Steam now tells gamers up front that they’re buying a license, not a game

Steam appears to have started posting a notice in its shopping cart that purchases on its storefront are only for a license and not a game, according to a notice spotted by Engadget. It looks like an attempt by the company to get ahead of a new California law coming next year that forces companies to admit that buyers don’t actually own digital content.

When you open your shopping cart with items inside and before going to payment, a notice at the bottom right states: “A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.” This is the first time our editors have seen of a notice like this (and we use Steam a lot), so it appears to be relatively new.

Last month California governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2426 into law, forcing digital marketplaces to make it clear to customers when they only purchase a license to access media. It will not apply to permanent offline downloads, only digital copies of video games, music, movies, TV shows or ebooks from an online storefront. Companies that fail to comply could face fines for false advertising if they don’t explain in clear language the limitations of a given digital purchase. The law followed situations like Ubisoft deleting The Crew from player’s libraries after the game’s servers shuttered.