A simple question sparks a huge debate: What will happen to our games if Steam goes bankrupt?

by

While Steam seems secure for now, many gamers worry about what would happen to their games if the platform ever shut down. A recent discussion on Reddit brought this concern back to light, with players questioning whether they’d lose access to all the games they’ve purchased. There are a few possible ways to avoid this, but none of them are particularly easy or ideal.

  1. In the discussion, there are voices suggesting that in such a situation, we would simply lose access to our games. The main argument remains unchanged – on Steam, we don’t purchase specific products; we only pay for a license to use them. Following this line of reasoning, with the store’s collapse, it would cease to provide its basic services. That could end up with a bunch of people suing or a sudden spike in illegal game downloads. The same would apply to other platforms such as the PlayStation and Microsoft stores.
  2. As we might expect, Steam is prepared for such a scenario – its representatives declared years ago that access to games would be maintained even if the company were to close. One possible fix is to download the collection and use the Steam client in offline mode.
  3. Most store users, however, have over 100 items in their library (and some even over 40,000!). Imagine if we had to save each one of them on a hard drive – it wouldn’t just be about finding space for them, but it would also be a huge load on Steam’s servers. Customers would likely choose only a few favorite games.
  4. According to players, “something this big simply doesn’t disappear,” so there is a chance for the service to be taken over by another giant. On the other hand, if Steam were to go down, it would spell big trouble for the industry and lead to even worse issues, like a digital distribution crisis.
  5. What’s interesting, a user on GameStar named IchoTolot86 thinks that game developers and publishers should be the ones helping out players with the games they’ve bought.

This issue is likely to be debated repeatedly, largely because Valve hasn’t been willing to clearly state its position. They also seem unwilling to compromise, as shown by their current policies regarding accounts when an owner passes away – there are no easy solutions for consumers in that situation.

Read More

2025-12-01 13:33