For anyone that cares about the inheritability of your game libraries and all other digital assets, there are potentially good news on the horizon. The European Law institute is currently undergoing a project to develop model laws for the EU that will guide how digital inheritance of your social media accounts, game libraries etc. are handled. The project has already started, the model laws are being drafted and it is scheduled to finish by October 2025.
What is more interesting for us is that during a recorded meeting of the people undertaking the project, Blizzard Entertainment was specifically called out for their restrictive TOS that prohibits account transfers under any circumstances. The general sentiment during that call was that such restrictive terms of service should not be enforceable and that laws should be updated to protect consumers from them.
I have included a link to the meeting uploaded to YouTube. If you have time and are interested in this subject, the entire video is worth listening to, but you can jump to 32:02 to hear their comment on non-transferable license clauses, their call for updating laws to tackle their issue and then specifically calling out Blizzard Entertainment. I have included a quote from the YouTube video which people here might find interesting
"This must be another of the great and brave decisions of the model laws. Non-negotiated standard terms should not take precedence over mandatory rules of inheritance law and the basic principle of passing on everything that belonged to the deceased. It is not the same thing to transfer a contractual relationship during life to a third party as is to surrogate an heir to it"
Link to the European Law Institute project page: https://www.europeanlawinstitute.eu/projects-publications/current-projects/current-projects/eli-succession-of-digital-assets-data-and-other-digital-remains/
Link to the webinar where the project was discussed (jump to 32:02 for most relevant part): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=92HLkQRuY14
5 Comments
I have not “owned” a game in 5 years.
If you are not in the EU, you should be excited as well because if this gets turned into law, the effects on how companies conduct business will be felt internationally due to the size of the EU market.
I don’t think this is a good idea, not because I don’t like the idea but because of the costs associated with the idea. It’s pretty damn narrow margins for Steam and other games sites, and this would probably mean prices had to go up by a fair amount to cover the fact that every account would have to be kept indefinitely because it may be a parcel in someone estate, not withstanding that now they need a team of people who will be responsible for making sure this happens as it should, death certificates, wills, etc. And then the liability if someone just forges a death certificate and steals three generation of games and saves from someone.
I love how the EU is constantly forcing POS corporations to do the right thing.
This is clickbait. The EU hasnt done shit yet. There is no overlap in decision making in the EC (european commission) and this independent institute. It can try to lobby for this and something might happen but it has nothing to do with the EU as an institution.