Whenever you purchase a game on Steam, you’ll now be met with a warning, stating that you’re buying a license and not the game itself.
This change has been made ahead of a new California law going into effect in 2025. Law AB 2426, signed by Californian governor Gavin Newsom, forces digital marketplaces to make it clear to consumers that when buying media, they’re only buying a license to access the media, not the actual media itself.
The law prohibits any online storefronts from using the words “buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good or alongside an option for a time-limited rental.”
On Steam this has manifested when you open your shopping cart, right before you hit the “continue to payment” button. Now a notice pops up on the bottom right-hand corner saying “A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.”
This doesn’t just apply to video games but also to any storefront that sells music, movies, TV shows, or ebooks. The law won’t apply to permanent offline downloads or anywhere that states in “plain language” that you’re just licensing the content. Anyone found in violation could face charges of false advertising and be fined.
Gaming was a key catalyst in this law being suggested and signed into being. In April 2024 Ubisoft saw tremendous backlash after it unceremoniously deleted The Crew from player’s libraries. After that the game’s servers went offline, meaning anyone that paid for the racing game simply couldn’t play it. Ubisoft eventually added offline modes to The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest, but the first game still hasn’t received one, and according to Ubisoft never will.
Over the years, more and more games have begun getting delisted, and that means anything that was only released digitally is simply no longer playable; it’s just gone forever.
