Steam will now warn customers at checkout that they're only buying a digital license to a game

Steam now shows customers a message to let them know that they're buying a license when making a purchase through the storefront, rather than any outright ownership. The change has been implemented internationally in response to new California legislation due to take effect next year.

When viewing a game in your Steam shopping cart, a message is now shown under the "Continue to payment" button. "A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam," it reads. A link underneath goes to the Steam Susbcriber Agreement, which explains the terms of the license in more detail.

The new California legislation, AB 2426, which was signed into law in September, is designed to warn customers of the potentially transitory nature of digital purchases. Storefronts cannot use terms such as "buy" or "purchase" without sufficient caveats explaining the nature of the agreement to customers.

Some digital game purchases are excluded, such as in instances where the game can be downloaded and played permanently offline. GOG, for example, which offers downloadable DRM-free executables for all games sold, doesn't need to offer any such caveats.

That prompted the storefront to do a good bit of trolling today. "Since checkout banners are trending, we're thinking of putting one up ourselves. Thoughts on this one?", they tweeted. The proposed checkout banner reads: "A purchase of a digital product on GOG grants you its Offline Installers, which cannot be taken away from you."

Typically when a game is removed from sale on Steam, it remains playable in the libraries of those who previously bought it. Other storefronts have removed games from libraries outright, however. Earlier this year, Ubisoft closed down The Crew, rendering the online racing game entirely unplayable, after which some players reported it had vanished from their Ubisoft Connect libraries.