I keep seeing articles popping up explaining how the inheritance of Steam accounts is impossible due to Valve's subscriber agreement and that there is nothing that can be done about it legally speaking. You should know that if you're American, there are already laws in place in many states that can let you bequeath your Steam account and other game libraries regardless of what Valve or anyone else write in their EULA.
Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) is federal legislation passed in 2015 which allows a digital executor to stand in your place online should you die or become incapacitated. Essentially, RUFADAA allows you to specify in your will who can access and manage your online accounts as well as the level of access that they would have. The level of access you can grant in your will ranges from transferring full ownership of your accounts to only allowing your executor to close your accounts after your death. I made this thread to discuss Steam accounts, but the legislation allows you to bequeath all your digital assets which include social media profiles, dating profiles, emails accounts, subscription service accounts (which would cover things like Steam, Xbox, PS, Amazon accounts) and more.
As of right now, I cannot find a case of someone using this law to request access to a Steam account, but just because the law has not been tested in a specific way, it does not mean that such a request is unlikely to succeed. At the moment it is much easier to just give your password to your family instead of going through a long legal process, but it is only a matter of time before this problem reaches the courts as gamers age, making digital inheritance a bigger issue. The process of transferring a Steam account might be expensive due to legal fees and you might need a court order if Valve is uncooperative but you should remember that if you live in America, as long as you make sure to consult a lawyer and include clear your digital assets in your will, you are not powerless.
I have included some links to pages which explain RUFADAA in more detail as well as which states the law has been passed in. If digital inheritance is something you care about I really suggest you give them a read.
https://trustandwill.com/learn/what-is-rufadaa
https://schneiderdowns.com/our-thoughts-on/are-your-digital-assets-lost-forever/
https://easeenet.com/blog/what-is-rufadaa-and-why-should-you-care/
https://www.uniformlaws.org/viewdocument/final-act-with-comments-40?CommunityKey=f7237fc4-74c2-4728-81c6-b39a91ecdf22&tab=librarydocuments (you can download and read the legislation on your own here)
43 Comments
I mean, if I die, I can just leave my login info.
apart from, if some one dies suddenly, the terms of services DOES dictate how it will be handled
“a Custodian’s Terms of Service will dictate a Fiduciary’s access to a user’s digital asset. ”
thats from your link bro
This reads like that I am a lawyer guy from a couple of years ago
america is a continent
If I die, I think the last thing my family will care about is my bloody steam library.
You can argue someone should be able to inherit your account, but not your games. The licenses aren’t transferable.
This post makes me feel old. Who would have thought the day would come where we are talking about willing our next of kin our video game library?
Imagine dying a heroic death and leaving your steam account for inheritance only for your family to find “Sex with Hitler” on it
Well, you should be able to sell your digital games if you are European but who cares these days.
This is a fantastic point to bring up. Pretty sure that my (would be) son would want my entire digital library when in no longer able to play. That’s assuming Steam survives 50-60yrs in the future.
Do you know if in EU there is something similar?
Just give them the password for the account, simple.
I’d actually would want to steam account to be handed over. I got some games there which have been long delisted and you could consider them as rare collectibles.
Also, my account is 20 years old and would like son to have it.
Just gave my wife the info because of this post lmao.
Can’t really call a steam account an “asset” with a straight face, but it is something I’ve spent thousands on lol
Great ideea. Implement this major security flaw only for Americans. The rest of us will use a notepad file with email addresses and accounts.
My descendants will indeed have my sex game collection!
I will take my steam library to the grave, i will leave a court order for valve to delete my account upon my death, no one is going to see my library containing the treasure of nadia
Just give someone your account info before you die.
Only if you’re an American! If you’re Canadian, your licenses die with you.
Yeah… no way I’m letting my kid get my Steam backlog of dozens of porn games. He can buy his own stash.
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Reminder: when you see “uniform” in a law, that means it’s a law drafted by a committee of scholars and offered to states as something they might want to adopt. Unless you know for sure that your state has adopted the law (the legislature passes it and the executive signs it), it is not the law.
For all legal concerns, consult a lawyer in your state.
Yeah this is true but it misses the point of the whole discussion.
The account is meaningless, the games are what people want to give to their heirs, and you can’t, because you don’t ***own*** the games, you license them.
To pass your games to someone else, you’d need to pass every individual license, between you and the rightsholder for the game (the publisher), through Steam (if you go that route), which neither Valve nor the publishers (of every game) are ever going to do.
So Valve says no, because they don’t want to have to deal with that. You can pass an account to someone in your will, and Valve will close it because they can’t facilitate that person breaking contracts with anywhere between a handful to literally thousands of rightsholders.
Annoying, bullshit, yes yes, but black and white.
All my Library right now is probably worthless, some games no longer work others are at 80%-90% discount.
Related: some services (including Apple, Google, and Facebook) have systems in place to allow someone to manage your account in case you die or become incapacitated. Might be a good idea to set that up (or check that it’s still up-to-date).
Why not just make your account inheritable instead of the individual games. Like if you just put your username and password into your will for the person you want to give all your games, seems like that solves the entire problem.
I don’t expect the gaming landscape to even be remotely what it is today when I die though. Will Steam even be around in 40+ years? Who can say really?
Why on earth should I care?? If I’m dead, I’m dead.
uh Cant you just give your password to the people its going to? this seems silly.
Who cares about the EULA. Just pass on access rights for email accounts and phone lines, then your survivors can just recover the account and carry on as normal.
Lol they can do what they want. You signed the agreement. No one cares, everyone acting like this is hard hitting news!!!! It’ll be forgotten about by tomorrow and come back around in a few months. The usual internet drama.
One day Gabe will kick the bucket and Steam will be sold to the highest bidder. Amazing how people put all this faith in Steam.
Nah,my hentai games are coming with me when I die
To reinforce your point, it’s worth noting that EULAs are not laws and therefore are subject to the law regardless of what they say.
Just write down your email address and sign-in info for Steam and passwords
Yeah they’re stuck using your old email address but I can’t think of another way to do this.
so atm stop killing gaming zelots( this people think after 1 video their expert)
is spam said thing and this atm on reddit with a ton of alt accounts.
Just leave your steam login in your will
Lets say I invested thousands in Counter strike skins. What happens to them if die? My family can’t inherit them?
American moment lmaooo
Too many words. Just write your user name and password down in your will.
>Your Steam library should be inheritable if you are American
It’s what we fought for.
How would steam know you’re deceased?
I mean, how TF would they know if I’m dead or not? I don’t give Steam my SSN.
As long as you plan for your death and getting your accounts and passwords to people, nothing would stop somebody from inheriting your account.