Valve: Accept New Steam Subscriber Agreement Or…

Earlier this month Valve updated the Steam subscriber agreement to include language that prevents customers with disputes from filing lawsuits against the company, and instead forces them to agree to the decisions of a Valve-paid-for “independent” arbitrator.

As bad as that is, we are now getting reports that users are being told that they have to either submit to the new terms or have their accounts permanently deactivated, and in the process lose access to all the content they purchased through Steam.

The news of this anti-consumer tactic comes from a Steam support message to a user who asked what would happen if they “don’t wish to accept” the updated terms. The Steam support tech responded saying:

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

We can permanently deactivate your account for you, remove any stored payment information and clear your Steam profile.

Disabling your account will not result in a refund, as explained in the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

The games in your account will not be accessible for future use. It is impossible to make your games available once your account has been deactivated and your information deleted or archived. Once we have permanently deactivated the account, we will not be able to reactivate the account upon a future request.

Please let me know if you would like to proceed.

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Regardless of how this ends up working out, this is a good example of why gamers should not be excited for the upcoming all-digital distribution revolution, that video game publishers are pushing for. Often you are not buying a game, but simply a license to play a game. The problem with that (as evidenced by Steam‘s new subscriber agreement) is that the license can be taken away from you, at any time, for any reason, and without compensation.

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MasterKromm said:

C)Perhaps this is just the beginning of how valve will operate if and when they become a monopoly.

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MasterKromm said:

^ There are several issues…

A) Steam has unilaterally changed the terms of their EULA, which will retroactively affect people who only agreed with/to their original EULA by forcing them to sign the new one. It is a low blow to anyone who has a large library/collection of games on their service bought prior to the change.

B)Why should people have to go to the trouble of suing anyone to secure their access to guaranteed/protected consumer rights? Sure the courts will likely side with the consumers, but how many gamers are willing to risk the money and time to win in court? I can't justify the headache such an endeavor would invariably cause, not for ~$1000 worth games.

C)Perhaps this is just the beginning of how valve will operate if and when they become a monopoly. Who knows, if they become large enough maybe they'll have the capacity to form their own lobby group… In a free market the end game for any large corporation is to limit the free market.

Honestly, this is an underhanded move by a corporation simply because they feel they can get away with it… Valve isn't some messianic engine for PC gaming or DD, despite what many of it's users think. They're a corp in business to make money, and ultimately they will abuse their position to make more of it and/or limit expenses that affect the bottom line.

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blatantninja said:

If Steam came out with this new notice and said "You have two options, accept this and keep using Steam as normal, or reject it and while you will retain access to the content you have already purchased, you will not be able to add new content to your account", that would be absolutely fine.

They didn't. They said "Accept this or lose access to everything. End of story."

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azraelck said:

There is actually a law in the US waiting commitee screw ups in congress which would make mandatory defraud the consumer clauses like this illegal. H.R. 1837 IIRC. For other countries, check your own laws.

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Dear [Senator/Representative],
As a constituent in [state/district], I would like to bring to your attention a serious matter concerning Mandatory Arbitration Clauses that are creeping into the End-User License Agreements (EULA’s) of many digital distribution and cloud services.
As you are likely aware, digital distribution and cloud services are revolutionizing the way consumers purchase and use software on their computers, game consoles, tablets and smart phones. For the most part, this seems to be an unregulated area. While I am a proponent of the free market, I believe that appropriate protections are necessary to protect consumers and I ask you to take action in this case.
Many digital distribution and cloud services companies, including Microsoft, Sony and most recently Valve, have amended their EULA’s to require consumers to agree to binding arbitration for any dispute and sign away any right to class action lawsuits. While I recognize the right of companies to change their terms for future purchases, the problem is that these companies are applying these new EULA terms to previous purchases, effectively holding the consumer hostage.
For instance, Valve’s digital distribution platform, Steam, requires a user to log into Steam to activate their games, apply software patches, and install new content from the publisher among other things. Some games even require the user to be logged into Steam during the entire time the software is running. Many users have spent thousands of dollars building up large game catalogues on the Steam platform.
When Value pushed out their new EULA recently, it required users to agree to it or have their accounts closed. Even the banks are not allowed to do this. When a bank changes the terms of a credit card for instance, the customer has the right to reject the change and any existing balance will remain under the old terms. The customer loses the right to do additional business (such as make new balance transfers or charges), but the existing business is unaffected.
This should be the same model for digital distribution and cloud services and it is up to the government to enforce this. There is no reason that a consumer should be forced to give up thousands of dollars worth of software purchases simply because the provider has changed the terms and the customer does not wish to sign their rights away.
Digital distribution and cloud services are already a significant part of the software market and in the next few years will likely dominate it. I implore you protect consumer rights by putting an end to these retroactively applied abusive EULA’s.
Sincerely,

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