finished product, that you wish could still be updated! lmao

    'This has to be the most ignorant article I ever read, and couldn't resist posting!'

21. I bought Sony Vegas Pro 13 for about 199.99 and now I can't use it. There is no longer a store product page for it on Steam. There is a store product page for Sony Vegas pro 14, but I'm not going to spend another 199.99 for that version. My Sony Vegas Pro 13 now hangs when trying to initialize direct x . Steam offered me no advice on fixes for Sony Vegas 13, and of course now I can't get a refund because of their return policy. So don't purchase software like this from Steam like I did. Luckily I didn't pay the 399.99 price, but losing 199.99 still is a kick in the nuts. I will no longer purchase games or software from Steam. I will be giving GOG my business from now on. Gabe Newell has shown me that he is a thief and has no interest in taking care of his customers.

    • It is not Valve's (Steam) job to provide support for Sony's Vegas Pro software. Steam is just a convenient service that lets you get software from various companies. You should be contacting Sony (the company in charge of the software you're using) for technical support.

      You can still download your version of Vega Pro from the steam client. Therefore there is nothing wrong with the steam service. Sony simply does not want new consumers purchasing their old product and therefore removed it from the steam store.

      It's the same as if you bought the CD for Vegas Pro at best buy and want to return it more than a year later. Best buy would not give you free troubleshooting support nor would they accept it as a return.

22. I have over 14o games from steam and 90% of them are sh@t and most never get all the bugs fixed as they promise. Yet this is not the worse of it... Now they even destroy games that have done for a long time like Forest it was finished an most if not all issue with game play was fixed and if you could go back an see 99% of the review where positive and along with most if not all have finished the game an was happy with it. Yet that was not good enough they now add or change so much to make it more difficult and changes that had nothing to do with game play issue I hate this site for this now my game no longer work I paid for and they block all my reviews do to my negative reviews that have to do with this.
    My Review:
    if I could paste it so you could see this is wrong that we own a game an they can after it is finished go in an make changes to it an destroy a good game so no one can play it now..

    • What drugs are you on and where can I buy some?

23. Companies like Steam,Origin,Uplay are all the same. Even GOG is the same. Yes, its DRM free. But what does that matter when you kick the bucket. You take nothing with you anyway. To them, you pay to play then move on. Even if the T.O.S were in your favor, what would you do. You would still need to download to play. Digital is for convenience. Who cares. If you like, when you go to your grave, take a printout of all your game codes, if you think it would make you feel better.

    • GOG isn't exactly the same because they offer the games drm free, what means that you can download and store the installers in your hard drive. If for any circunstances you no longer have a gog account, you can still install and play all your games on any pc.

      • Exactly, any game I buy on GoG that I know I want to for sure always have access to, the installer goes on it's own archive drive. So even if GoG goes belly up I still have my game.

    • Remember your grandfather's transistor radio or your uncles Commodore 64? For enthusiast we can leave our grandchildren some vintage artifacts; yes we may all 'kick the bucket' but we can leave a piece of our treasures which is a piece of us.

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25. Steam is the worst bloody service provider ever. I just terminated my account recently 33 games couldn't be happier, took me a gruesome five day wait because I'm convinced their incompetence is legendary. There is literally no one on tech support end to look at tickets, they just don't don't give a damn. Took me a bit of Googling and reading other peoples stories to realize the truth. The account termination page is all automated no human component. It's actually probably easier to purposely brake their rules and get perma banned maybe the best way to terminate your account. Their termination page is setup up by zombies as it leads you down mind games, forcing you to rethink your actions, after several confirmations later they finally give you the boot.

26. Agreed 1000%. Years late in realizing this. Wolpaw leaving very recently was the last straw for me. Valve has produced no new IP nor bothered to continue with cherished titles. I am done.

27. This is the issue I have always had with digital. You're not buying the right to keep the games and everyone missed that. I protested so much 10 years back, and everyone said 'it's the future, its awesome'....

    Yeah.... After about 5 years I caved. I started buying a few digital purchases here and there because of bargains and games that weren't available physically.... Now look what's happening.

    I have already lost every PS1 game I bought on PSN with my PS3 because with the PS4, instead of allowing you to carry your purchases on, they now make you subscribe to a streaming service which means you have to pay again to play games you've already bought, and you need an active subscription and an always connected internet connection to access them. THE PS3 AND PS4 ARE LINKED TO THE SAME ONLINE STORE AND HAVE SOME SHARED ACCESS GAMES!!!!... This behaviour is just extortion. If they cared about customer satisfaction, the games would be playable on any Sony console.

    I avoid digital buys where I can but I have a few Nintendo shop virtual console games, a few hundred steam games and a few dozen PSN purchases. In 20 years I won't be able to play them like I can with games I bought 20 years ago today. They will just be a silent memory of something I used to have that was taken away from me by the people I bought them from, just because they decided to move on. I have exchanged hard earned cash to have these games. I expect to be able to keep them for at least as long as the companies are alive, and Steam and PSN, Nintendo and the others should be doing all they can to give us the means to do so. Not moving on when they have profited enough and leaving us to fend for ourselves.

28. Does anyone know if there is a way that I can download PC games to my PC directly without needing a client or an account? Whatever happened to the good ole days when you could just download a PC game and play right then immediately? I am glad that people use STEAM as do I, but I hate it right now and I'd rather play my games without my entire library under control of a company who has a monopoly on the PC gaming industry.

    • What happened to the good ole days ya say? Simple piracy both online and retail it is why their is such things as a DRM tho nowadays torrents have zero problems cracking whatever to steal. People are forgetting or are mistaken that buying a game means you own it NOPE like films and nearly all types of media you just own the rights to it unless you made it yourself you don't won squat.

      Complaining about crap like steam is useless as many have stated NO ONE is forcing you to buy or play games and really who the hell cares about some game they have played already? Even if you love a game in a year or 2 it would just be forgotten like all the game cds of old. As PCs keep evolving and older games turn incompatible. Again its the way nearly all business work in the digital world dont like it dont use it!! Simple..

      • Reaction to perceived piracy is why DRM exists. The people who pirate games were never going to buy the game, usually it's the young, the poor, or people who don't want to shell out for a game they might not like. In my life I know more than one person that uses piracy as a demo (remember how those used to exist?) and buy the game if they stick around for more than an hour.

        But of course, people are stealing their games, so no matter how few, no matter how little monetary hurt is felt, they have to react like schoolchildren and start throwing rocks.

        Some DRM is still effective, by the way. The Assassin's Creed games lately have been using a dual DRM system that's halted pirates for a good few months.

29. Just because a TOS says 'you can't sue' doesn't mean you can't sue.

30. Some of you are missing the point. If I go and pay 45 quid for a game, why should a company like steam dictate to me how I will install it, play it, or who I will sell it to?. These companies simply want it all these days. Total rights to do anything they like with their software but freedom of choice to charge you whatever they like. This kind of service is buy once, pay forever. I purchased Doom 4 for PC the other day, I was frankly horrified to discover that my retail copy was basically an empty disc that needed to be linked to steam to download a hefty 46 gig of data.In micro small print,on the back of the case it stated that If I did not agree to steams terms, I could return the game unopened within 30 days. If any of you out there think this is acceptable practice, then I feel very sorry that most of you were probably born after 2003. All I want to do is BUY my game INSTALL my game and PLAY my game. This is no longer about piracy, this is about total control over software resales, pre-owned games sales, and developers reselling you there constantly updated software indefinitely. In fact, this is, in all essence, DRM. In my opinion, this is a wrong and Illegal practice. Why trading standard's have not investigated this kind of trading is beyond me.
    I actually needed a magnifying glass to read the small print. How many people would purchase titles like this, if the warning came in a form of a sticker on the box in large bold writing?. Companies like steam want physical discs abolished, period. This is just another way of doing it. The other way is giving digital downloaders early access to software before its released on physical. Yet another way is hefty patches that are not required by digital buyers. Etc,etc,etc. I am not that good with words, but I feel you get the idea. I appeal to all Gamers. Don't let them win. Once physical titles vanish, PC games will go the way of the tablet. Example: Command and Conquer, upgrade base to level 2 via micro transaction or wait 72 hours. It will come, wait and see. The gift that keeps on giving to developers.

    • Well said and so true. I have eleven older games with STEAM and I have the disc that I PAID FOR. I only wanted to buy and play games that I OWN. Steam is in control of things that I own. Does not make any sense at all. To me, there should be someone in the USAG'S office that could see this for what it is........illegal crap and to me it is the same as the old gangs of NY.

      • Exactly right. Fantastic to find other gamers ( Old school and new) who disagree with this crazy system. I don't actually blame STEAM, it's the greedy corporate parasites, who are not satisfied with a single clean sale. I fear we are going the way of the Crazy frog generation again. This needs to be sorted. It really does. I used to love wandering into my local GAME store after work, picking up a preorder or simply browsing the preowned. That shop closed down 2 years ago, my town has never had a Computer store since. Its all Hipster shops, Cafes and Mobile phone hangouts now. This just leaves the Internet. Notice how they are tightening the net on people . Now we see the Net being policed by people and organisations that simply do not own it, or even have the right to be doing it. Yet new laws and legislation is created virtually overnight to protect this illegal (Gestapo?) and to ridicule the casual downloader. I don't agree or disagree with Piracy, I don't condemn anyone. All I want to do is the same as every other gamer who enjoys collecting and playing games in the Gaming world. Even this is impaired by these cheeky buggers, bottlenecking your system by trying to detect illegal avtivities. They can't do away with Physical copies, we won't let them. They will try to achieve this over time. They don't care how long. Digital is fine, but, physical is better IMO. Sorry if I sound preachy. Or perhaps fringe. This is definitely happening. It certainly need's to stop. All the best. GP.

      • Exactly right. This needs to stop. I fear it's going back to the crazy frog generation (renting out animated screensavers?) (I had a joystick older than the kid running the business) I loved the Half Life games. I would certainly buy another, but not on STEAM. Organisations like this are corrupt and owned by greedy corporate parasites. We need to make a stand against all forms of DRM. Make ourselves heard, and stick to our guns. They'll soon give up when sales drop. They are using long term tactics to undermine and abolish physical disks, be ready for a long term fight. We have the magic money, they are only out to sell you something. I come from a time when the customer was always right. And we Are.

    • Steam is DRM. literally. how is that news to you?
      I'm surprised at the number of commenters here who don't understand Steam, or anything about it. And some of the arguments (which is why I am picking you) are kind of hilarious - resale of games has always been a pain in the ass for devs because it cuts into their profits, and it is a pain in the ass for users because physical media getting corrupted / lost / stolen. It's really not that big a deal. (also, it's interesting that you think you have an ironclad right to resell a game after buying it. you don't. it's rarely enforced, but the TOS for games for decades includes a direct notice that no, you don't have the right to resell it)
      As to the whole control thing - download your games. leave them on your hard drive. problem solved. steam could die tomorrow and 99% of your games would work just fine.
      ' Example: Command and Conquer, upgrade base to level 2 via micro transaction or wait 72 hours. It will come, wait and see.' you're talking about MMOs, that's been a thing for a long time. Given how gamers react to microtransactions in non-MMO stuff, no, it won't happen. Sales would crash through the floor.

      I don't know why people are so keen to panic about this stuff.

      • Oh! but I do understand Steam, and DRM IS the problem.
        Nothing in the gaming world is new to me, you can take that to the bank. The gaming method's you mention have been around for a short time, not long. Offline gaming is being killed. Companies have FAR too much control over how we pay and play. There is light and gamers are starting to wake the hell up. Many of the DRM infested online only titles are losing sales. Not everyone it seems, buys into the digital download/micro transaction scam.
        When the time comes when I have no control over how I pay or play a game, its time to stop. I kind of find you hilarious for singling me out simply because somebody apparently had the audacity to agree with me. I also have pity on you for either accepting this corrupt way of business or being born into a system not knowing what freedom of choice is. If I buy or collect a game, I'll do what the hell I want with it. Always have, always will. I don't buy games that fail to function in a few years simply because the damn servers have been taken down, or no longer exist. Nothing is Ironclad in this world. But ponder this. I will agree to their terms if they agree to mine. I'll pay £50 quid for an unfinished DRM riddled online only game, if the software companies agree not to spend my hard earned money on things like whores, drugs, fast cars and mansions. I would also like to reserve the right to remove them from the internet at my convenience for any breach of policy or failure to comply. How would THAT go down?

    • I hardily concur and found your response said it best. Was about to purchase a steam PC game but now will not. Just wanted some simple card games to play. Why these would require 'technical upgrades' is beyond me and total BS. Thx for the enlightenment!

      • I'm Glad to have helped somebody. This is no longer a joke concerning how software companies operate. Spread the word, fight it now. It needs to stop. Two more games I have returned. 'For Honor'and 'Metal Gear Survive' so far.
        Dead Rising: franks big package, turned out to be Frank's little package, but a very big download of all DLC that SHOULD have been on a separate disc, and included. Useless for Xbox owners who bought it first time around, but OK for PS4 owners. This is he second GOTY title that I know of, that hasn't included the DLC. What the hell has happened to (compaction) or inclusion of a second disc?
        It's all about steering you online. All the very best. ;-)

    • Bang on the money bro! Couldn't agree more!

31. I think some people might be missing the point of this, and maybe I am as well.

    However, even though I'm only 22, I MISS going into BestBuy and browsing through the 5 aisles of computer games. This whole 'having to log in to an account that can be hacked and trying to keep it secure, as well as giving my credit card info to a hackable and high priority site' idea is a bit stupid. I've played World of Warcraft since just before it's first expansion. I've also had my Battle.net account hacked several times. Mainly by Russians and Koreans, but that's a different story.

    The end result is that if I didn't have the box labeled 'World of Warcraft', with a paper pamphlet inside that had my CD-key printed on the inside, I could have possibly lost thousands of dollars in play time, expansion/game costs, as well as pure amount of time spent, even at a buck an hour. (On a side note, play time of ~2 years, that's about 18 grand.)

    The end result is that ANYTHING that is 'online' based, whether through an account, or by lieu of it's genre (MMO's, for example) is vulnerable to being hacked. With a ToU like Steam is offering, all it takes is a tech-savvy foreigner (again, the reason I reference this is that digital scamming of someone in a different country is COMPLETELY legal to do. In the USA, it's illegal to do to anyone, and punishable by law) to hack out some account names and passwords, burn all the games onto cd's, and of course recreate those to sell for a profit, and then disable your account.

    How many of you look at and write down your CD-keys for your Steam purchased games? I'm guessing very few, and that also includes the fact that some games don't HAVE a CD-key.

    Basically, you'll have very limited options in verifying YOUR identity versus the person who hacked your entire accounts details.

    Basically, you'll lose your games, someone else will profit off of it, and that's that. This is why a digital market is always going to be a problem, somewhat now, but certainly in the future. Anything created on a computer is susceptible to being outmaneuvered.

    'If there's a way out, there's a way through the back door.' - Author Unknown

    • FYI, putting your password into the wrong website and having your account stolen isn't 'hacking' it's 'phishing'

      The only major Battle.net hack I'm aware of was 2012, which included email addresses, security question Answers (though not what questions they go to, and they would need access to your email to begin a password change), and scrambled passwords (work on decrypting would be slow, and one account at a time)

      So I guarantee you weren't hacked. You were phished.

32. cmon
    its like that u buy a ps4, play with it and say: i dont want to play anymore and sell it to the company
    No one will refund it cause: they arent giving free services cmon.they are selling
    if they take back and give u money for noting they wont get any Profit from it
    btw the money was spent and gone
    they cant give it back!

33. Steam is a useless pain in the ass, I will not buy through them and when possible not buy PC games that must be attached to steam.

34. I think there is clear right of ownership here. Could Steam own games you paid for? No, under any law they can not have ownership of games you paid for. If they prevent you from using your right of ownership they must pay you for that or they are breaking laws. It is called unjust enrichment if they denies you from games your paid for and not give you money back.

    For example you buy car and few weeks later dealership came to you and they say to you we changed Terms(for example you must service you car now every 500 km) and now you need to comply or you must return your car and no money back for you. They are within rights to change service interval or terms but they cannot get your car back and give no money for it.

    If Steam try to usurp your ownership by denying access to your games in case of terminating account they are liable under Unjust enrichment laws if they don't reimburse you. They simply cannot take everything without reimbursing.

    This is very clear case in witch:
    (1) the defendant(Steam) has been enriched;
    (2) this enrichment is at the claimant's(you as a gamer buying games) expense;
    (3) this enrichment at the claimant's expense is unjust(they keep money and games for themselves); and
    (4) there is no applicable bar or defence(you have confirmation - from bank or similar- that you paid for games and denied of them in same time from Steam).

    They(Steam) just cannot keep your money and in same time keep your games. They are enriched twice at your expense. It is unjust by the laws of all countries in the world.

    • No they may not keep your game but if you see my post they can block your site an denied that they are doing it also they can change a game after you have it even if it is a good game and destroy it an make it not even the same game thus by not fun any more this is happening all the time on a lot of there games after a game have been finished an 90% of the game is positive reviews and 99% of the plays have finished the game an like it by this rule steam should protect this game thus not allowing any change to the game other then major game play issue but they are allow to change the game so much that the game is not any fun any more or so bug you can not even play it so what the point of owning a game, that you really don't own and this is happen to a lot of there games most are sh@t games now...

    • You don't own steam games. Read the ToS. You're paying for digital distribution, an entirely different set of laws that are still being grokked out in the US.

      They absolutely, at this time, deny your access to their distribution platform, if you break their terms of use (which denying would ultimately do)

35. I have all my games on CD/DVD. I went to, again, install HL2 (orange box) about 4 years ago (owned it for much longer) when my only access was Wi-Fi dongle and effing steam did fresh install IGNORING my DVD. It costs me more than double of what was original price. I tried to complain but they told me, no in so many words, to get lost. That was my last contact with Steam. I have some more recent games as well that were on Steam but I do not and will not ever again use Steam. After all, its only GAMES and there are more important things in life. Moreover, I do not by any more games and I am not the only one. I know 16 other people just in my area who have done the same.
    As industry states that one of the reasons for DRM and Steam is to prevent piracy how come there is so much of it going on then?
    It's all nothing but con to keep gamers under their control. Unfortunately, most gamers (from personal experience) are too thick to even think that if they do not buy any games for a year all those issues will have to be redressed as game companies would start losing too much money and some even go out of business.
    Quite frankly, I don't care anymore. I enjoy biking, reading , music and talking to people more than ever and will never again worry about stupid PC games unless I get them DRM and Steam free.

36. I know this article is old, but:

    Been a gamer on Steam since it started in 2003, '0' issues so far... 13 years and counting...

    But yeah do go on....

    • I have had issues with steam customer support many times over the years. It is indicative of the arrogance of the organization by how little they attempt to help their own customers. For me, I'm done with them, I'm not interested in an organization that treats it's users like arse when they have an issue.

    • YOU have not had any problems, so obviously OTHER PEOPLE don't either.

      Perfect logic...for a complete moron.

37. You deserve everything you get for being stupid enough to give up your rights. You do not need particular games to survive. Too many gamers are weened on their lazy habits of convenience and willingness to give up their rights to complaint later about not wanting to loose the money they spent. If you were to track precisely how you spend your money on crap and foolish convenience, you will find that you waste a great deal of money that you are not even aware of spending. So where are you saving money by buying lazy convenience.
    Boycott Steam and any other company that screws you over. But then again, all you entitled bores weenies have no will power to do right for your selves. And companies like Steam know this. And exploit it. You sow what you reap. Stop complaining.

    • Your argument is valid, but I have one question. Why on God's green earth would I want to start a class-action lawsuit against steam in the first place? This is no different than hitting I agree to every piece of software you install on your computer. If you hit decline, you don't get to use it. I don't think I am giving up my rights...I'm choosing to use a service that has the best selection of games.

      Like Darkside said, he has used the service for 13 years with no problem. The company is making money hand over fist...and I seriously doubt a policy change would be so alarming that I would want to sue them. That's just the way I see things.

      • I most likely have no intentions of ever starting a class action lawsuit, or joining one, but your example is not the same as the reality of declining Steam's tos. You paid for those games, and you own them, they shouldn't automatically have the right to take them away. Now if they want to block me from all games made by valve, then sure, I'm fine with that. Or block me from future updates through the steam client for all my games, that would suck, but seems somewhat fair. But to block me from other games, as well as wipe my account in it's entirety. No, I'm not fine with that.

      • People like you are the REASON we have our rights stripped away.

        Whether it's something petty like entertainment & Steam, or something major like the U.S. Constitution - people with YOUR mindset are the reason us intelligent people & the children of the future must suffer.

        That means you a pretty big jerk to everyone but other people who agree with you - the others who ruin it for the rest of us.

        • They're neither being a jerk, nor do they sound unintelligent. You just sounded like both though, when you insulted instead of discussed.

          I would argue that something like this is far less important than a major US Constitution issue, and it's impossible to get up in arms about everything (unless that's your hobby or something, I've known plenty of hobbyist politicians I guess, I don't have that time) so you have to pick your battles.

          This guy hasn't had an issue with buying access to online content, so it's not an issue To Him. That's his personal opinion, shaped by his experiences. If he ever had an issue, his stance might change, and it might become a bigger issue to him.

          Personally, I'm usually of the opinion that if something seriously bad happens, people will rise up to voice against it. Social media is powerful these days, changes can and do happen with major companies because of the voice of their users. This has always been true, we just have a much louder mouthpiece now.

          In a worst case scenario, Steam would likely lose a lot of users, and a new service would rise to the top and take its place.

          Capitalism ebbs and flows. There are consequences to your actions, as a company and as a consumer. Steam knows better than to do something truly destructive, and if they don't, we can all jump ship then. That's why I'm not worried, just as ET isn't. I'm sorry if you've had problems, I hope they get resolved and that you find a new way to play the games you want, the way you want, whenever you god damned please. I am, right now!

    • Most people are complaining not losers your wrong we are trying to fine some one and its not you of course or you would not give this type of advice. we are look for a good answer to this known issue of steam an wish to make a change to fix it.

38. humanity is failing creation, wich should just die asap,

    if there was any solution that i my self could create something that would blowing the earth to bits i would get straight to work, humanity is not worthy of the life giving, therfore the hiistory of humanity will be wiped away with every bad violent memory of humanity's failure to progress further into the futre but instead got stuck in there enoyable wars. good job

    • So, just a question - do you consider yourself a failure as well, or is it just everybody else?

      What metrics are you using to determine that humanity is a failed experiment? What other civilizations are you judging it against? Fairy tales? Science fiction? Impossible utopias?

      And here you are, consigning humanity to annihilation.

      You say humanity should die ASAP. Are you going to start with yourself? Not that I'm wanting you to, I just wish people would think before they speak.

39. Anyone who decides to go to bed with Steam simply hasn't been burnt yet or else has a very myopic view about how services like this result in unforgivable losses of freedoms once enjoyed back when games were still sold in boxes and purchased by people with separate senses of identity. Those were the golden years of computer gaming (and many other things) and unfortunately, it seems like they are gone forever now due to the abysmal manifestations of services like this steaming pile of crap.

    Those chanting the crony chorus of, 'I think Steam is great,' will be the first to rage and pitch fits as soon as something happens that results in their accounts being locked-out or games being unavailable / unplayable, which happens all too frequently as per Google results...

    I get what they're trying to do: defeat piracy. I guess I can't blame them to some extent but if this is what computer gaming has come down to--this convoluted idea that, 'despite paying for the disc (software), you never *own* the game,' then forget it. I'll find other methods of entertainment that can be both physically tangible, that I can own, and be overall more entertaining. I'll never mimic Judas: no game is worth that devil's deal.

    The moral of the story is this: Steam can go shove a license up it's ass until it chokes to death on it's own arbitrated asshole.

    ...oh, and someone please let that fat-ass know that every time I load up my pirated version of Skyrim, I'm thinking of him with a smile on my face.

    • Yes this is how they think to solve piracy unfortunately they are willing partners in piracy after all if you buy a secondhand boxed game you are the lawful owner the seller has sold the rights lawfully to you so you can use that game as intended Steam pirates don't allow you and neither do the publishers to use this boxed game as intended but are happy for the seller who has willingly and freely sold all lawful rights to the use of this software to continue using this software. That in it's most base form is piracy you are using a piece of software you no longer have the right to use so thankyou steam and all software companys selling on steam for under terms of service making it that you now have no legal rights against anyone using pirated software, as obviously as a willing party endorsing the use of pirate software by the seller you now accept this is a legal and binding part of your TOS etc.

40. Hah, that's why I support piracy!
    Seriously, people spend their money on software (games, music, movies), but if they're unsatisfied with the service, they lose both their money AND the OWNED merchandise - how is that legal anyway?
    I've never really used Steam (I don't believe much in e-commerce, but I've also always felt the service as somehow manipulative), and I don't much plan to.

41. Sony is doing the same, and their politics are the worst but even that, millions of PlayStations are sold. Actually Steam is one of the most open platforms, I don't see Steam/Valve as an enemy, they actually do more for gaming communities than PlayStation or Xbox.
    Buy your game on Steam, if you don't like it, ask a refund and that's the end of the story.

    • Did you not read the article?

    • Ok, look.

      I buy a game on PS4 (or Wii U, or Xbox One, or 3DS, even the Vita) I can play that game the rest of my life. Nobody can stop me. I can refuse any Terms of Service I want, I can refuse any update I want, heck they can nuke the internet servers and Sony could go out of BUSINESS even, and I can still fire up that game.

      You cannot say the same for STEAM. Now look I'm not saying I don't like STEAM- there's a lot of great qualities and I just bought 50+ games over the last week... but to pretend that Sony is doing the same? As if your PS4 games are being locked behind ToS walls like on STEAM? That's just flat out wrong.

      • That's not entirely correct. I have no experience with the Playstations, but for both the XBox 360 and the XBox One, whenever a new dashboard comes out, you can not use your XBox until you download and install it. The dashboard being the main interface, means that Microsoft can simply change what you can do with your machine whenever they want, and you have no choice but to accept these changes, even if you consider them harmful to you as a consumer.

        In the case of the 360, I believe you could use your console, but couldn't connect to Live, thus cutting you off from a service that you're paying for until you accept the changes and install the new dashboard. In the case of the One, you can't even enter the dashboard when a new version comes out; you simply get a prompt to install the new dashboard, and if you decline, the machine simply turns off. Your only option is to boot it up again and install the dashboard.

        Then there's XBox Live. It's a subscription service that includes two free games every month as part of the deal. While you have no choice as to which games you'll receive (it's determined by whatever region your machine is set to), on the 360 those games were yours forever. On the One, as soon as you cancel your Live subscription, you'll lose access to your games. Sure, you could argue that you haven't really bought those games, since they came 'free' with a paying subscription. But you still paid a Live subscription, those games were one of the things you got in return, and as soon as you stop your subscription, those games are taken away.

42. Steam as a corporation, will eventually leave you with nothing. You have only bought access to it with their conditions and when they want you to have it. After 500 purchases with steam I learned my lesson. I turned in a guy who created a forum collecting donations for a copy of his pirated game (distributor is out of business now). Steam actually sells this game is what is so clueless. In response the guy bans me (the report goes to the guy-forum leader and NOT STEAM) and steam does nothing to control the retribution I received for a legit piracy report. Steam enable piracy. Steam cares nothing for legit customers. If you expect to have any common sense or reasonable decision from a Steam representative or arbitrator, your clueless. They lost my confidence that they could functional make rational decisions regarding access to the material I purchased through them. I don't buy steam. They are dishonest is what I walked away from in my experience with a simple 'report' they encouraged in their guidelines. Its all just words to them. They don't mean them. They don't even attempt to follow what they 'say' they do.

    • So....you felt good about being a backstabbing stool pigeon!

      • There is dumb but then well below that level is this comment. Some people really would if told jump of a cliff go ahead and blindly do it.

    • 500 purchases AND snitching.
      More fool you...
      How's primary school?

      • Second dumb reply open your eyes before blindly jumping off said cliff.

        • It is you who has to open your eyes so do not talk about dumb
          If stupid was painful you'd be on permanent morphine drip.

43. Well why did you think you were able to purchase most of those games at such a bargain price? It's because you don't physically own the game. Ever heard the term 'possession is 9/10 of the law?' In this case I would say 10/10 but not from IGN just common sense I realized years ago to collect physical and stay away from digital.

    • PC games at £5 less than the Xbox or the PlayStation price is not such a bargain. Do you really think paying £39.99 instead of £44.99 for a game the company will do everything they can do illegally to stop you selling it on is a bargain especially when said console game say after 6-12 months of playing completeing a few times can be sold or part exchanged for £15 to £20 thus making the original console game in reality cost no more than £29.99 just strange how being £10 cheaper in your world makes the console game still ! more expensive than the PC game.

44. I think steam is a great service, but it needs one very critical thing in its terms of service. And that would be to state that, if they were to go out of business, or get bought by another company, or have any business situation change that would cause termination of the service, that they are required to unlock your library for you, and then you own it at that point instead of just leasing.
    I hate the fact that the software industry as a whole is moving toward leases and subscriptions, but I'm not sure what we can do about it, except let the free market prevail and support competition that doesn't do this.

    • Steam is sh8ty service as mentioned so many times already.
      There is a whole lot we can do - DON'T buy their products and see how long they last.

    • You are not leasing you own those copies and the right to the use of said copies till you decide you have had enough of playing them. Here in the UK a company can write what ever it wants in it's TOS but unless it is fair it is un-enforceable in law ie not worth the paper it is written on.

      This is 100% fact for boxed games on a disc and our laws are making serious inroads to digital versions as well with our consumer rights act Oct 2015.m If I buy a secondhand PC game and the developer will not supply a new code if needed due to steam then I will charge them for my time emailing them and for finding a work around. I make very clear payment is due in the form of a free download ie a pirated copy of one of their latest games in an email. I have NEVER ! been taken to court because they can not risk it becoming public that their actions are un lawful because for every person like me who will stand up for my rights and challenge them they make money from the headless chickens who think they can do nothing about being shafted.

      • Just forgot to add that you cannot play those boxed games if they require steam even if you 'blackmail' them and they supply you new code. So, you're still buggered as you are still forced on steam.
        Whole point is that steam has to be optional and EVERY single player game MUST be playable from disk without a middleman.
        That is why here in west london there are quite few people that buy a single game among them and then share steam account and all play the same game. And stupidity of the system is actually contributing to loss of sales.

        • Yes I understand but it is the first step in the right direction even steam are breaking the ECJ ruling re the resale of digital downloaded games they try and say you are not buying a copy but the ruling that came down says otherwise and if steam or any software company wish to trade in the EU they have to observe the laws. Once a piece of software is sold by the author even if that sale is for FREE they exhaust their rights and may not impede the rights of any lawful owner be that the second owner who buys it from the original purchaser or the tenth owner. The lawful owner must be able to run the software as intended which in the case of a game means play it fully albeit if your system is capable of playing it. Any company be it Sega EA Codemasters or Valve via Steam may not by law impede that use doing so is a clear infringement of rights and is by definition criminal as they are breaking the law.

          If we stand up for our rights as I do and enough of us do it we will force a change and then we can start working with these company's to make the PC gaming community stronger more vibrant and hopefully increase sales for these company's. But the first move to observe the ECJ ruling as in the Oracle v Usersoft ruling has to come from the company's as it is them wishing to trade in the EU they are not forced to trade here. We have to observe laws so do they and this infringement by them actually legalises the download of a pirate/cracked program as the end user has the lawful right to download and make good the software. Now this could be serious for steam as if someone uses a pirate/cracked version on steam ( they have the original disc but steam and the author refuse to allow it to be used as intended ) Steam then perm block that persons account steam could if that person so wishes be taken to court and here in the EU steam will loose the case, because an ECJ has already been made in favour of the user not the company. Steam could face serious penal charges and compensation costs.

45. I have not signed up for steam. I was leery about the company anyway. I just do not feel putting my gaming experience in another entity's hands makes me all that comfortable.

    I appreciate the posters response to steams changed terms of agreement. I will take heed and avoid steam altogether as well. I wish I could buy new titles like the good old days.... from your local gaming stop.

    I hope the gaming industry will change.

    • Unfortunately, there are games on retail sale that one is not aware require steam until after purchase (mail order, Amazon etc). That is how I fell for it.
      Worse still, I only play single player campaigns ( given up on multiplayer after couple of tries and tantrums of demented 10 year olds?) and resent having to use internet for that or having to remember log in/ passwords.

46. Steam is slowly doing a good job of removing itself from the industry. Instead of being picky, and only allowing very good, top-quality, AAA titles... they got greedy. So, they allowed Early Access, Greenlight, a flood of Free-to-Play games, a flood of <$5 games, Ero/Manga/Dating 'games' ... and now they're shoving movies in your face.

    Every time I open up Steam these days I feel like I'm staring t the bargain software shelves at Walmart... every game cycling through their top banner is some <$5 POS that I don't want. They have 'not interested' flags, but their preference algorithm doesn't bother learning from games you flag as 'not interested' in, so you keep getting the same bottom-feeder, puppy-milled garbage shoved in your face. I've told Steam I'm not interested in Ero-Manga dating novels tons of times.. yet each time one comes out it's shoved in my face.

    This is what's killing Steam. They are catering to developers... and I use that term loosely in regards to Steam. They cater to anyone that will shove anything onto the Steam Store that could possibly make Steam a buck by suckering some poor soul into buying it.

    Games that are broken or no longer work are allowed to stay on the store just on the off-chance someone buys it and finds out the hard way the game no longer works. Valve doesnt' care. They got paid, so whatever you're stuck with doesn't matter to them anymore.

    Oh, sure they have refunds... but this is the most fleeting of retroactive consolations.

    Finding a game on Steam has also turned into the equivilent of digging through the bargain bin at Best Buy circa 2000. There is no way for you to proactively filter out game genres you don't want from the start (to keep from getting slapped in your face every day by new ones coming out... because, you know, Valve wants everyone to see anything new on there that might possibly solcit a purchase even though some folks don't want to see it).

    Actively digging for a game lets you pick tags or search criteria, but since the store has been flooded with puppy-milled, bottom-feeder, bleed-a-dollar games it's impossible to really find anything worthwhile. The review system lets developers create accounts and fluff up their scores. Old, busted games are left in the store. Every day a new, massive wave of slop is thrown in the trough.

    They don't want to make it where potential customers can hide aspects of the store, because they just want everything throw in your face like you're on the Vegas strip with angry street hustlers antagonizing you into a purchase.

    So, you feel insulted when you open the steam store, hustled by all the garbage in it, and victimized when you do finally buy something.

    At this point, deleting someone's account is probably the nicest thing they could do. It would be like telling someone they are no longer allowed at a flea market. Gee... so sad. Now you have to go to a much nicer store to do your shopping. Boo-hoo /sarcasm.

    Valve has decided that quantity is more profitable then quality. In the short-run, yes, it is. But, int he long run, they have gotten a reputation for having horrible selectioin and bloated libraries of garbage. This is a death knell in the long run. People get tired of wading through the flea market staring at dime-store junk. They get tired of having 90% of what's shown to them be a bunch of garbage they don't want to see, but since Steam doesn't allow pre-filtering criteria to be put into user profiles, the user can't do anything about it (so it's a slap to the user's face).

    But, this underlines Steam's philosophy. You are not a customer. You are a CONSUMER. Their REAL customers are all the so-called 'developers' that keep loading the Steam Store trough with slop every day. Valve just provides the trough, and wants to shove as much of that slop in front of your face as possible to get you to CONSUME. They don't want to make it easy for you to avoid it.

    This is what happens when a company puts the needs of its suppliers ahead of the needs of its customers. If Valve had any cajones left, they'd shut down Greelight, Early Access, and stop allowign Free-to-Play and other garbage on their site.

    Try to salvage some shred of dignity before your die, Valve. Because you're dying ... people are tired of the slop trough.

    • I like steam because Early Access, indie games that would NEVER see light otherwise, etc. have allowed a wider selection to the average gamer than before. Not everyone just wants the latest Battlefield of Duty: Sims 2k17.

    • Why would I want only AAA titles? The benefit of steam is that I have all my games in an easy list. I play those Ero/Dating/Manga 'games' you deride, as well as indie games that can't afford widespread distribution, a Couple of AAA titles (news flash, AAA gaming is on the downturn) Greenlight (Astroneer is an awesome game!) early access, and even a free to play game here or there. I don't want Steam to pick the few games I can play, that defies the purpose of steam.

47. I am old school, which causes me to believe in two things:

    Item 1: When I purchase something, whether it be milk, a car, a book or a video game, I own it, and that ownership is non-negotiable, assuming my ownership of such said item does not bring harm to society or fall into the rare case of imminent domain.

    Item 2: When I sign a contract or terms of service agreement, those rule are lasting and binding; they may not be changed without my a) notification AND b) consent; if either of those two conditions are not met, then the original contractual terms hold.

    Now, if item 1 and item 2 are violated, such as steam taking away software I have paid for because I wish to continue doing business based upon the original terms of service, then I absolutely consider it a theft.

    If you disagree, consider this extrapolation of the contractual 'bait and switch' routine. You take a 3 year auto loan from the bank you do business with. You make all your payments on time, and in full. But one day your lender decides to unilaterally change the terms of your loan, specifying that you must forfeit your car if you ever decide to sue or close your account with said lender. If you object, you will be found in violation of the new terms of agreement and your lender will repossess your vehicle.

    I know lobbyist have been able to buy politicians and make this corrupt practice legal, but it is morally wrong and I for one refuse to participate. I have already left USBank, Farmer's Insurance and Raymond James for such 'bait and switch' contractual agreements; Steam will be treated no different.

48. The amount of idiocy here concerning hardware and digital subscriptions is simply staggering.

49. Ignorant useless people posting here.

    'my pc crashed. now i can get my steam back?' WTF never heard such nonsense. Those 2 arent linked, and it could never happen that when windows crashes, you also lose your steam account. First class nonsense.

    'i regret things that ive bought, and steam didnt had return policy at that time' and thats the reason to think negative of steam? Because you bought stuff without thinking? And now years later you dont blame your purchase habbits to yourself, but to steam? Its Steams fault that you have a hole in your wallet??? Nonsense...

    'Its not possible to transfer your game licenses off of Steam' WTF?!? Yeah ofcourse... And i want my playboy subscribtion to be transferred to christianitytoday... Stupid people...

    'It is possible to spend thousands of dollars on Steam and get banned, thus simply losing your money and your game licenses forever' OMG so when someone hacks your account and gets banned for it, you pity their loss off games???

    'I believe that Valve changed their license agreement so they could abuse their users with impunity' Yeah that what their ultimate goal is. Not to make money, but to annoy people.

    • The most intelligent comment on here. Thank you.

    • All those words and yet no thought into one single one of them. If you buy a game you buy the right to use it as you see fit you can burn the disc you can put it in the bin the publisher can do nothing about you doing either but you think they can stop you re-selling your lawful right to use it. Try opening your eyes company's who have a brain ( I say brain not necessarily any morals ) such as Adobe with their Photoshop now RENT/LEASE on a monthly subscription access to their software program. We do not rent or lease from steam we buy with a one off payment. You can as long as you acknowledge the interlectual rights of the publisher to be identified as the said publisher do what you want you can add a MOD pack just look at APOE for examples of the game being seriously modded by third party developers but still retaining the interlectual rights of Microsoft as the publisher.

      You have a lawful right to resell just as you can transfer your playboy subscription to someone else be that person a friend who gives you money for it or not. Steam want to brainwash you into thinking you do not have rights but a quick search online will soon show that you do.

50. I always thought of Steam as an infinite gaming platform, that has a variety of genres. But I did purchase a lot of games (not all through Steam), and the point is that as time goes by, I keep regretting my choices of even buying those games. I wish that I could have all of my money back or at least the refund system would've been 'installed' earlier'. I do not know what to do. It wouldn't be reasonable to leave, but as I read, I think that I might do it. Since I feel like those favorite titles right?, I wouldn't worry about that.

51. My computer hard drive crashed and when I bought a new computer windows 10 I was unable to recover my account. I went thru their recovery system and was never able to get the account back. I will never buy another game that requires steam.

    Jim01

    • You must have a low IQ

52. Yeah, this happens only on the side of the final consumers who have no financial backup to contest draconian laws and have to subject themselves to this type of shit pushed down their throats by crappy, low level scumbag, non moral, abusive companies that do that all the time.

    Now, check on the corporate side: do you ever see any company anything similar ? -No. It's only when the customer base is so wide and fragmented that they can 'afford' to no care and say 'meh.. screw those..'

53. Steam just crashed on me, and steam suggested I re download it again, and I lost all my previously downloaded games, and what do they care?

    I spent good money for games online only to be unplayable, and the only usable game such as Half Life 2 was the downloadable versions that you buy directly from STEAM!

    It's about money, money, money, and control of nearly all online games. Steam is about it's own interest not about the customers, or users. Money, and control!

54. I know this article is a couple of years old, but it is still relevant.

    1. Steam uses a management-free management structure, and lots of volunteer moderators. The result is that if you use forums for games you purchase on Steam to seek support, you will be belittled, insulted, harassed, stalked across other forums and in your reviews, and the moderation team will help that happen.

    2. It is not possible to transfer your game licenses off of Steam. As a result, should you lose access to your account or even just wish to cease being their customer, you can't. You're handcuffed to them, and there is nothing you can do about it.

    3. Valve's upper management has absolutely no concerns regarding the user experience or complaints. I actually have come to believe that Valve stopped making games because they prefer to psychologically torment the users who are foolish enough to use their 'communities'.

    4. Steam's support is almost nonexistent. I have read of people who had their accounts hacked and were required to provide a CD key from a physical sale made almost two decades ago for assistance.

    5. It is possible to spend thousands of dollars on Steam and get banned, thus simply losing your money and your game licenses forever, with no recourse whatsoever. That amounts to theft, and they get away with it.

    Steam has become an experiment in draconian commerce. It's too big, and there are too few alternatives. But the worst thing about it is that using Steam can actually ruin your experience of the games themselves, and Valve cares not one little bit about that. Developers and publishers face the consequences for their incompetence.

    I believe that Valve changed their license agreement so they could abuse their users with impunity. I believe that they think themselves untouchable, and do not in the least fear that their users will go elsewhere. I believe that because so many people have thousands of dollars worth of titled built up on their accounts, Valve thinks that will keep them from leaving. And I believe their sales are the hook to build that perception.

    Look at your Steam library. How many of those games do you actually play? How many have you completed? How many have sat there collecting digital dust for years? Do you really need Steam?

55. This is the very same reason I never buy from steam either! The only reason I own two games from steam, Is because I got them for free with a video card I bought. There should be nothing legal about screwing someone over and then claiming they can't take action simply because they made them sign something. Laws in America are becoming so fascist! And most of these laws are invalid and illegal! And yet they are still sometimes illegally enforced! It really amazes me that people are so socially engineered that they ignore serious matters such as this! And continue to support these corporations! And they are pretty much just anti-consumer! And anti-free market. And yet people still give them money! How are people so stupid not to realize that these are scumbag companies! If a judge and court had any integrity they would find a dirty agreement like that invalid anyway. And allow the suit. Because regardless you can still sue them no matter if you sign something like that or not! Just the same as you can indict a ham sandwich.

56. I am unhappy at the fact that Steam forces me to use a credit card to buy games. I want to buy GMOD - I can't. I'm not willing to make my friend on steam pay because he doesn't have enough money! It is unacceptable to make gamers pay credit card only. Why not let us send money! How does Valve have the right to not add any other payment methods other than credit and debit cards?

    • You can pay with Paypal, and paypal has means to top up money without a credit card. So maybe do some research before you complain.

      • And there's also Steam Gift Cards. Those can be bought in many shops around the world, and work pretty much like similar cards for other services (e.g. iTunes). You can buy them in physical shops, with physical cash, no credit card required.

        Personally, I have no need for them, but it's nice that they exist so that kids can buy the games they want with their allowance without having to get their parents to link their credit cards to their accounts (or to separate accounts and buy everything as a gift).

57. I hate this 'exclusivity' thing. It requires you to buy console to play some of the best games, for no reason. It requires you to buy and install Windows if you are Linux gamer, for no reason. It requires you to get Steam account and accept it - even game is single-player, for no reason. I absolutely love Fallout NV&3 and have developed quite a lot mods for it. Because I appreciate it, I have to have license - but its only available on Steam.

    So I bought Steam licenses, added the game keys. And I am not touching it. I play DRM-free copies instead? Pirated - nope, I have the license. All of my other games are from GOG, I have also bought licenses to almost all of games I played in my childhood, which were not available legally in my country, the USSR.

    So if you purchased a title, you have also purchased right to run it. So you can get it from anywhere, so long you use it according to the license. From any source. I don't think one is obligated to get the data ONLY from the source of license purchase or limited to run binaries provided only from the source of license purchase.

    But if Fallout would be available from GOG, I would purchase it from them instead - and spare all the troubles.

58. Sad but true.... The steam community has vast amounts of games and is dubiously known as a popular gamers platform but i feel I am straying away from it because they are pulling away gamers giving them the idea that they no longer care about customers. Makes me wonder where steam will be in a few years from now... Will they still even be in business or will they just be another capitalist monetized company looking for more monetized methods? Or will they start caring about customers?

59. This is one of the reasons I had to torrent copies of most of my steam games. Its sad to see steam acting this way.

60. Good for anyone refusing to buy STEAM driven products. They collect data that can (and probably will) be compromised somewhere along the way. We have so few rights these days against the game juggernauts, I refuse to participate.

61. I won't purchase through steam. I was an avid 'off the shelf' gamer but the industry has gone crazy with greed. Overcharging and under servicing and then wondering why so many people pirate. I have purchased games online in the past only to download hacked versions of the same games so I didn't have to log into my steam account to use them. It's ridiculous. I want to purchase a game, install a game, play a game and not have to depend on another service to continue using them or possibly not allow me to use them in the future. This is a way of the past and so is my gaming. sadly :/

    Forcing a T.O.S. (Take Our Shit) contracts aren't there to provide you a better service. They are only there to protect their own bottom line or legally stick it to you.

    • I would disagree with you. One can easily find a legal digital copy online, to very acceptable price. Much lower than its used to be. One also gets it instantly, sparing all the CDs and scratch issues. The TOS were available before. Its just that today some publishers try to justify DRM, where others are 'pay&take it'. Greed, greed never changes.

62. I will not be buying any more games on steam either. But for a different reason. Steam has had my support over the years because i am a huge half life fan. I bought half life 2 when it came out and was the only game available on steam. I have bought everything there is to do with half life. Portals. Even left 4 dead. Where is our episode 3. They have not even given a hint of anything. Not even said a peep. It has been longer since episode 2 than it has been from half life 1 to half life 2. It is my impression that they are not concerned with half life any more and have gotten nice and fat off steam. They have more than enough resources. More than enough money. They just have decided not to. So the next game i buy on steam might be half life 3 but dont care if i play cracked version or not.

    • You have some issues with logic here...

63. How about if someone started a lawsuit and had their legal expenses 'crowd funded'? Wouldn't that bypass the class action definition?

    Shh... Don't let on to Steam or they'll come up with a new term of service specifically relating to denying anyone the ability to have their lawsuit crowd funded.

    Or is that cat already out of it's bag and the horse has already bolted?

64. Wow. I always thought I am the only one who hates Steam for what they do. Sadly, as evidenced several times in local JRC (think GameStop, if you're american), the amount of non-Steam games is really going down.
    Personally, I have high hopes for the Windows 10 integration of XBox Live to PC, but I doubt this plague will end soon. I've been having problems with Steam for a long time now, ranging from trivial (their .dll not working / not connecting) to very serious (therat of accusation of fraud / stealing credit card), and the fact that until UbiSoft and a few others teamed with EA, there was nearly no alternative (as to me, playing titles from just one studio gets boring rather easily), drove me nearly crazy at one point.
    I was also at one point really worried that my collection is gone, after logging in to Steam service and seeing only one game (the one I had installed at that moment). Luckily, it was only temporary and restored a day later, but I fully understand the guy whose 'kill switch' got triggered and he had his library wiped. For many people, videogames are the only - or almost only - outlet for frustration in today's world, so losing them all so suddenly can be a major shock.

65. No worries, I use steam because it's easier than pirating. If they ever change that, game developers will stop getting my money, and the torrents will rise again. until something else comparable comes along. Make it easy, make it reasonable, or perish like the rest of the dinosaurs. I'm going to enjoy the product either way. Losing my account means a few days redownloading from someone that doesn't bother paying the developers for their work, so no big deal to me.

    • Nope. If you loose your account, then you can't just redownload from someone. 'Someone' is also DRMed and can't give you a copy. You need to re-purchase the licenses.

      So from what I see, most have no issues purchasing the licenses.
      They have issues with using the product, because integrated non-optional license check system (DRM) interferes with product itself.

      And there is also a risk to loosing all of the licenses, if user breaks account license, because they are connected with the account. This is something very very very wrong. Licenses to products and license to account must go separate and may not be connected - sanctions towards the account may not influence the license of product(s).

66. I never understood why anyone would spend money for a game where they have to login and ask Valve's permission every time they would like to play it. When I spend money to 'buy' a game it should be mine. When you 'buy' a game associated with Valve you are essentially renting it. Unfortunately millions of players do not seem to mind having Valve monitor their every movement and are actually willing to pay Valve to invade their privacy. Apparently now, at least in the US, players will not even be able to complain. Has the gaming world really become that submissive?

    • You don't have to be connected to the internet or to Valve after a game has been downloaded to play. Being connected enables certain features like cloud saves, online multiplayer, and a few other small things. You can play 'Offline' without issue. I have done it with many games. I don't know why anyone would want to sue valve. Games are not harmful, though under developed brains may be affected by certain violent games. However in general games are harmless.

      • Valve steam is a DRM. It was initially part of VAC, which got expanded. While anti-cheats for specific online games are very often welcome by community, Valve's system turned into a watch-god from a watch dog.

        While you can use offline mode, Steam must be running and be updated to current version. Why? Because it will log what you do - its basically a legit closed source trojan.

67. I know this is off-topic but I really want to see someone that is a Christian Jewish Muslim. It would be hilarious to see them try to explain or preach about their beliefs. I mean that they combine Christianity with Judaism and Islam. That would be something to see.

68. Steam needs to stop before it is too late (if it is not already too late). Companies do not have the ability to stop you from choosing not to buy their products or to support them. What these companies are doing is forgetting that they are not in charge and that a plane needs fuel to run. They are trying to fly a plane without the fuel that it needs. Without fuel, a plane cannot fly and will crash. Steam needs to take a bath because their lies are stinking up the place. Steam should also take off their hood because they are doing some shady business.

69. Do not be afraid. Go after Steam and others like it because they need the customers to buy their products in order to stay in business. It may seem like they have you where they want you, but the truth is that it is impossible for them to have the upper-hand because they need us or they will not make any money. As the customers, we will always have them where we want them. We can tell them to fix something and threaten to leave if they do not fix it anytime we want to. They cannot tell us no. They have no leverage over us. If we follow through with our threats they will be defeated. They want you to think that you can do nothing about it. You can take the fight to them by not buying any of their further products. They will destroy themselves.

    • Dog yells, caravan goes forward. First step is to stop behaving like a dog.

70. Class action lawsuits with Steam is not an issue for me because of the rarity of anything serious happening. Do you really think Valve is going to stir things up so much in this area that all subscribers will leave? Don't think so. To me the big issues with Steam are twofold:
    1) Way, way to many old games cluttering up the scene there. Most of them say, 'released 2013' or something like that, which means they were released to Steam in 2013 but the game was originally released in 1999! There NEEDS to be a Steam setting to block showing of any games older than 'original' release of, say 10 years.
    2) Steam is missing many good, new games. I like organizing my games in one place but not all of them are available through Steam.

    Why focus everything on the unlikey when other everyday issues need addressing?

    • 2) is not an issue as its not possible. You can't have everything in one place, because this place belongs to Valve and some titles will not be available. Because of the purchase price issue.
      A perfect place to organize your titles would be your hard drive and the confirmations to have purchased the license for all the titles you have, should legality be questioned.

71. Steam is a monopoly in the games industry, they as stated in your article are now dictating to gamers how you play the games and how much you pay for them, this is in effect sapping every penny out of the addicted gamers out there, I am one of the lucky ones in that i have not bought any games from steam as observing my sons games he has purchased a lot of them do not work correctly, a lot of new games now need a steam account to play them this is outrageous as when you have completed the game you cannot sell it to help fund a new game as it has been registered and cannot be played by anyone else, a lot of youngsters out there are still painfully unaware of this and are then out of pocket when they have finished the game in effect have to throw the game away, In my view it should be (if not already) be illegal for any company to tell you whether or not you can sell a game if you want to, it is after all your property you have not hired or rented the game from any one.
    ITS TIME GAMERS STOOD UP TO THESE COMPANIES AND STOPPED BUYING FROM THEM

72. I have to agree with your sentiment. I have despised steam since DAY 1! See, here's a lil of MY personal history with the mega giant now known as steam. I ran out an hocked up a box of HL2 off a local store shelf, totally oblivious to this (at the time) new, 'steam', and how it was REQUIRED to activate/play my new HL2 game :( Ever since that day I've had a BAD (ok, horrible) feeling about Steam. See, I like to NEVER rely on others (IE the internet) or anything or anyone EXTERNAL to my own devices to be able to do things (in this case, play a game). What if I am on the road, or in an aircraft, or at a LAN party, or any of the other probable millions of other situations where I may be, where I may not have internets! I do realize now this is almost a non-thought, but back when HL2 first launched it was more 'real'. Even today it can be very real to me, say I'm camping in the mountains - nope, sorry, can't tether from my phone there! Anyway, this was my primary concern, especially (naturally so) for SINGLE PLAYER GAMES (I guess not to much of a concern if it's a multiplayer only game - but even games IE CS can be played with 'bots'). Ever since then I've been VERY VERY leery of buying ANYTHING on steam.

    See there's yet ANOTHER factor to me, backward compatibility comes to mind as an example of what I'm about to get at here. You see, a 'classic' like Wolf3D or DOOM, I can whip out and play at ANY time. Why? Simple, I have the disks/CD's/ISO's so I can do that. But now with games 'linking' to or REQUIRING STEAM, there may be, scratch that, there WILL be a day (no matter how far away and long that day is away) that any of these games we're TIED to in steam, we will (again, someday) NEVER be able to 're-visit' them again. I don't very much like that idea either, seeing as I DO tend to re-visit some of the 'classics' from time to time (especially at LAN parties). I'll admit this is probably not a concern for most, or most probably can't even imagine 'the day Steam 'dies'. But let me assure you, ALL (good) things come to an end. It's NOT a matter of IF, but rather a matter of WHEN! Okay, so re-visiting 'old' games may not be high on many peoples list, but it is mine. That's not just a concern for me, but I can archive all my data and pass that down to my kids, and they can do the same and pass it to their kids and so on and so on. However, again, if SOME day steam dies, where will all these games go!?

    Luckily people HAVE found out how to 'no-steam' a game! I will admit, I like it better than the 'official' version. Why is quite simple. I can install AND play it WITHOUT steam, WITHOUT an internet connection, no matter when, where, what, why, how, etc... I am doing!

    So now here I am, still 'hating' (not really liking) steam. Now though, unlike my endeavor with Half Life 2, I will NO longer (EVER) buy a game before playing it. I do this for a few reasons. FIRST reason is the NO-STEAM thing. I want to KNOW that god forbid something does happen to steam, I will STILL be able to play that game! Second reason is, no matter how good the price (on steam), once you purchase a game there's NO REFUNDS, so I want to make darn sure I LIKE the game before I PAY for it. Though now at this exact current point, my ('legit') steam library is semi extensive since I've purchased some of my most favorite titles so that I CAN play multiplayer with some of my friends who also have the 'legit' game, THROUGH STEAM.

    Now to read they are pulling s#!^ like this! Doesn't come as much of a surprise really to be honest! You're right on par too with discussing how ALL of 'us' steam 'users' will one day have all of our games in our library VANISH completely. And this is regardless of whether it's because of an account termination, or because they finally shut down their servers/service!

    I also understand many in the 'intellectual property rights' (software developers) will exclaim how even though you 'buy the game' you still do not 'own the game'. While in a technical sense that's true, at least in terms of, you don't own the © IE, you didn't WRITE the game yourself. But I'm sorry, yes I do, OWN, this COPY of the game (that you wrote). If I go to the local store across the street and pick up the HL2 box off the shelf, go to the register, pay, and come home - guess what, I DO own that COPY whether you like it or not. I have the box, manual, and disc. I should be able to then play it INDEFINITELY (including the reference of passing it down the family tree). God only knows if the EULA or TOS or any legally binding 'contract' on the 'purchase' of said game directly stated 'you are licensed to use this for 365 days, then it must be returned to us' I'd NEVER buy it. So I think about the only thing that would keep me content with steam is some kind of written and fully legal guarantee that whatever game(s) we purchase and add to our library, we can have continued access and use regardless of Steam or the steam 'service'. Then again that would be the complete opposite of EVERY steam game that I know of today. ALL of them require you to not only have steam (installed) but also 'open' (running) prior to launching the game. That also in turn means you NEED an internet connection. I know there's 'offline mode' but that still does NOT alleviate the fact that you have to FIRST go ONLINE before you can 'activate' 'offline mode'. All games purchased through steam would have to function completely WITHOUT steam, in order for me to be content.

    Sadly we know that will not happen either. So, for the meantime I will continue to 'bootleg' just like everyone else, as a means to give the game a 'test drive' before I determine whether it's worth actually purchasing. If it IS worth the purchase at least I know I will have a copy sitting in an archive somewhere that I will be able to play regardless of steam! If I do not like it, well no biggie there, simple resolution, I do not give them my money, and I delete the 'free copy'!

    I'm no 'cracker' myself, so I'm not sure exactly how the 'crack artists' 'crack' steam games to run without it, but I do hope one day 'they' make a steam emulator so that you can just run said steam emulator @127.0.0.1 and play any steam game you wish that way. THAT would be an excellent answer to this problem (if it hasn't already been done).

    Funny thing though about this whole thing is, from what I can even recall from my own memories from that very day I came rushing home with the HL2 in box. Was, Steam did NOT feel like an awesome digital distribution mogul, it seemed like the ONLY reason they made it was that it was a form of DRM, or copy protection (the main thing that FIRST made me MAD about it). I wouldn't, to this day, doubt that the main reason steam came about, was as an anti-piracy measure. Sure it's developed into this 'awesome' platform for digital distribution that SO many people have come to LOVE, but I think that's what it's become because even IT fails at 'copy protection'. Any and ALL games that I know of that are on 'steam' have a 'non steam' version on TPB (which is certainly a GOOD, okay, GREAT thing!). The thing about 'DRM' though is it's a COMPLETE waste of MANY things, including TIME, MONEY, RESOURCES, etc... Why do I say that? Simple, because consumers don't want HARD things, we want EASY things. Take for example the digital distribution itself, it's MUCH easier than going to a local store, to pick up a BOX (game). Same for like movies, and netflix or hulu. Digital /is/ the new way, but DRM just complicates things. DRM in and of itself is a COMPLETE waste. All these people, coined, 'THE INDUSTRY', are concerned about 'how much money they LOSE to 'piracy'. Let me tell you, and I'm sure I will NOT be the first to say it, you do NOT 'lose' money due to 'piracy'. People who aren't going to buy your game, simply aren't going to buy your game (or any form of 'media' or 'intellectual property'). This is also regardless of whether they 'pirate' it or not too. So the FIRST thing wrong with 'THE INDUSTRY' is when they say they 'lose' money to piracy. NO, no they don't! Secondly here's your full circle catch 22: 'THEY' have become so 'hard up' about 'piracy' and DRM that there are now MANY people that 'pirate' that never have before. That's right, all this DRM *CRAP* that they're loading their products with just actually make it HARDER for their LEGIT PAYING customers to USE THEIR PRODUCT! So they resort to 'piracy'. Now I know there are still some people (like me) who will 'pirate' something first to see if they like it and, if they don't they'll delete it, or if they do, they'll 'pay for it'. That's not the point, the point is, all this HEAVY DRM crap is actually making 'piracy' seem that much more appealing to people! Let me ask you, which is easier? A or B? A) PIRATE GAME, PLAY! B) install game, insert CD/DVD, type in registration 'key', CONNECT TO THE INTERNETS, verify copy of game is legit, send in a copy of fingerprints, send in a urine sample, send in a DNA sample, submit to a drug test, submit to a criminal background check, THEN MAYBE play gameA >..<

    Maybe one day they'll 'get it right' @.@ until then TPB FTW!

    I do think that I will not be making any further steam PURCHASES until or unless something changes. Like some kind of assurance THEY can't change their mind about something (or have a huge system failure of their own) that inhibits me from playing my own games. What if they decided tomorrow that they were going to start charging $25/month to have and or use a steam account. I would not pay it, that's for sure! That has also been a concern of mine since day one of steam 'coming out'. Also why I've purchased MINIMAL games and have a MINIMAL LIBRARY! Now if they were solely 'distribution' and not 'DRM' (NEEDING to be connected / 'online' in order to play even single player games) then I'd be okay with it. Since they're not - I'd tread ahead with heavy caution! I'd feel REAL crappy if I went ahead and spent thousands of dollars on having a HUGE game library that Valve/Steam could arbitrarily decide at any moment to start charging monthly for access to, or at any moment 'hit the DEL key'! No way!

    It doesn't matter that they may never do any of these things, or anything along those lines. The problem is the mere fact that they hold that POWER. They should NOT hold that kind of power. To literally be able to steal millions if not billions if not trillions of dollars accrued over time by one fell swoop! And that's all it would take too, a simple announcement 'we're going to start charging $x / y(time frame) or to 'unplug' their servers - for every dollar, every penny, WE THE PEOPLE have spent on games using their system! We'd be out that money with no game to play to show for it, and they would still have FAT pockets! Me, no thank you. I'd MUCH rather buy that game in the box at a store (one that does NOT require steam), or even 'pirate' my copy, at least I know god forbid they ever DID chose to do any of those things (or their time just 'naturally' comes to an end) I'll still have a game to play!

    • There is a Steam emulator right at this very moment. It does exactly as you describe it; it acts like the hideously horrendous terrible program Steam, and fools the games into running without it. And it even allows you LAN play! And you don't need two accounts owning the same damned game to play it.

      SmartSteamEmulator it is. Hope I helped.

      • Yeah, but it's crap. You cannot run it WITHOUT steam.
        It only (supposedly) runs cracked games on steam. I, too, want to run my legit games without having to do anything with steam/valve.

        • This is strange. Smart Steam Emulator warns you all the time on the forums where it is hosted to use the original game files along with an original steam_api.dll, not cracked ones.

          I can help you get it running if you wish.

    • Well said

73. The Pirate Bay = Problem Solved.

    • Nope. TPB is also distributing and supporting malware. I had once recieved a legit copy of No one lives forever 2 from the convention. And it had two copies of second CD, instead of CD1&CD2 inside.... So I thought I just get image of 1st CD from TPB. I got one from 'confirmed uploader' and my KAV reported installer to be infected with a root kit. After I explained everything on TBP forum including the logs, the last response was 'we decided to take no action' and locked the topic.

      Problem Solved is really GOG.

74. It all comes down to trust. I myself believe that they are a company that wants to expand the gaming community by giving customers an excellent service and allowing indie developers to grow so in my mind right now they have no intention on screwing anyone over and only making sure they don't somehow get screwed over by keeping an updated terms and service.

75. I cant imaging why I would ever consider entering into a class action against steam, really.

    So, big deal.

76. Steams awful support system and this legal crap means i have bought my last game from them.

77. Only problem with steam I have is that it decides it needs to reinstall directx everytime I want to play a game. Also not all my games even launch.

    • There's a reason it does that, Jacky. DirectX is (or was) updated almost on a monthly basis; when Steam re-installs DirectX, it installs the version that was 'current' at the time the game was released, to try to make sure the game will run.

      DirectX is designed in such a way that installing an older version *does not* overwrite a newer version, but if there is a file that existed in the old version that does not exist in the current version, it will make sure it's there.

      • Thats BS, because some play Windows games not on Windows. Such forced installation method is awkward.

        This is also not how DX is designed. DX is COM-based. It drops libraries incrementally and registers their new GUIDs. When application is launched, unless desired, the latest GUID is picked. Old versions are just not called.

78. I bought the CD version of HalfLife 2 a long time ago. I love the game but sometimes it sits dormant. The Steam account, (which must be used even though the CD's and key are in my hand) has been a complete Pain in the A** to keep a valid account to prove I own the software licence. I've rebuilt computers, changed email address etc.. which is a huge problem with steam.
    Try to reactivate your Steam account after you've cancelled the email that it was tied to. There is no 1-800 number and support is a long process of emails until they get around to your problem. I've had nothing but problems on Steam.
    Give me a box with CD's and a CD key any day of the week. I don't need the Steam social or constant Store environment.

    • This is why I tied my Steam account to an email address that I'm never going to change. (That is to say, instead of tying it to an email account on my ISP's server, I tied it to a gmail account.)

      You can easily allow multiple computers to access the same Steam account via the SafeGuard system (you just have to make sure the email account that is associated with your Steam account is correct, because it will send a verification email when you try to connect from the new computer); and you can change your account's email address through the preferences. It's not as huge a problem as you make it out to be. Just make sure that you change the email address *before* you cancel your old email account!

79. I also am done buying games from Steam. A recent incident over a measly $5 purchase which PayPal screwed up THEIR end of resulted in my only payment method being banned from Steam. Does Valve give a damn? Not in the slightest. Does their joke of a customer 'support' system offer even ONE viable solution to the issue? Nope. Did I ever even get the game in question? Nope. Denied. And now I can't make future purchases from them even if I WANTED to (which at this point, I wouldn't buy from them even if you PAID me to). Had to literally SHOUT at PayPal on the phone and it took DAYS to get the problem solved at their end (after being advised by Valve the ONLY way THEY would accept the problem being solved) and now that I've done what Valve wanted, the problem ISN'T solved at all. It's just WORSE THAN BEFORE because now I can't buy ANY games from them. Funny how the COUNTLESS purchases BEFORE that one hold ZERO weight in the consideration of this issue. They don't give a DAMN about you as a customer once they've got your money, and clearly they don't care about FUTURE money as long as they get and keep PAST and CURRENT money. This company has turned into a total joke. Will never buy another game from them again as long as I live, and I will actively be going out of my way to convince others of the same.

80. Well, i've used steam and all of my games are free... i mean i GET IT on a LEGIT GIVEAWAY.... I'd not give steam money... But using steam is better than update the game manually...

    • THAT, in fact, is one of the better features of Steam. You know that whatever version you downloaded is kept current, without having to search for and install patches manually. Also, if you have purchased DLC for a game, you can tell Steam to selectively install only the DLC you want to use.

      In my opinion that's a great ability to have, if it turns out that the DLC is a 'Disc One Nuke' (that is to say, if it makes the game *way* too easy, like one or two of the DLC's for Saints Row The Third.) With Steam, you just tell it not to install that particular DLC.

81. 'Angry gamer' you're a giant retard.
    Steam is the reason piracy isn't really a problem for PC gaming. Affordable prices and ease of access mean piracy is just 'not worth the effort.'
    Without Steam, piracy would probably still be pretty rampant.

    • DRM *was* what created, what is refered as 'piracy'. With Steam, piracy will just go up. Piracy is nothing else, but sharing digital data. Steam is data, license and DRM.

    • Do a bit of research before you post stupid comment than look in the mirror and you'll see retard

82. yeah this kind of crap is why piracy is getting bigger every day. what happens a lot of the time, is that someone gets a game, finds out it requires steam and then goes and pirates that game so they dont need to use steam with it.

83. ne more thing too. What if a person that bought the game had a laptop (which I do) that was deliberately built to NOT have an internet connection. I'm a writer and I do not like having my writings subjected to the possibility of being hacked or affected by viruses or worms. My writing laptop is NEVER exposed to the internet. I have other computers I use for that. I also sometimes have installed games on that computer from CDs and had I tried to install Steams Skyrim Legendary Edition it would not have worked. What I find particularly vile about this is that apparently folks that buy the game for a console (such as X Box) don't have to have the Steam internet connection but PC users do. It is just wrong. So, they don't get any of my business.

    • If you bought it... and you have that computer also installed for it (both of your computer install it and own the license, i mean different account), you can just copy it to steam/common/ and copy the app manifest, but change the address in app manifest that last owner... to the computer target... '1 account at a PC have a same address'PLEASE... USE THIS METHOD IF U LEGALLY OWN THE GAME IN TWO ACCOUNT AND THIS METHOD IS FOR SAVING BANDWIDTH...OR TIME... BUT IF YOU DON'T OWN THE LICENSE IT'S CALLED PIRACY AND IT WILL NOT WORKS... I copy East India Company Gold Edition (1,7 GB) to my dad laptop that OWN THIS GAME TOO just to save bandwidth, and we played together..

    • If you bought it... and you have that computer also installed for it (both of your computer install it and own the license, i mean different account), you can just copy it to steam/common/ and copy the app manifest, but change the address in app manifest that last owner... to the computer target... '1 account at a PC have a same address'PLEASE... USE THIS METHOD IF U LEGALLY OWN THE GAME IN TWO ACCOUNT AND THIS METHOD IS FOR SAVING BANDWIDTH...OR TIME... BUT IF YOU DON'T OWN THE LICENSE IT'S CALLED PIRACY AND IT WILL NOT WORKS... I copy East India Company Gold Edition (1,7 GB) to my dad laptop that OWN THIS GAME TOO just to save bandwidth, and we played together..

    • or look here http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/882964760886114005/

84. I've never purchased a game through Steam. My kids bought me a birthday present a year ago, Skyrim the Legendary Edition. I opened the package, removed the CD, popped it in my laptop and loaded it up only to find to my surprise it HAD to be linked to Steam On-Line. I've played scores of games and have a pretty good library of them, including Oblivion. My MAIN game company for On-Line games is GOG. I absolutely LOVE those guys. NONE of their games HAVE to be tied to an on-line account every time I want to play an off-line game. I was unpleasantly surprised and angry that Skyrim, which I intended to play off-line, HAD to be linked to an on-line account. What I don't like about it is that when steam goes down, my game goes down too even though my game is entirely loaded on my computer. I REALLY don't like anyone having the power to lock me out of my game, the game I PAID for. This game will be the only game I EVER get through Steam.

    Having said that I do think Steam is phenomena that will fade away because there are a lot of avid gamers (such as the author of the above article) who do not like being tied to some on-line company that can just shut them off from games they purchased. I also do not think Steam can avoid the biggest obstacle to their doing that. It amounts to taking peoples' money to BUY games that they can lose at the stroke of a key back at Steam. It amounts to theft. It would be like going down to your local GMC dealer, buying a car and paying cash for it but the keys for driving it are kept at the dealership which retains the power to never let you have the keys if you don't agree to their terms for allowing you to use the car. All this will do is lead to more and more folks using piracy cracking codes to break the Steam connection. And it will lead to more and more people going to game companies like GOG where when they buy a game it is theirs FOREVER without restriction. Steam, no matter how strong they may seem to be now, will fade away. I, for one, won't be buying any of their games.

85. *Valve recently released new terms of service that deny users the right to a class action lawsuit. This is, at least in the United States, entirely legal*
    -
    you worry for nothing
    -
    all companies do that, (try to enforce arbitration)
    but it`s illegal in every country
    -
    ask a lawyer, it should take him 5 seconds
    to tell you 10 ways to break steam agreement
    -
    or just take a law class, it`s quite basic
    -
    I never saw companies win on such grounds.
    they usually leave the courtroom quite depressed
    -
    nope, I disagree wit you, so far steam are ok
    the problem for me is 2K games which sell games on steam
    and requires permanent connection for offline games
    (civ III, pirates)
    -
    steam could do a better job of acknowledging today most common OS is Win7
    and always include in the requirement section a mini-FAQ
    about how to get it working on Win 7
    and I mean a serious hands on NVidia style FAQ,
    not a stupid copy paste answer from another game
    and also steam should use their legal weight to force terms on games company and force them not to require a permanent internet connection for offline games
    -
    there is also an issue with creative assembly.
    It`s obvious they lost a key programmer during development
    and were too dumb to offer him 20% shares to make him stay
    if they had made the right choice, rome II would be a success
    -
    lets face it, games are not developped by teams
    they are developped by key programmers supported by a large team of artists
    -
    but in recent years, greed got in the way of common sense
    and major franchises (diablo, total war)
    may go down because of those massive mistakes
    and greedy decisions (online diablo shop, lol)
    -
    the owners probably don`t care because they already made their money
    -
    it`s sad really.
    but don`t blame steam for the idiocy of specific companies

    • 'but don`t blame steam for the idiocy of specific companies' steam is a product of specific company, so its pretty valid to blame steam for idiocy.

86. Simple there is a law that prevent's a force of change of terms with anyone if the one being forced to change disagrees or does not wish to change terms they do not have to.

87. I HATE this ugly, hard on the eyes, stupid ass FONT I see pop up everywhere. Is it a mobile phone and tablet crap thing? Must be, it's so ugly. I love Steam but I stopped buying games too, I go on GOG and Gamersgate.

88. Steam stole my account, I tried the new watch a third party play feature and found that my old account was deleted. When I tried to play it, Steam said I needed permission from the account they deleted. There 'support' is send in a complaint to be deleted---no person anywhere in sight.

    Fraud, real theft and Identity theft all at the same time. Obviously it is criminals in charge at steaman on going criminal enterprise.

    • *Steam stole my account*
      -
      more like a russian or chinese hacker stole it. they broke into steam around the time of Skyrim release (pretty sure it was the russians, because they were spaming bethesda`s forums with links to mallware, and those guys were clearly russians
      -
      Just use your credit card as proof to recover your account and games. may require some effort on your part to list the games
      -
      you`re not the only one who lost his account

      • 'russians' nazi much? They were clearly crackers, but not just 'russians'. Racist scumbag.

      • Exactly the reason why we should have our own games and not rely on steamshit.

89. The indie bundle usually gives you your games through steam

90. Ok, I read the article and read the comments. It seems that the author is thinking about suing for a BUNCH of WHAT IF's... WHAT IF Steam decides to control the prices... WHAT IF Steam leaks your credit card. The favorite one that I have read and that people are so WRONG about is the one that, they bought the game and that it is theirs to do with as they please... that is where you are SO wrong. You buy the right to play the software, but you don't actually by the software. Its just like music, you buy the CD, and while that gives you right to do what you want to the CD, like scratch it and stomp on it, buying it does not give you right to copy the music and distribute it like you see fit... its the same with DVD's... So that is where that argument goes out the window.. With Steam you are forgoing the physical copy and buying the right to use the software.. you are basically buying a license to use the software as provided by Steam. I think Matt Smith is really smoking crack for the most part... Given that you treat software like that of a DVD or music, and that he proposed a class action for a bunch of WHAT IF's are what leads me to my opinion.. he is the reason for increased software cost.. those that decide to take his opinion, sue on our behaves for things that we may or may never actually sue for, cost the company millions in court costs that the company must recover. Companies change the TOS all the time... heck banks change their TOS and give you basically the same options... the banks give me an option to accept their change or have my accounts closed.. now Matt will argue that Steam should be required to give me the games I purchased... but if you READ the agreement from DAY ONE, you will see that you only bought the license to use the software and that you agreed to when you opened your account... so if you change your mind and say no, then just like a bank, they close your account and remove those licenses....

    Steam is doing nothing wrong... they are providing a great service, and they often charge much less then any brick and mortar store or online store than you will find. Also they have many games that you cannot buy anymore or cannot find anywhere except on... STEAM... The way your present it is as if it is a bad thing that they sell the software because you don't like the fact that you don't buy the physical games but only the licenses to those games.. and BTW if you READ the licenses with the physical games, the companies like blizzard or EA can revoke those licenses and you are supposed to destroy the physical game... and they don't have to give you money for that... just like blizzard can with Diablo 3.... its NO different, but here you are trying to justify to yourself protections that you never had under the law...

    So go back to the rock you attempted to climb out of... realize the fact that you don't own the software you think you buy.... you never have... just like DVD's and Music... and why pre-emptively sue Steam under a class action for stuff which Steam hasn't done like over-charge for software... you seem to believe its your duty to sue for that to teach them a lesson that they will get sued if they do.. so I guess Steam will get sued for over-charging whether they are or are not... you will see to that, and why losers like you are the bane of the legal system... You may not agree with some things Steam does... but I don't know where there is a place I can get better service... Monopoly?? I don't think so as there is Impluse and Gamestops online service as well as Direct 2 Drive... If you read their initial agreements you will find that they are similar to Steams. If you read the TOS with your packaged software, you will see that you do not OWN the software you buy..

    It is amazing what people think they know and what they believe, and what reality is... blaming Steam for offering great prices, and a wide range of software that can;t be had anywhere else, and end up being sued for someones perception of what you are offering changes... while even I don't like the change of not going class action as part of the TOS, all Matt Smith HAS to do it read a little law and realize that while they (STEAM) adds this to the TOS, the courts have ruled in cases involving this very item with Cell Phone providers that just because this is in the TOS and just because you agreed with it, does not automatically prevent your ability to pursue litigation... the real reason its in there it because you just have to show real cause for class action ruling, and it shifts the burden of cost.. basically its harder for me to go get a pro-bono lawyer and start filing lawsuits like crazy... or if you had a law degree and thought you could make money by filing BS suits until one stuck, this TOS throws that out the window... if you try to go CA and go through the process, you will end up having to pay Steams legal expense unless your green lighted... Its basically a way for them to CYA and its not a bad one if you really think about it... if you have a really go case to go Class Action, you will get your day in court.... a TOS will not stop it... heck, even a signed contract as I mentioned in the case of the Cell Phone companies won't stop it... My legal scholar friend said the reason the Cell companies added it, was to stop all the frivolus suits being filed under Class Action for distracted driving, cell phone cancer and so on.... now its a LOT harder to sue and get Class Action, but its not impossible...

    So Matt, go back under the hole you crawled out, and sue and or not buy software from Steam, but you will see that you won't be able to buy as many games as you are used to, as many are in print much shorter than movies and don't stay in print when they are gone... that you have been spoiled by Steam and now think that games are out there longer is insane... I bet you are younger than 40 and probably don't remember what life was like.. you are probably 27.. so steam was around Age - 10 years... so most of your life you have been able to bind contracts... don't buy games from ANY online store... no D2D, no Impulse, no Ebay or Newegg, no Amazon... just stick to Best Buy, Walmart, Target... do that for 3 years, and then tell me what buying software is like... also get to know the REAL legal situation with software... Amazing...

    • *The favorite one that I have read and that people are so WRONG about is the one that, they bought the game and that it is theirs to do with as they please… that is where you are SO wrong*

      -
      you are partialy wrong as well, as law courts decided countless times.
      specificaly the enforcement of permanent internet connection may be illegal
      (aka what Blizzard did with Diablo 3 and starcraft)
      -
      why ... because it`s a breach of security.
      they have no right to impose something on unreasonable grounds.
      -
      it is as silly as if mc donald would force every woman buying a cofee to .. ahem ... service a random male customer ... and I do mean like prostitution
      -
      ya know, actually there was a modeling agency that tried something like that needless to say they got nuked legaly and the owner sit in jail
      -
      you simply can never impose something unreasonable on a customer. that`s part of the laws governing commerce.
      -
      othrwise amazon.com would just write their policy can change at any time, then switch it to ... sorry dude, now amazon own your house and car, and you owe them 200 a day for the rest of your life.
      -
      they can`t do that. that`s the law.
      -
      but I understand you meant it as in you cannot reverse engineer it, pirate it and so on.
      -
      however due to preexisting practice, steam and all game maker are bound to provide something equivalent to used games, and game exchange, and game returns, which they now do.
      -
      steam is probably the first one to wake up to that coming reallity.
      -
      wakeup call may not be as gentle for blizzard. I smell a special law coming, just like for rockfeller. (anti trust law should have been called the rockfeller ban law really)
      -
      * also get to know the REAL legal situation with software…*
      -
      the real legal situation is what I just explained, you and the other dude are at the two extreme of the spectrum. him super revolted, you corporation worshiping. the real law is in the middle, it applies to all.
      -
      ya know, best action I saw recently was madona uploading part of her new album for free on youtune. she understand the situation better than some disconected from reality megacorporation. lets face it, production prices are down to zero, they no longer print dvds or vinyl and bandwidth is cheap. so they need a new model that acknowledge that. if they don`t eventually a law will be passed forcing corporations to be reasonable ... I mean, infinite profit from zero expense with the artist getting nearly nothing is unreasonable.
      -
      other things to fix in the law is to enforce that the cameramen and other little guys in movie productions get a share of the infinite profits. right now I`m not even sure there actors do, biut at least they get millions upfront, not so for the little guys that helped make the movie
      -

    • Having read Ryan's bloviating screed, even though my comments are a year behind his and I doubt he'll ever read them, I find myself moved to comment on his lack of logic. When I buy a CD or even pay to download to my MP3 player the songs of my favorite music artists, those are MINE. The company that streams the MP3 songs or that prints and sells the CDs may change its policies but those things I purchased REMAIN MINE to play as I please and to my pleasure. I am NOT just renting the right to listen to that music. If they change their policies I AM NOT obligated to erase my MP3 recordings or destroy my CD. I buy a microwave over and plop it on my counter it is MINE and the company that produced doesn't have the right to enter my home and take it away from me because I decide I don't like their policy changes. Either case, that is THEFT. If I buy a video game I am NOT just buying a license to play the game that some company can just take away from me at its whim. As I said below, my kids BOUGHT me a copy of Skyrim Legendary Edition at the local Game Stop game store. The CD in that package is MINE and yet I can only play the game when connected to Steam via an on-line link. Well, what if my computer didn't have an on-line link? That means we bought and paid for a game I can't play? It is NONSENSE!!! No company, EVER, should have the power to take away games you bought and paid for. Your logic, Ryan, is Illogic and I think if pressed in a courtroom, Steam's Gestapo tactics would be criminal and amount to theft. Imagine buying and paying for a car (with cash) and not being able to drive it because the dealership keeps the keys. You have to call up the dealership and one of their employees drives to your house when you want to drive YOUR car. And then, when you climb into the car to drive it, the employee climbs in too because he HAS to make sure you don't do anything with the car that violates your agreements for use of the car. So you have to drive around taking this employee of the dealership with you wherever you go when you want to use your car. At the end of the day you get to park your car in your garage (where you can admire it but can't drive it) while the employee of the dealership takes your car keys and he then drives back to the dealership. What happens when all the dealerships agents are busy? Well, you don't get to drive your car, which is effectively what happened to me when I tried installing Skyrim and found that Steam's computers were down. I kept trying and it took several days to finagle things so I could even get registered. In the meantime I couldn't play MY GAME. Clearly Ryan's glowing endorsement of Steams piss poor service seems to indicate he's a loyal employee.

      • I agree. Physical media, Digital content and delivery platform(and bound account) are three different things.

    • Oh my, you so full of shit it must be coming out of your ears.
      I OWN all my games as hard copy, CD/DVD and will not be forced to log in for any reason.
      And, I am 65 y.o. and know that before steam I could always play my games without interference from busy bodies.
      Beside, you cannot 'go back under the hole' but YOU can crawl under the stone :)

91. Thats one of the answer to why the piracy of games and another things it's too big

92. Thank you Valve/Steam from now on i will be getting my games through torrents. Since i can no longer buy most of them from retailers. And now most of the games sold in stores require Steam. What a STEAMING pile of @#$%!

93. Thanks. I just noticed this article while doing a search on a different topic of steam.

    I've not read the current Terms of Service until...last night. It did trouble me that (a) whatever you buy on steam is a license, not the actual product and (b) I've never actually seen a Terms of Service that so explicitly spells out that you're giving up your right to participate in a class action lawsuit.

    I've grown accustomed to the ease of use, cheap prices, and ease of use of steam.
    IF tomorrow Valve decided to charge $10/month to stay with Steam and I wasn't happy with it, I'd lose about...$150-$175 worth of stuff. That's not too bad so far, but your article solidified my particular concerns, and I'll certainly have to think about what to do from here on out.

    The people who have it the worst are the ones who have amassed a huge backlog of games that they haven't played. Fortunately I am not one of those people, as I've mostly been sticking with disc releases for AAA titles.

    But I am definitely in that situation when it comes to a pile of PSN titles (more of the independent stuff)...we're all kind of dependent on this whole 'in good faith' relationship with these companies that we're all not going to one day get completely shafted.

    • Steam along with Origin pretty much have a monopoly over the PC gaming industry. It's ridiculous already because, you can't play your games offline with full capability as you would a console. With my PS3 Games, I can play my games, regardless of what account I have them on, and play them offline. That's the beauty of console gaming. When you purchase a game, it's yours, it's on a hard copy, a disc. With Steam, you have to log into the same bloody account for the rest of your life, until you die. After that, the games are lost because you were the only one who had access to them. To support a point that has already been stated, Valve owns the games ultimately. You simply leased them. PC gaming has many advantages, but I feel that because they're locked into steam, and online that ultimately, it's just a money sucking industry that tricks people into putting their valuables into a system that controls everything. Buy a hard copy of your game on ps3 or xbox, make sure a PC game can be played without steam. I think I've decided to not buy games on steam anymore, and that I think I will choose to abandon my steam account. I don't support Steam anymore, nor do I support PC gaming.

    • No, actually, Valve does NOT own the games. The company that wrote them (assuming they're still in business) does. That's why sometimes you see some games that have the '3rd Party EULA' tag. Nor are you 'leasing' the games... you're leasing permission to install and use them. The ownership of the software remains with the original authors.

      This is nothing new. This goes all the way back *at least* 20 or 30 years. In 1988, if I bought a copy of Lotus 1-2-3 (which cost $399), I was LEASING the permission to install and use one copy. DarkSider, I suggest you check your EULA... it's the same for your PS3. For example, the EULA for Grand Theft Auto 5 reads:

      'Licensor hereby grants you a nonexclusive, non-transferable, limited, and revocable right and license to use one copy of the Software for your personal, non-commercial use for gameplay on a single Game Platform.'

      Notice that it is REVOCABLE. Rockstar can take away your license to play GTA V. I can't see any situation in which they WOULD, but they CAN... it's in the EULA.

      'The Software is licensed, not sold, to you, and you hereby acknowledge that no title or ownership in the Software is being transferred or assigned. . .'

      Notice that part about LICENSED, NOT SOLD? This means that NO... you DON'T own the game. You just happen to own the disc it's on, and permission to use one copy of it.

      • Yup. Its EULA. It outlines the rights you purchased. Its not necessary negative. For example, if toaster explodes - you need to purchase a new one. But if CD is scratched, its perfectly legal to make or get another copy. Since you purchased rights to use product, and media is just delivery method. This is also why I always disliked consoles, I had just enough experience with 1,44 disks. First thing to do, was to copy installer to safe place, should anything happen to the disks.

94. after reading their terms while installing [sniper] i cancelled the install. later i figured;i have the dvd-try it. installed ,figured out the interface,played single player only,did not have to pay $. but i will not purchase another game on or offline.Hate that it auto-starts [valve]with system os.this is beyond irritable to me!

    • You *do* know that you can tell Steam not to start on boot-up, don't you?

95. Personally I love steam. Sure there are some potential problems that could arise in the future, but so many of you are looking at this all wrong. First you have to honestly ask yourself how many of your older games you would really care about losing.

    For me, I have done all I am going to do with most games in the first 2 months, if there is some good multi-player that may be a little longer.

    For games I play for the single-player elements, most are just going to be a most 1 play-through, maybe less if its not very good or some replays on harder difficulties if it was good. Even of those that were good enough for more than one play-through I doubt there are many that will be worthy of an additional play-through in 5 or 10 years.

    Don't get me wrong I still like having access to all my older games, just in case, but in reality, while I feel like I would miss having access to them, there are only a few I would really truly miss,

    Now lets think about what GoG.com initial business play was. They bought the rights to old games that did not work with current operating systems made what modifications were needed to make them easily work on modern computers and sold them cheap.

    How many of their sales do you think were to people who had paid $50 for these games years ago and had still have the disc sitting in a box somewhere. Why spend hours digging through old shit to find a disc you hope hasn't been damaged in storage and that is just the first half of the problems you could be facing in playing this old game again, next you have the task of getting it to work on a modern computer. Using Google to find out how someone else got it to work and then hoping the mystery patch you found on some unknown website is not really a virus.

    Now lets talk about console games, I have my NES and Most of my collection of its games sitting in a drawer, but I remember how much fun those were to get working when they were new. I also have my Sega Genesis, SNES, N64 and PS2 and most of my games for them, including PS1 games, sitting in some drawers, the Genesis doesn't have a power cord and luckily the SNES and N64 used the same one or one of those wouldn't be playable.

    If for any reason my PS2 breaks, i can still play my PS2 games, but i would have to spend some money to play those PS1 games again. I got my PS3 after they stopped doing PS1 compatibility.

    I don't care how you are purchasing video games there are risk you are taking in how long they will be playable for you.,

    Physical copies can be lost, stolen, damaged, or even the hardware required to use them can become damaged or obsolete, you could lose a power cable, or in the case of my NES I am not even sure I have the connectors to connect it to my HDTV.

    Digital copies can be re-downloaded if damage occurs to a disc drive, you could potentially lose access to your account because you forgot a password or were a victim of identity theft, but there are ways to recover your account, so you have some pretty good protection against loss or theft. That leaves the biggest threat to your games being with the company you purchased them from.

    I don't care which retailer you purchase from, you still risk losing a game forever. Any of them could stop supporting your ability to re-download at any point. If this happens DRM free or not your Digital copy has become a physical copy and it is now up to you to protect it.

    The biggest threat to any digital copy is the company you purchased it from going under and we are talking about failing in a way so horribly that they are being bought by someone who was just taking them for their parts. As long as there is healthy competition among digital distributors none of these companies are going to do anything that is going to really piss off the majority of their customers.

96. If you no longer wanted to use Steam (but wanted to retain your games), couldn't you just backup your steamapps folder...

    C:Users(Your name)DocumentsSteamsteamapps

    ...to an external HDD, deactivate/disable your account, uninstall Steam, copy the folder back to its original location, and launch the games manually via their respective executables (instead of through Steam)? Or would that not work?

    • For most games (at least older ones) that have no achievements or Steamworks integration... yes. Using the Steam launcher merely 'hooks' the Steam overlay into the game so you can use the chat. And sometimes not even that... I distinctly remember the first three Thief games, not being able to use the overlay.

97. I'm not going to lie, I really don't like this article. I understand where you come from but understand that if Steam screws themselves over then it's no big deal, us as customers will just take our money somewhere else. Obviously this is something they don't want to do.

    I can't see taking any class action law suits against them either. Read the terms and services and quit for all I care. However, some of the oldest and best games right now are on steam. Not only that, they are supporting gamers and giving us the tools to make our own games and publish them on Steam! Steam is helping small time developers get their selves out there! Not only that, Steams sales are amazing, I hate going into a store and buying a game now a days, usually now a days, if I can't find a game on steam and you can't play it through my browser then it isn't worth my time.

    Either way, I am very biased towards steam, but also a lot of customers are, because we LOVE their service. We really don't care about the terms of service. To be honest, if steam started holding my games hostage for a monthly payment, then sure why not? I mean they've been with gamers since 2003, every day they are adding new games. They have over 6 million players on at one time! 6 million!! The best place to get that kind of numbers is facebook. Should we start class action lawsuits against facebook for our status's? No, it's just stupid. We pay steam for our games, plain and simple, they make money, and they are happy. Anyways, I'm done here, I have over 100+ games on steam that I have purchased from them, and you know what? I never have to worry about a broken CD. Or having over 200+ cds laying around(assuming most of those games would take a couple CDs, or dvds to install).

    Have a nice day. From the Steam community.

    • And here is another employee of Steam. You and Ryan (below) work in adjacent cubicles? Why would any nitwit pay good money to BUY a game only to then have to pay a monthly fee to play it? That is, plainly said, a boat load of stupid. What I REALLY hate is that one can go to a real live game store like Best Buy or Game Stop, buy a game like Skyrim Legendary Edition with a real CD and you STILL cannot play it unless connected to Steam, which gives Steam the power to cut you off from your game if they want. And YOU think that is ok? That is an example of a boat load of stupid. And as for having a bunch of game lying around un-played, that too is a bunch of hooey. The reason that happens is because Microsoft keeps changing its OS. How many times have they churned us computer users by introducing the next OS system that we are FORCED to buy? Windows 3, Windows Millenium, Windows XP (with different service packs), Windows Vista, Windows 7 and now Windows 8 and 8.1. A LOT of my old games were simply not compatible with modern OS systems. Along came GOG (who I adore) and made those old games compatible with current OS versions and for a small fee I can download them and play to my heart's content WITHOUT having to be connected to GOG on-line or having to worry about paying a monthly fee to paly MY GAMES.

      • @MJN Gog actually did nothing in that area. Mostly, its dosbox project. Still... GOG used dosbox to make games run as is, without turning dosbox into closed source watchdog required to play that game.

      • original Doom works fine with W7 on i5 2500k and nvidia 970. It just looks pretty horrible unless you play it in small(ish) window and with plain black desktop. Same with duke nukem and wolfenstain :)
        Works for me :)

    • You post is a perfect example why Steam should be beaten with a stick! Customer satisfaction and interests should be your goal, and not the crap (for the lack of better word) you wrote up.

      From customer.

98. It’s a temporary thing. One good lawsuit against Valve, EA or any of the other homies resulting in even mild media exposure and the possibility of governmental sanctions, particularly within the EU, will put these fine gentlemen back in line very, very quickly. We’re dealing with very recent technology here that most people not only don’t understand, but aren’t even aware of. This will change eventually. For now we’ll have to rely on whistle-blowing

99. I'm done with these damn computer games where if you buy it you don't really own it. I'm going to just get a Xbox or somthing so I can acually own games no one can take a way from me.

100. First of all stop complaining. Valve has been out with steam for more than 9 years, and has done nothing but increase and make life easier for online computer gaming. All you guys who are complaining aren't even true fans, just people who hopped on the band wagon and ready to sue. Steam gives the best deals, and makes it easier to communicate with your gamer friends. You don't like the new Terms? fine don't buy anymore steam games, really no one cares. Buying games from steam and charging back after you beat them or sue if you don't like the game is what ruins gaming companies and for true gamers. You screw the companies, they don't make us products anymore. So please quit, stop using steam. No one likes whiners anyways.

     • Does your mum knows you're still up?

101. I'll be honest even though I am a recent steam user, I'm more a laid back casual type. I have never bothered playing games online via steam. I think steam is better than piracy, but beyond that I simply treat it like any other fraudulent system. Of course they will bind you to their EULA, of course they will hold the right to deny you service. Forget buying games via the service, you agreed to their terms the moment you installed steam as most of their efforts have been clearly in controlling accounts. Simple answer don't be a douche bag and all will be fine.

     Personally I think GOG is a better service!

     • Problem is, the terms of service extend to games purchased in normal stores like Best Buy or Game Stop because you CANNOT play those games UNLESS you register with Steam and play through their service with an open on-line connection. It isn't just games you buy THROUGH Steam on-line. Frankly, had I known Skyrim Legendary Edition was tied down to Steam as it was I would never have opened the package (my kids gave it to me as a gift for my birthday) and would have, instead, taken it back to Game Stop and purchased some other game (like Witcher 2 which I LOVE). But after I opened it, loaded it in my computer only to find the CD could not be activated unless I had a Steam account, was ALWAYS connected to said account via an on-line connection and after reading the EULA found MY game would only work as long as I had an open Steam account. I was NOT warned of this on the game's package. That is NOT right.

       Like you, I find GOG's service to be WAYYY better. And frankly they have all of the old games that were my favorites.

102. It should be noted that when you buy any video game, you are the end user and as the end user you are required to take care of your health and safety well dealing with digital media. It is all part of the agreement made when buying it, they mostly did this to sort out and solve issues of people think because they some how got fat well playing their games and so on they think they got the right to pull a fat person against McDonald lawsuit.

     As the end users long before this it was your responsibility to keep these items out of the hands of minors. Which yet again is another thing, I mean they mostly took his step because of issues like the left in content like the HOT COFFEE code the Grand Thief Auto game. I should not that Hilary Clinton took issue with this and ended up costing ROCK STAR GAMES over 250 million dollars. I am never going to vote for her, I understand it was partly their fault for leaving it. But I also believe that it is not a political persons right to demand censorship when the only way to get to the code and make use of it in most cases is for the END USER. I E you to VIOLATE the agreement you made when you bought the game in the first place!

     This also helps companies like Valve because when people download a mod or alteration for their game and it some how messes up their computer or the game. IT IS NOT THEIR PROBLEM, it makes it clear and solid that IT IS ON YOU THE USER. It is just one more back up to the idea that THE END USER AGREEMENT MEANS SOMETHING. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for what you do with what they sell you to use. That is all this stance and ideal many suggests if you ask me as a legal stand point to what it really does and mean.

     In case in point it makes me wonder how close any of you read the added information that comes with many products that you buy.

     • WTF are you on about?

103. I experienced the arrogance of Steam regarding their power of making their own territories and experienced that there is not something like 'buying' your copy of game. One pays money to Steam and as a gesture Steam lets you play their game. So it is not wherever and whenever you want, but wherever and whenever Steam wants you to play. I am living in Moscow at the moment and travel a lot. I let Steam change my currency to Rubles as that is more logic and I like the payment system they use here in Russia. It means also that you pay a little bit less for a game then e.g. in my mother country The Netherlands. BUT, for a lot of purchases there is a limitation to the Region I bought the game in. Not so much the games I bought in The Netherlands, but for the games I bought here in Russia. I will not be able to play them in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, etc. So during my holidays abroad (THE time to play games now and then) I will not be able to play them. A solution was brought by the 'Help'desk of Steam: just open a SECOND ACCOUNT (what? Yes a second account) and buy the game a second time. If you travel all over the world and want to play the game wherever whenever (these where the advertising words once of Steam), you should open an unknown amount of accounts at Steam and buy several copies of the same game! Welcome to 2012.

     • And that is not right either!

     • Thats problem with Steam, which GOG has solved. Euro does not equal Dollar. Means, the price is consistent across currencies. What Steam does is wrong, and that leads into activities which are basically... effort to pay less by circumventing the country... which is easily acknowledged as misuse of their TOS... which, in turn, will require them to deploy even more overwatch ... that will unquestionably lead to bans or sanctions against, say, customers that cross borders frequently.

       All in all, its Steam problem. DRM makes more problems for user than advantages.

104. If you were as legal-savvy as you make yourself sound here when you started using the service (STEAM), you would have realized that, should you at any point want to terminate your agreement with Valve for said service, you would lose access to all games tied to your account through STEAM. At which point, you can't say this is a dick move by the company, since you're the one who agreed to it in the first place.

     On that note, to keep Valve from sounding like the banks with credit cards, they did give you a handy pop-up telling you about the change, which is a hell of a lot more than I've seen any other company do, regardless of what service they provide. Which leaves me still trusting Valve, since they haven't screwed up yet. And as long as they continue to support gamers and developers alike, they can keep taking my money.

     And knowing Valve, a petition by Steam users asking them to remove that ban on class action lawsuits would probably get them to do so. But then again, the smarter choice might be to keep it, since this is America after all and we can sue for just about anything.

     • Uhhh and that means some poor innocent kids buy a game at Game Stop only to find it has a CD they can't play unless they have a Steam account and an open connection via the internet to play the game ... who AGREED to that? They wouldn't know these conditions existed until AFTER they opened the game at home and tried to load it to play it. At that point they CANNOT take the game back to Game Stop or Best Buy to get their money back. Which means they are stuck. I find that to be reprehensible and amounts to selling things under false pretenses. How could you EVER say, 'you can’t say this is a dick move by the company, since you’re the one who agreed to it in the first place', when you in fact, NEVER AGREED to it when you first bought the game at Best Buy or Game Stop? EH? Yeah ... it IS a dick move by Steam.

105. Steam is so bad I still dont get how it works swell for others, I have an i& with 9GB or RAM etc etc.... my recent 2 cents are i ended up buying 2 hard copies of Skyrim= to get it going, and now after months of playing all of a sudden i get the 'you should connect to internet' message from them, nothing else, ever.
     Well I am connected to internet, lol, but since i just bought WITCHER 2, I am in heaven, fk Steam, every time i look at a game and see their logo or any hints about Steam, it is NO SALE for me.

     • I agree!

106. I have no internet access for my gaming computer, I post online at an internet cafe. The stand alone gamer has been bent over the FSB and royally fudged!! Remember the days you bought the box and put in the CD key?

     • So you have no access and you are posting about Steam which is an Online service and is known to be an Online service?? Why is the stand alone gamer being bent over?? Why do you feel the need to post when in reality your comment is as useless as certain appendages on a bull. Most games you still can by on DVD/CD that you can get on Steam... just not the older ones.... And if you have Steam and are logged on and want to play offline... GASP, you can.. before you quit, select the 'Steam' menu item from the main screen, and select 'Go Offline...' Now you can play offline..

       • Are you really that tick? You can buy CD/DVD but you cannot play WITHOUT steamingshit.
         Totally retarded comment - 'GASP, you can.. before you quit, select the 'Steam' menu item from the main screen, and select 'Go Offline...' Now you can play offline..' after Phil Danson said he only uses internet cafe for access.
         Troll

     • And here is proof positive Ryan works for the company! LOL You CAN play off line but only AFTER you hook up to Steam On-Line. The point is, if you then set p your game to play Off-Line and then cancelled your steam account ... well guess what ... you can't restart your game. I've tried that with my Skyrim game. And Ryan, DUDE, did you not read what Phil said? He doesn't have an internet connection so if he bought the game at Gaem Stop he CANNOT play it because he can't even unlock it without a Steam on-line account. So the person with the useless comment is you, Ryan.

107. steam sucks i dont want it

108. I lost my 268-game Steam account because of a Steam Support employee not liking me. I literally might commit suicide over it, it's like I lost the one hobby I really care about in life. I've tried to get back into handheld and console gaming but I still feel empty, I can't refill that hole. Seriously, *I might commit suicide over this soon.* The panic attacks, stress and loss of interest in life certainly feel worse than death would, anyway.

     • Solution: Steam gives you the license key to most games so after you buy it just take the key and torrent an .iso for said game and activate it using the key. Bam no longer bound by steam

       • Yeah, SuddenLink kinda gave me a warning about that after I pirated Crysis, which I owned on my Steam account. I guarantee that if I pirated the ISOs for all 268 games I lost they'd kill my internet connection for six months(it's a three-strikes rule) and then start fining me hardcore(for anything after those three strikes).

         I'm just through with PC gaming, and I feel really empty over it. At least the PS4 sounds like it'll be $300 and release Q4 2013 with better specs than my $700 PC build. :<

     • 268 games isn't really that many.

       • I really can't tell if you're sarcastic or not. 268 games eclipses all my other game collections for consoles and handhelds combined. 268 is a MASSIVE number of games, almost incomprehensibly so.

         And I lost them. So yeah, screw Steam, it's ruined PC gaming by taking away DRM-free retail choices.

         • I would really like to get more details on this... I do have a VERY hard time that they just off and killed your account with this many games for one employee disliking... If this was true and you were a perfect gentleman with no name calling and no bad things sad to the support person and no personal digs and so on, and he did this, then I would be shocked but would guess that someone would have made this right on your behalf..

           Thats why I feel like we are seeing only one side to this story... I have had to deal with Steam support only 2x when switching computers and I thought they withheld a game from me and they were VERY nice, very understanding and did all they could and I found that I didn't buy the game from Steam but from Impulse/Gamestop online...

           For someone to delete 268 games out of spite and dislike without a very large reason to dislike you seems hollow... I just have a feeling that a voice or a chat transcript would show a side of you that isn't being shown here... another sign of supportting my assumption is your opening post of being suicidal and wanting to hurt yourself and then your quick change in moods....

         • I never said anything rude or disrespectful to him, even after he deleted the account. I asked that he have one of his co-workers examine the situation(because he was breaking his company's rules in doing it, but I didn't explicitly state that), but he responded by telling me that he'd delete my account if I said another word about the matter. To be clear, I wasn't spamming him with messages or anything. He just wanted me quieted.

           Wouldn't you be suicidal if you lost 95% of your game collection and were completely powerless to stop it? I'm as emotionally stable as anyone I know(moreso than most), but that didn't blunt the impact at all. Don't be so quick to jump to their defense just because you've had a few good experiences with them, I've also had a few good experiences with their employees not named Derrick. For the most part they're decent guys, but Derrick's wrongdoings clearly show a fatal flaw in the entire Steam ecosystem: you could lose everything to the whim of one of their employees, no matter how devoted you are to the service or how many games you own. Hell, I've read about people losing their accounts because a virus on their computer corrupted their game files just enough to make it look like they were cheating or hacking or whatever. From now on I just wanna purchase retail copies of games not tied down by DRM, that's very hard as a PC gamer. I'd even be willing to pay extra to truly own my games, so console gaming it is for me.

           I've left behind my Steam past and quit PC gaming, I'm a Playstation guy now. I'm thinking about trading a friend my gaming PC for a cheap HTPC build and a little money left over to get a projector or a PS4, that'd complete the transition. I'm happy with my hobby now, not as out-for-blood on that evil power-abuser Derrick anymore. He might get away with it without any retaliation on my part, I just wanna be happy again.

         • Ahem, he said he'd delete my *support* account if I said anything else about the matter to the SS team. Covering his tracks, obviously.

     • Can you take steam management out before you go? :)
       Pretty please?

       • Done and doner! They ded, dawg.

         But naw, luckily I got the hell over the depression and rose above! After killing one of the Steam Support guys, I mean. Was pretty rad.

         • Good for you mate.
           Now, we are up and well above them.
           Anyway, I like cruising my midnight star 950 lot more :)

         • Good on you mate.
           We are way up and above them.
           And, there are lots of things we can enjoy, I love my Midnight Star 950 :)

109. I had the misfortune to have two run ins with Steam over the last year or so. In the first case something went wrong with some free 'timed' DLC for Dungeon Defenders. The cost of the DLC when it became purchase only was a mere £2 but it became a matter of principle for me.

     The chain of events:

     I pre-ordered Dungeon Defenders and noticed that I would get the Halloween DLC free. The was no time limit mentioned. When the Halloween DLC appeared I downloaded it (at this point Steam mentioned that it was a timed release) but didn't play the game after that for a week or so. When I did get round to playing the game the DLC was missing on mine and one of my sons computers but present on another.

     I contacted Steam to ask what had happened.

     Steam said that I hadn't downloaded it in time and there was nothing they could do. I eventually found another user who had taken a screenshot of the original offer which showed that there was no time limit. Steam ignored this and refused to even comment on it. The simply re-iterated that it was timed and I hadn't met the time limit (which I had anyway!). Eventually Steam refused to discuss the matter further!

     The game's developers themselves eventually supplied the DLC to a few people complaining about the problem free by issuing a key but they could not (it seems) make Steam do it themselves.

     I contacted Gabe and several other senior people at Valve via email but never had a reply.

     By way of revenge I did everything I could to boycott Steam for both myself and family for around 8 months which resulted (I would sincerely hope) in far more than a paltry £2 in lost profit.. not that they care of course!

     The second problem I had within the last year was a pre-order I decided to cancel. This did go a bit smoother although on my initial contact the refund was rejected. The second time they grudgingly agreed as a 'one off'. I then pointed out that under their own Ts & Cs getting a refund for an unreleased game was perfectly acceptable. They half apologised and retracted the one off statement!

     Steam are very nearly a monopoly in my opinion. They operate as they choose as the judge and jury in their own court. It worries me that they may be only one step away from closing the account of a person or persons who have the audacity to complain about their practices.

     • It already happened to me. They closed my 268-game account a few months ago and since then I've had suicidal depression, I've literally been diagnosed with depression by doctors and my psychologist(which I didn't have previously). Antidepressants do not help, gaming on consoles and handhelds does not help. I am empty and I want to die.

       • If you are still alive... you of course have this right, but what actually happens - is that you will be locked in psycho-house. So, in case you are still there, I recommend you to buy ticket to some undeveloped country, say Nepal, and live a few months there. The hardships will easily get you back to senses.

       • Hopefully you are still around.
         If so just remember you bought the right to these games Steam have NO ! legal right to stop you playing them ( They do have a right under certain conditions stopping you from using their services but not said games).

         If they (Steam) are unwilling or unable to release these games so they can be played without their servers then you have the lawful and legal right to access these games even if it means getting pirated copies. I very very rarely buy from Steam I have in all the years spent less than £40 on steam because I know what scumbags they are but any boxed game I buy I now automatically download copies to protect myself and my rights. After all if a disc gets so scratched it is unusable I have no choice but to buy another but I can lawfully and legally copy said disc or iso burn it and use the copy thus keeping the original pristine.

         • The suicidal feelings actually led to me applying an 'IDGAF' philosophy to life, I'm a lot happier now. Steam is the worst thing to hit PC gaming, though - convenience beat freedom. At least GOG is around.

110. How about we just NOT get on steams bad side ehh? If all my games were to unaccesable I would be devistated, but steam is taking it too far on this all and all :(

111. I am not familiar with US laws. But I think its illegal for steam to deny access to games that you already own. You bought those games under a different ToS.

     I mean suppose you buy an airplane ticket. Once you took-off, a flight attendant comes to you and says, the ticket price has increased and you have an option to pay the additional sum or jump-off the plane. Is that legalor even logical?

     Steam could change your ToS. If you dont accept the updated ToS, you wont be allowed to make any additional purchases or activation. But those games that you activated previously should be available to you (atleast for a reasonable period).

112. So how does steam work if you add your hard copy of a game to steam library using your key provided in the book?

     I've done this with a few games that are not steam based.

     • Sorry to clarify I was referring to a retail non steam copy adding to steam using the key.

       Or is this not available now?

     • If you add your game after installing it to the HDD and then adding it to the library, you shouldn't have any problems. I have added games to the library just so I can chat using Steams voice and text chat and having and any issues uninstalling it and installing it else where...

       I think you will find honestly that most of the concerns and people complaining are really bitching about stuff that has little or no merit behind it... If you buy a game in the store and somehow manage to download the game in Steam and use your CD-Key you got with a copy of the game from say Target, you are fine..

       What I have found is that games that you buy on Steam that have CD-Keys or DVD Key's are just like those that you buy in Target... Unless the game is made by Valve, the CD keys and DVD keys are typically provided by the publisher to Steam to be handed out to purchasers.. once handed out, those keys are in the wild and are yours to do with, so as much as you can do with them per license agreements and such...

       :)

       • Nope you buy a retailed boxed game from say Sega such as the Total war games they have to be activated on Steam they lie and say it is a one time activation code ie you have no right to resell the game like you do with console games even by the same company.

         This in the UK is a breach of consumer rights ie the rights of the buyer, you have a right to resell just as you can with a book a DVD CD or console game but for the PC steam and company's like Sega intentionally lie to us saying we do not have this right. They put it in their TOS atc and point to that but her in the UK any terms must be fair to both parties not weighted in favour of one ( in this case the seller ).

         • You can resell it but it won't work for the buyer. Even physical retail copies of most games now require you to activate on Steam. Once that code is used, it's done and no other player can use it again. They can put the disc in, install, but unless they get a crack or something to let them, it won't let them play without the Steam activation.
           Steam has your balls in a vice as far as access to your games goes.

           I think it's time a judge rules that they can change the TOS, and can block you from future sales and other account features (friends/chat/profile stuff) but cannot block you from using any products you bought under previous TOS.

113. I find this disturbing from a gaming perspective and also from the view point of indy game makers, it literally binds everyone under a form of house arrest. How are these theatrics any different from actual DRM sales? At least with a DRM product I could throw it out the window!

114. I agree,How many realise that valve can suddenly charge $50 per year to have your account.....Try having a problem solved they just send you their FAQ pages,Then you are ignored.....Steam should have been stopped years ago....Like all dictators everyone allways says why didn't we stop him earlier.....

115. Over. My steam acc recently started shutting down after being on for just a little while, Here's the kicker, I CAN'T EVEN LOG ON TO CONTACT SUPPORT! In NZ Theft is defined as intent to deprive the owner permanently. If my games aren't restored there's gona be hell to pay. This is insane. I still have the F@#$n DISCS! THEY ARE MY GAMES!

     • I JUST AM SO PISSED OFF AND MAD AT STEAM

     • all three of my comments go to the same

116. I only buy games without DRM requeriments, and that includes Steam, Origin and all that crap.

     There are GREAT games without those online requeriments...Witcher 2 is just an example.

     When I buy a game, I have the right to use, sell, give for gift, or play after 20 years...I collect great games like the Monkey Island series original...and I just want to continue doing so.

     Digital games or DRM games? no thanks...I will not buy those games ever. Even if the industry changes at all (which I doubt) I have a fantastic collection of DRM free games to play for many years...

117. BOYCOTT!!!

118. Really? That's what was finally too much for you?

     Not the fact that
     -) the Steam client can be very buggy and will occasionally have connection issues, issues with the game's cache and whatnot
     -) the Steam client itself may break once in a while and of course it's never Steam's fault but perhaps one of the 50 applications the client is for some reason incompatible with. Incompatibility like NO other application I know of has.
     -) Steam has such a quasi-monopoly in the market that it can demand horrendous shares from game developers (I once heard something about at least 50% for indie devs) and reject games for no apparent reason (as happened here: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/364060/mutant-mudds-headed-to-pc-despite-steam-rejection/ )

     You didn't mention another very important alternative though: GamersGate.
     Because like GoG, it is client-less and does not require DRM.
     Unlike GoG, it also carries most newer and bigger titles. Of course that comes with the downside that many of them use Streamworkers or GfW. So... if you don't want to support such systems, even using GamersGate won't help. Still... it may be interesting for some titles that GoG does not offer and which are still DRM-free.

     • 'Streamworkers'? Did I really write that? Seems like some auto-correct thing. I of course meant 'Steamworks'

     • Some steam games allow free mods, like instant download, free, and all you have to do is find the mod, the only thing I hate about steam is transferring their games to another software. Like nexus mod community, they need you to move the game off of steam so their mods can work, an I also hate that if your downloading a game, takes like 2 hours

119. All major gaming related companies have the same exact rights as Valve now does.
     Still you can use Steam to create nuclear weapons...Apple doesn't allow that though.....why? Because just-in-case.
     Steve Jobs probably didn't know about it...nor did he care.
     Gabe most likely had no idea about this either and their lawyers just thought it was a good idea since everyone is doing it.

     What would actually be useful for everyone is to look at what actions the companies take.
     Sony for example bricked everyones consoles that wanted to run linux on it...even though at launch they claimed they would support it. (and since linux users are mostly nerds, they DDoS'd and hacked Sony).
     FYI Valve has revealed that steam will be coming to linux soon also.

     The biggest thing Valve has done wrong according to the masses...is surprisingly....releasing a sequel too fast. (L4D2).

     Also nice job pointing out GOG.
     http://www.gog.com/en/support/policies/terms_of_use

     'GOG may change, suspend, or discontinue all or any aspect of the Service at any time, including the availability of any feature, without prior notice or liability. '

     'GOG at its sole discretion, reserves the right at any time, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms of Use.'

     Every single company on the planet does it. Deal with it.

     • GOG may have their own terms, but since the games are DRM-free, they cannot flip a switch and kill all your previously-purchased games and sit there smugly and say 'nuh-uh, you can't have them back ever' like Steam is quite clearly threatening to do.

       • Actually GOG can contact you and tell you to Cease and Desist playing the game and to destroy all copies that you have, and you legally have to do so... Steam doesn't have to ask you, but I ask you, when have you ever had Steam do this to you??

         Just because they can do it, does not mean that they will do it.... There is a small price to pay to have one place that has the ability to sell such a range of games like Steam. The trick for them is to offer a large selection of games, both new and older, on one site and to try to respect all companies requests for some sort of DRM system. How many games on Steam have DRM if you buy it in store?? Most if not all would be the answer, some have CD checks, others end up having Install Limits or root kits, and yet those version's of games on Steam, just have the typical Steam requirement that you install the game and activate it once on Steam and as long as you make sure off-line mode is checked before you exit, your done...

         I think many of you long time Steam users tend to really forget what the real world was like before Steam... many like this guy complain about something that Steam can do... but its not something very often that I read of them doing... So he chooses to avoid them because of something they might do, and legally can do just like ANY software company out there can do as well, which is ask you to remove the software and either destory the disks, or ship them back to the company(which the company will pay for the shipping costs back) but not refund the software.. Again here he his saying he will never buy from them again because of what THEY may do... but how often do they do this (I can't find one person who had their stuff deleted without proper reason presented, Have yet to read about software going poof with no notice, and no reason...)?? Yet, did this person buy Diablo 3?? Did they have their game deactivated and rendered useless by Blizzard and Battlenet?? Now here is a service that we all read shutdown many copies of users games over and over, and people kept buying new copies... or is this person one who modded his XBOX only to get caught and have his account and all his live games he purchased locked out??

         I just find it funny that there is so little evidence or proof that Steam actually kills software by removing it from your list or revoking your license (which they can do like studios can do with DVD's and artists can do with music, as people have to remember they don't by the software, only a license to use it) and yet like the person who make this comment, they condem Steam, and yet, there isn't many places to by software, especially in one place, which for me is nice... being able to by old and new software and have a GREAT online community that allows for chat in ANY game even for ones that you add to the list...

         I'm willing to bet that most complainers are under 30... Some are older... no doubt, but I have a feeling many are under that limit, and Steam being 10 years old would put those right at the age to purchase software and games online... Thats why I bet most complainers are those from the instant gratification era of computing... They should call that gen, generation 'instant'. Instant music, games, TV... they have to wait for nothing... bunch of impatient a$$holes.

         • 'Actually GOG can contact you and tell you to Cease and Desist playing the game and to destroy all copies that you have' No, it can NOT. CnD are sent by publishers or their watchdogs in the cases they think license misuse is taking place. GOG is NOT a publisher or watchdog - its a distributor. Valve CAN do that, because its a watchdog.

         • Before Steam the world was like with DVD rental. They were DRMed, so only playable on specific devices. But a lot of people purchased them, put them on shelf and did RIPs or downloaded them. Since they had the playback rights, everything was perfect. And disks not scratched.

           With Steam, the world has not changed a bit. Its basically equivalent to a streaming service. This service still limits platforms, conditions and devices. So people purchase the game, then leave it there and get DRM free copy.

           Nothing changed.

         • //'Nothing changed'
           I meant - no difference here.

           It did change, with GOG. Now people actually purchase and play, without all that garbage. They can give a copy to someone - and motivate him into purchase of own license, because fairness of services as GOG is well worth the support!

120. I think I'm going to stop buying new games from steam unless I can't get it anywhere else.
     GOG, amazon and gamersgate for me.

     i'll probably buy super cheap games on steam sales though.

121. It's seems a bit weird that they can restrict access to something you paid for unless you agree to contractual changes. However, it seems the trend these days is that we pay for licenses and not games.

     I don't know how Steam works because I bought only one (1) game there - CSS. I never bothered to play it since, after a years brake I had to email then proof of purchase in order to play my own game. I did so but it left me with a very sour taste. I never went back there unless to check the Steam Stats (hah).

     Maybe these are all moot worries and Steam will last forever, then again maybe not.

     Valve has said that in case it ever goes under it will free up the games. Honestly, I don't see that happening in a million years.

     Either they go under and that's it. Let's face it, when was the last time a sinking company tried to make right with it's costumers?
     Or, they are bought out and snowball's chance in hell they are ever liberating the client base.

     In short, Steam/Valve owns your game collection. This much is fact.
     If it will ever comeback to bite you in the butt, remains to be seen.

     Let's not kid ourselves though, no matter the outcome, it surely wasn't Steam's service strength that has brought us up to this point ;)

122. The thing is, as other readers said, with Valve you don't purchase a product per se but an access.

     It's like if you pay an access for a year to your local public swimming pool club or whatever. If they decide to change the rules, like to make swimming hats mandatory. After that, either you go by the rule, or you don't have access anymore.

     Same thing here. It sucks but that's the service you signed for in the first place.

     • This needs to be expanded... Its not only Valve... but if you read the license agreement with any software... Whether on Steam or though Best Buy on a DVD-ROM, you only buy the license to run it... the having the disk is a very false sense of security.

       • Ryan you missed his message - once you purchase CD with conditions, these conditions never change. License was signed and cant be updated. Your copy is yours forever. Should you pirate, then you will be fined via court - or ruled out innocent. Yet, with Steam, you loose ALL your titles AND your account WITHOUT court.

123. Absolutely agree! Nothing used to anger me more than to purchase a game, say at Best Buy, and learn that the only way to play it was through Steam/Valve. I have since learned to check the packaging closely and avoid any Steam products. I personally have never seen any benefit from Steam controlling the way I use a product I 'purchased' ( rent hell! ).

124. Can Steam change their TOS to something ridiculous (e.g., making older games require fees per use)? I suppose, but I think you're missing a couple points.

     The first is, Valve is a business. They are not going to do something that would potentially drive away current or new customers, especially with other services becoming available (like Origin). Years down the road if Valve has become the only source for playing games this might be possible, but it's nowhere close to that.

     The second thing is, anyone who uses the Internet today is agreeing to one form of TOS or another, it's the way everything is going. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, etc all have stuff that if you don't agree to, could result in an account deactivation. It's simply a reality of the world we live in, especially with everything becoming more and more cloud based.

125. I'll not be buying anything on Steam for a long time - and I'm only going to agree so I can keep playing the games I have... although it's tempting to deactivate steam and just get them all back by pirating them :

126. The truth is when you buy a game, you're not actually buying the game, you're buying the right to play a game, not own it.

     Imagine having a NetFlix account and just paying 2 bucks to be able to be able to watch Pulp Fiction whenever you want. And then paying 5 bucks to be able to watch Avatar whenever you wanted, and slowly but surely you'll be filling your library. You don't own the movie, you paid to be able to access it whenever you want. Same deal with Steam.

     As for the arbitration clause, those are never 100% enforceable and can be over-turned and denied by a court depending by a case

     • You missed the fact that most movies don't cost $2 retail - you pay full price in a store if you want to own a copy of the movie.
       I paid $60 on Steam for Black Ops II - the same price anyone pays to OWN the game on Xbox or PS3.
       I didn't pay a discounted rental fee - I paid FULL price.
       I agree with many that it is unlikely that Valve will just start screwing everyone over - I mean, as far as corporations go, they seem to be one of the most upstanding.

       Here's what scares me - the rights they now have to do ANYTHING without the threat of any real repurcussion...
       Even upstanding citizens can go mad when they are given access to that kind of wealth & power...
       It's just sinful human nature...

       'Either you die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.'
       ~Batman - Dark Knight

127. Meh, I doubt I will ever find myself in the situation of sueing steam. And im generally happy about them and their support they provide. However, I have over 400 games on my steam account. I've had it for well over 8 years now, and its just incredibly scary to know they could deactive my account and any games that I have on it. Since I bought them with my own money, they should be mine, forever... Which is exactly why people dont want to buy any digital games. Because you dnt got the physical copy, and if the company decides to screw you over you just have to take it. :|

     Its all highly unlikely they would do that without a good reason, but its still incredible scary.

128. This happens a lot in the library-world. Although you think you are purchasing items (such as games), usually you'll find somewhere in the TOS saying that you are purchasing access to the games for the duration of your account. In other words, you're basically renting them for the period. If they update their TOS and you don't agree, you can close your account and they can delete it all because you've just stopped maintaining your rental of their games.

129. Then people wonder why the masses pirate. I would rage if I spent thousands of dollars on a library just for it to vanish because of some stupid T.O.S.

     God bless bittorrent and the silliness it allows me to avoid.

     • 'God bless bittorrent'

       God bless piracy and DRM cracks! BitTorrent can be used for a lot of stuff and I use it for non-piracy related tasks (no, not just downloading Linux either).

     • Well, some of us wonder why the masses pirate when we *sell DRM-free games* for reasonable prices and the masses still steal 'em.

       I have complete sympathy with people cracking games to get what they paid for, but I can't pretend that's the reasoning behind even half or a quarter of the piracy out there.

       • Because it's free and easier. And you'll always have it. Simple as that. Sure the developers might feel the sting of lost revenue, and yes it may hurt the industry in the long run, but meh. Most of us pirates don't care. If the internet were turned off permanently tomorrow, I'd have enough entertainment to keep me busy for the next 50 years. If not, I'd just go outside.

         • Yeah, see, people like you? Are the problem. You are ruining it for the rest of us. Not just the developers, but the players. You are actively trying to stop there from being any games for the future, and your response is simply 'meh'. Cause hey, you got yours, so screw everybody else!

           And you wonder why companies come up with stupid stuff like this.

         • Also, I am impressed at the sheer hypocrisy of going 'and they wonder why people pirate' when you admit that your stealing has nothing at all to do with them. :)

         • Piracy != Stealing. Piracy = Piracy. You can't copy bread. 99% of the time, I wouldn't have bought the game/movie/album anyway. And really, you hit the nail on the head, I got mine so screw the rest. The industry is imploding, and it's like a car wreck, you can't look away. This studio closes, that one lays off a bunch of people, etc. Don't worry, there will still be plenty of people who aren't smart enough to get it for free that will keep SOMETHING afloat, or those that think 'morals' matter (Darwin will come for those ones next).

           Even if it WAS stealing I'd still do it. No one's ever sorry they stole, cheated or murdered. They're sorry they got caught.

           And well if you don't like me for it, well boo-freakin'-hoo, someone on the internet doesn't like me. Who'dve thought that would ever happen >.>

130. Steam has some pretty deep affection many many people online. People love those biannual steam deals. It's pretty satisfying to get a game for 75%.
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUo1PgKksgw
     http://www.slixor.co.uk/

     I would say that Steam or sort of the Netflix on online movie streaming, at least in the US. Netflix is extremely popular as is steam, and there are some alternatives out there too, but Steam is by far the most popular. Remember when Netflix decided to rise their prices? Remember when they got boycotted severely and ended up going back to what the consumer wanted? I think it might be the same for Steam. If they do something that is very disagreeable, they will get heavily boycotted and revert back just to please the users.

     I am a big fan of gog.com mainly because the games are 100% DRM free. Why wants possible frustration to be bundled with your entertainment, right?

     In one or two sentences, what is your biggest problem with or fear of Steam right now? I did read the article. What would be bad about agreeing to their TOS? What would be so bothersome to not agree to it? I never could have imagined suing Steam over videogames myself. Court and lawyer fees would be greater that all I have spent on games on Steam. If Steam decided to start scamming people blatantly, I would think that some government agency would step in and intervene.

     • Like someone above said, it's not about suing. It's about knowing that even though you bought your games with full right, they can take them away. Imagine that you've bought $1000.- worth of games and some problem would come up. You would lose $1000 dollars in games and you can't do anything about it. Valve gets to choose if you lose that money or not.

       • First off,

         You never buy games or any media with full right. Second if you spent $1000 in games, and they disappeared off Steam, you do have every right to find out what happened and try to get them back. If you did nothing wrong and you logged in and they were gone with no message, you definitely do have the right to call them and get an explanation. If there is no message, it would probably be a system error or something else, and they would probably go out of their way to fix that issue. Don't think because they have a right to do something, that if they make a mistake that they won't fix it and choose to say, sorry, but we decided to not fix the problem, tough luck. Now if they sent a message with why its gone and its valid, then that is different. Here is some food for thought.. I have read every post and NOT ONE one here mentions Steam removing a game either wrongfully or not... I mean does that not say something?? People seem to love to jump to the worst conclusions, yet I never seem to actually see much if anything to back it up... Not one person with a valid missing game issue let alone a missing game that they may have caused... The best are the ones that believe since they bought the disk that the Game Company can't take your right to play it away just as easily... those that think that because they have the disk that the company can't easily stop them... they are in for a rude awakening.

131. My Steam Games are limited, since I prefer hard copy (I'm one of those weirdos who doesn't think it's unreasonable to keep track of my game discs). So, I guess I'll just go with what I did with Skyrim: find a steam crack, and enjoy Steamless gaming. I play Tribes Ascend, and a few others that don't go thru Steam's matching system, looking forward to Torchlight 2, and I'll not miss anything by dropping them.

132. I can't see a situation where I would need to enter into a Class Action Lawsuit with Steam. Personally, I think the USA is litigation-happy and this modification to the TOS is basically Steam protecting their business.

     Given that I'm in Canada, I can't realistically sue them anyway. I'm not worried about losing my payment info if they're hacked. My CC absolves me of liability in case of fraud.

     I get that people are freaking out about 'losing their rights' to sue. Give me a break. Steam is a private company, not the US Government. If you think for a moment that Steam is taking away your rights, you're gargling bong water. They provide VIDEO GAMES, not Amendments to the Constitution.

     Put it in perspective and game on.

     • 'this modification to the TOS is basically Steam protecting their business.'

       That's not even the worst part though. The worst part is that if you don't want to accept the new terms, you can't keep your old games that you paid for and agreed to different terms when you bought them.

       • That's essentially the same deal with practically every service. If you don't accept the new terms, then you are legally required to discontinue use of that service, including any software tied into it. Yeah, I agree it's BS, but it's the kind of BS that's a part of the industry standard. There's no avoiding it unless you completely stop using electronic devices.

     • Sanity prevails!

133. And they wonder why people pirate games

134. And they ask why people pirate games

     • Yarrr matey.

135. Great article Matt! This is an excellent summary of the controversy surrounding Valve's circumvention of our legal system. As you've rightly argued, it's time for gamers to find other services.

     I think a lot of readers might not see the significance of Valve forcing their users to forgo class action lawsuits - after all, you still have the right to arbitration. Unfortunately, arbitration will always rule in favor of valve.

     Readers might be better informed if they were told that Valve is now incentivized to abuse their customers in ways that, up to now, were discouraged by the potential for a class action lawsuit. Without that threat, combined with a captive market, they will most certainly engage in the most egregious of behaviors.

     Gamersgate.com
     Amazon.com

136. The Zune Service is different though. You got to keep your 10 favorite songs at the end of the month and the price for listening to all of that music is very reasonable.

137. The solution is simple, accept their terms -- keep your games -- and then stop using their service for new games where possible and just buy new games from a new provider or from a brick-and-mortar store. At least then you now have a physical copy of the game that steam can never take away. It's a fine way to 'vote with your feet' without causing too much disruption to yourself.

     • This also does not work. I bought a game, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 2 from a brick and mortar store. I have multiple CDs and the codes...still have to register through Steam to even be able to play them. So while I have a physical copy, they can find ways to get rid of it...and not to mention more games still forcing you to play single player through online. So if your power or internet goes out, that is wasted.

138. The point isn't that he wants to sue Valve. The point is that Valve has demonstrated that they are willing to unilaterally change their terms of service, and that if you want to keep using the games *that you've already paid for* that your only recourse is to accept the new terms.

     What if Valve decides that they want to change their terms so that you have to pay a maintenance fee for any games older than four years old? What if they decide to limit the number of devices that you can play a game on, and once you reach that limit you can no longer play that game - irregardless of whether older devices even exist any more?

     What Valve has done is shown that the users of their service haven't bought the games - they have only leased them, and the true owner is still Valve.

     Personally, I am not sure what I will do with Steam in the future, but I will make sure that my gaming friends are aware of this change.

139. As the gaming industry continues to change andmature, it seems we are headed toward an era when games will not be purchased or played in any other fashion. I am confident some other way to do it will come along, but it's beyond my ability to see the future.

     I certainly understand your point of view, regarding ever changing ever cryptic and legally complicated Terms of Service and EULAs.

     However, while reading through this article I could not answer a fundamental question - why would you launch a class-action suit against Steam?

     I am litigation challenged, so I hope you'll pardon my ignorance.

     • I thought the same thing. Since Steam is just an online service, I can't really think of anything that would warrant legal action. Maybe if something happened where you purchased a game but it didn't download, but then you could just work that out with their support team. You'd only have to sue if they didn't do anything to help or something, but even then, a $50 game is nothing compared to the prices of a lawyer and a lawsuit, so most people would just give up at that point and eat the price of the game. Other than that, I can't think of anything else that you could sue over.

     • Hah, no, THAT is not the problem.

       While it's true that software is 'Licensed, not Sold,' the current DRMing of software is not an extremely normal thing. Understanding why requires a little bit (not alot) of reading.

       Your typical Off the Shelf software license, including pretty much every game that doesn't (didn't) involve some kind of online subscription, is a de-facto perpetual license. I say 'perpetual' because, if you read them, you'll see that the Termination clause typically references some sort of violation of the license terms on the part of the user. So, in other words, doing something like reverse-engineering application assemblies, cracking the game to run on multiple machines, or selling your game disk on the secondhand market (believe it or not, if the license is 'non-transferable') could terminate the terms of the license. If you don't violate the license, you can continue using it.

       The part your response 'extremely normal thing' is ignoring is that the Valve Subscriber Agreement is NOT normal or typical in an historic context (nor is the current state of DRM). For example, their Termination clause includes a paragraph that grants Valve the right to terminate your account if they stop offering a particular service. So, you may retain the license to all your games, but lose the ability to install or re-install them, whereas before your licenses were as safe as your media.

140. WOW, i will also stop using steam after reading this, what a joke, and with Direct 2 drive gone. Guess i'll move my gaming to my xbox 360

     • Moving towards Microsoft consoles is only an option until the next gen console is released. Theres mention of M$ implementing a system that limits game titles to a single console rendering rentals, and buying pre-owned games impossible. Can't lend your games out or take them to your buddies house to play. Its in effect becoming the Origin or STEAM of the Console world ;(

     • I would be more warried if Steam changed policy of privacy and personal data (something that in example facebook is continuosly doing without no one concerned).

       My main troubles with steam are about usability, why the f*** provide a 'remember password' button if everytime I play I have to re-insert the password or going through a full password reset (not counting the times I had to re-install from scratch because something get corrupted and sanity fix didn't worked).

141. So have you had a lot of gaming class action lawsuits?

     • Against EA, Sega, Sony, Blizzard... I'm not counting the violent games suits, but they were also technically class-action lawsuits. These are suits were the user basically got screwed over with privacy or financial violations, or false advertising, etc.

       Even more were headed-off or mitigated by the company providing the user with a mitigating product or service before they reached the point of lawsuit, because they could and would have.

       While I'm not an advocate of the lawsuit-happy culture we've become, and am a huge advocate of the free market, I really don't like the shadiness that's entered the gaming industry.

       Sorry to resurrect this old thread, twice, but I enjoyed this article and found it informative and probably more relevant today than even in 2012. While I don't agree with all of the author's sentiment (for example, I don't consider all subscription services vs. perpetual licenses to be inherently bad), I do agree that removing the perpetual license as an alternative is generally bad for the consumer, and the consumer is the person responsible for allowing this to happen!

       For example, the last version of Adobe CS I'll use may be CS6... unless they bring back a perpetual license alternative to their CC. I don't like knowing that software licenses I have could evaporate (per the Steam agreement). Music subscriptions can be replaced, but a library of software licenses can't.

       Anyway, nice article.