TL:DW Steam has now changed its language from buy game to A purchase of a digital product grants a licence to the product on steam. This may also be non compliant with the new regulation as it still uses the word purchase. Also GOG used this opportunity to let you know their games come with an installer that they cannot take away from you.
Nice, this is only the 90000000th time this has been posted! Seriously guys, STOP. This didn’t change literally anything. It’s just a clarification to comply with an upcoming California law.
STOP POSTING THIS IT’S NOT NEWS
I haven’t really seen anything posted on on beehaw about it though it might be we are not federated with the communities that posted it or I have been on at the wrong time to see it. Also thanks for pointing out that the change is a clarification going to add that to the title since it could clickbait people into thinking its a change with how steam operates. cheers.
Not really, just some wording…?
The linked video channel “Bellular News” is known for their clickbait titles.
I wasn’t aware of that though reading it now I can see how it is implied in the title that it was a much bigger change than adding a clarification. Will have to avoid sharing from their channel in the future.
It was always licenses on Steam, nothing changed in their ToS. Though there are some DRM-free games on Steam, even free from Steam-DRM.
It was technically always licenses for every video game ever commercialised. It’s just that a publisher has no practical way to control what happens to someone’s floppy/optical disc/cartridge/whatever physical media.
Same for almost every book you’ve ever read, every CD you’ve ever listened to, and every movie you’ve ever watched. You owned the leaves of paper the book was printed on, or the plastic disc the music or movie was stamped into, but never the words, the songs, or the movie itself.
We’ve only ever had licenses to consume.
Like Kichae mentioned, every media we buy is technically a license. License to use. However we own the physical part of it and we can use (read, watch, play etc.) it whenever we please. Should be like this with games as well. At least GOG does this. As long as an installer is in our hard drives, it’s a physical media.
The law didn’t change Steam. It was always like that. Steam just added a note to clarify this. Nothing has changed really.
Are you the same guy in Brodie’s youtube comments? I always enjoy your comments.
Ah, I see a man of culture as well. :D Yes, thank you. :-) I like interacting with the community in Brodie’s comment section as well. Pretty cool people. Its often just a joke or meme, but sometimes I get involved in more thoughtful discussions as well. As strange as it sounds for YouTube comments. lol. Good to see you here as well.
Its always interesting finding the same person in a comment section from another site. It feels kind of like an easter egg but one where you can get a new friend out of it.
I use FreeTube client, which does not have Google account support (that’s one of the reasons to use it actually). But just for commenting and interacting with others, I still open Firefox to just discuss. I hate YouTube, but this is worth it to me.
Understandable I use invidious when its working but when I am using youtube I always have ublock origin on with firefox. Youtube ads are just not safe.
BTW FreeTube blocks YouTube ads too, plus it has integration for SponsorBlock. In case you are not familiar with it, its a community driven extension where Sponsor seqments (which are not detected as ads) are then marked or jumped over. And it has two modes you can switch to, the native mode (which Google still gets your IP but works most of the time. And secondly the Invidious mode, which breaks from time to time but Google doesn’t know anything.
I have an exception for YouTube with uBlock Origin. Because at that time when it started I did not know if account could get banned or not for using it. Since I’m used to watch on alternative clients, I leave it as it is now.
I am of the mind with anything digital – if you didn’t pirate it, you don’t own it
GOG
But it’s still digital when pirated…
True, but I won’t lose the ability to play a game or movie when thepiratebay.org is acquired by Google or Apple or Microsoft solely to shutter it and their DRM servers go down.
any non-video source?
https://12ft.io/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/10/steam-now-reminds-you-that-it-really-sells-a-license-for-a-digital-product/ Here is an article with the paywall removed. I tried the internet archive but forgot it is read only at the moment. (Edit someone beat me to it by 7 hours.)
In principle, I’m very mad! Those are my games!
In reality, I don’t replay very many games, so I don’t care too much.
