Steam warns: it's not the games you're buying, it's the licence to use it

After several public scandals, when developers not only stopped supporting old games, but also took away purchased copies from users (as it happened with The Crew from Ubisoft), many gamers have become wary of digital shops, as they realise that they can lose access to the game at any moment without refund.

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Probably to absolve themselves of responsibility for such incidents, the most popular game service Steam began to display a warning when purchasing a game.

Now at the checkout of any product in the "Basket" appears a notice that the user "buys not the game itself, but the licence to use it".

The innovation is related to a new law that will begin to take effect in California in 2025. It obliges to warn buyers of digital shops that they are not buying the product itself, but access to it. This applies not only to computer games, but also to digital copies of music, films, TV series, shows, books and other media content. Those shops that fail to post such notices will receive a hefty fine for defrauding the customer.

Source: Eurogamer