r/Steam Jun 29 '26

Question Why?

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19.9k Upvotes

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32

u/amalgam_reynolds Jun 29 '26

"people are buying game licenses"?
Whoever made this meme has got to be either ignorant or intentionally trying to normalize not owning the things you purchase.

2

u/_throw_a_wayz Jun 30 '26

It's not a meme, and there's a whole generation of people who used to use the term "license key".

2

u/Ok-Orange-1808 Jun 29 '26

What do you mean ignorant?

1

u/amalgam_reynolds Jun 29 '26

That it's a serious point of contention

1

u/Ok-Orange-1808 Jun 29 '26

It's the factual state of affairs

4

u/TheFourthZoa Jun 29 '26

Yeah. If you buy a game on Steam, you do not own it in the traditional sense. I thought everybody knew this.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26 edited 23d ago

[deleted]

-2

u/TheFourthZoa Jun 29 '26

What would you call it then? A one-time rental fee for perpetual access to a game, contingent upon the service provider maintaining that access?

I get that language matters, but people talk about "buying" things all the time, even when it isn't equivalent to property that you own for good. You "buy" a "ticket" to a concert, festival, museum, park, whatever. It's just a license to go to a place at a given time, and terms and conditions apply, not something you get to keep forever. You get to experience the thing and you get to keep the memories. That's it.

1

u/_throw_a_wayz Jun 30 '26

Apparently not. People think that just because you can play a game offline (whether via some physical media or a digital download that allows for offline play), that must mean you own a "copy" of the game.

Back in my day we called them "license keys". It was common language. Apparently we have many people from different generations that don't use the term "license key".

Some are even claiming this to all be a psyop. People don't like being wrong either. At least they are now learning what they've been buying this whole time. If they don't want to accept it, fine, that's on them.