Does your own Steam library actually belong in your will? Many gamers have spent a small fortune on the many games. Reddit users think they know the answer, but it's more complicated than that.
Steam account after death: what happens to the games?
Some players on Reddit are currently wondering what actually happens to their Steam games when they die. Can an account be passed on to relatives? Or does the account simply die with the user? For Redditor Rudokhvist, the answer is clear:
Advertisement
“Valve doesn't know when you die. Steam's Terms of Service prohibit you from sharing your account with other people. But Valve also doesn't know who is sitting in front of the screen. So if you go to the trouble of giving your nephew your login details before (or after) your death – then he can still use your account (but it would be a Violation of the Terms of Useof course).” (Source: Reddit)
Rudokhvist is partly right. You can read about it in Steam's terms of use:
“The buyer receives the non-exclusive right to use the program at a computer workstation. The right is not transferable, rentable or loanable.(Source: Steam).
On Reddit, users are having fun with Steam accounts that could be over 100 years old, making Valve suspicious:
Advertisement
“Might be a little red flag after a few generations if the account has been logging in for like 100 years, lmao.” – Sandi315
“Nah, the guy with a birthday in 1901 is finally going to be real.” – HumunculiTzu
If Valve still exists in the next 30 or 40 years, the inheritance of Steam accounts could actually become relevant. After all, today's generation of gamers is also getting old and if someone has 500 games in their library, they might not want to just throw them away. After all, it is an actual value – just like a shelf full of books or DVDs that is inherited along with its contents. And in German inheritance law there really is one Digital legacy.
Digital legacy: Can the usage rights to software be inherited?
According to inheritance law, the digital estate is inherited by the legal heir (source: inheritance law info). The digital estate includes social media channels, email accounts, film streaming accounts and actually online game collections such as Steam (source: DigitalerNachlass). Steam's terms of use do not directly address inheritance, but even if it were so – according to the consumer country principle, the national law of the country in which the consumer mostly resides should actually apply.
So if a German Steam user wants to inherit his library, he would actually have to German inheritance law takes precedence over Steam's terms of use. In some sources, however, the digital inheritance is described as controversial – so how certain it is that you can inherit your Steam account is not certain. A request to a notary would probably be the safest way to find clarity about your own digital heritage. We have now inquired on Steam, but we are still waiting for an answer, which we will then add later.