Video games these days have become an internal part of our lives. Starting from every in-game achievement to game libraries, every aspect of this great boon will forever be etched in our memories. But have you ever wondered what would happen to all of your games, achievements, progress, and records after you leave this world?
In the United States, after the death of a person, his gaming accounts like Steam, Epic, and many others don’t get inherited by his heirs. That means all of his games and in-game progress might get lost forever. However, things are going to change pretty soon in Europe.
Your game libraries from various stores like Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Epic Games, and many more will be soon saved from extinction after your death. The European Law Institute is currently working on a project to develop laws in Europe that will guide how digital inheritance of your social media accounts, game libraries, etc., is handled.
An exciting fact is that this project is already in the development phase, and model laws are being drafted, too. We hope to see the finishing of this project by October 2025.
One of the personnel from that board of the European Law Institute stated about the inheritance of game libraries and in-game accounts:
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
There’s even a recording of their online meeting on YouTube. In this meeting, Blizzard Entertainment was specifically called out due to the company’s strict Terms of Use (TOS).
According to the TOS, “no title or ownership with respect to the platform or the games is being transferred or assigned.” That means no title can become a subject of inheritance, and the company restricts 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.
A few months ago, there was a controversy regarding the digital distribution of game libraries in Steam, which was also on one’s own will. Fans wondered what would happen to in-game possessions and items if someone died.
the word is out – you take your steam games with you to the grave IG, lol. 💀
byu/auhearts inSteam
As expected, Steam was reluctant to explain anything further about it and stated that accounts and games are non-transferable.
However, this is not the case with another popular PC gaming platform, GOG. About transferring gaming accounts, this is what the GOG spokesperson Zuzanna tells Ars:
In general, your GOG account and GOG content is not transferable. However, if you can obtain a copy of a court order that specifically entitles someone to your GOG personal account, the digital content attached to it, taking into account the EULAs of specific games within it, and that specifically refers to your GOG username or at least email address used to create such an account, we’d do our best to make it happen.
Frankly speaking, the biased rule of encroaching on the gaming assets of a person after he dies is unjust to his life-long efforts at gaming. Not only the money, that person would have given so much to that gaming library, which would be better to pass on to his heir, just like any of his other materialistic possessions. Now, as The European Law Institute is developing some new laws, it will be interesting to see what big company heads like Jim Ryan, Phil Spencer, etc. will do in the future.
What’s your thought on this? Share your opinions with us in the comment section.
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