Valve is now explicitly disclosing that you don’t own the games you buy from its Steam online store. The company has added a note on the payment checkout screen stating that “a purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam,” as reported earlier by Engadget.

GOG has used the recent Steam changes to remind gamers that when you buy from them, you actually have some ownership.

Gamers looking to add new titles to their Steam library are being met with a new message clarifying that purchasing a digital game grants them a digital license to the game, but ownership of the game itself. Valve implemented the warning ahead of a recently passed California law, which is set to go into effect in 2025.

A popular Ubisoft game is finally coming to Steam this week, on October 17, after previously being limited to Epic Games Store and other digital PC storefronts. The Ubisoft game in question hails from 2023, so Steam users haven’t been without it for too long, but it has been a year since the game’s original release.

You don't own the games in your Steam library. Going forward, you'll be reminded of this fact every time you buy a game from the Steam digital storefront. The Steam checkout page now features the following notice: "a purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.

There comes a point in most experienced Steam shoppers' lives where they wonder what would happen if their account was canceled or stolen, or perhaps they just stopped breathing. It's scary to think about how many games in your backlog will never get played;

You don't own any of those games. Valve's PC gaming digital marketplace has started including a notice on the shopping cart screen letting users know that purchasing a game on Steam grants them a license for it,

Have you ever bought an app or game from a digital storefront, only for it to suddenly disappear and become inaccessible without warning? It’s both confusing and frustrating, which is why some governments are stepping in and hoping to make things clearer for consumers.