Valve Confirms Your Steam Account Cannot be Inherited After You Pass Away

Valve recently confirmed that people's Steam accounts cannot be inherited after they pass away, which means the games in them will be left in a sort of legal limbo.

This particular legal detail with Valve's gaming platform was discovered by a ResetEra user delete12345 and later shared through media outlets. This happened after the user contacted Steam support to ask whether or not their account could be bequeathed in a will.

Steam Account Legal Ownership

Valve Confirms Your Steam Account Cannot be Inherited After You Pass Away — Valve has confirmed that players are not legally allowed to transfer ownership of their Steam accounts after they pass away via a will.
(Photo : Steam, Valve / Screenshot taken from official website)

When Steam Support answered, Valve's gaming platform confirmed that their answer was no, both accounts and games on Steam are non-transferable. This means that you cannot grant access to someone else or combine your library with someone else's account.

For the people who are thinking of simply sharing their password with their friends or family, this is technically illegal because of Steam's terms and conditions.

It specifies that "you may not reveal, share, or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorized by Valve," according to Rock Paper Shotgun.

While the gaming company might be willing to let you transfer your account to someone else if you ask permission, the Subscriber Agreement itself is against this.

This issue comes as Steam has already implemented changes to its family-sharing mechanics that let players share their library with others to some extent.

Following Steam's confirmation of the illegality of transferring your account to someone else, the gaming community expressed its collective frustration. Many people have wondered if there are any workarounds that will let their loved ones have access to their Steam accounts after they pass.

There are also others who reacted to the latest news with nonchalance, noting that Steam's policy can easily be bypassed by just giving someone your login credentials.

This would let the inheritor change the payment card and other details on the account without notifying Steam about the change in account ownership.

Potential Workarounds

However, while this could actually be an effective workaround, some have argued that it is only a short-term solution. They claimed that an account being used past the length of a person's average lifespan could prompt Steam to investigate the matter, said TechSpot.

If or after they determine that the original user is dead or no longer in charge of the account, it could be terminated as per the gaming company's terms and conditions. Right now, there is no indication that Steam will change that policy in the future.

This particular issue highlights the underlying problem with digital purchases in general, which is something that has come under increasing scrutiny since a decade ago. This was when Hollywood actor Bruce Willis learned that he could not bequeath his extensive iTunes music collection to his daughters.

The issue also has implications for video game preservation work and comes as last year, Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil spent roughly $20,000 to buy and download every digital 3DS and Wii U game.

While he said that he still intends to donate the physical machines (and their downloads) to the Video Game History Foundation, subscriber agreements mean that the charity could have difficulties taking legal ownership of those digital games and accounts, according to ArsTechnica.