Steam seems to have started placing a notification in the shopping cart that there are purchases in its storefront for license only Not a game, according to a notice discovered by Engadget. This appears to be an attempt by the company to pre-empt the new California law will come next year it forces companies to acknowledge that buyers don’t own digital content.
When you open your shopping cart with items in it and before proceeding to checkout, a notice is displayed at the bottom right: “Purchasing a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.” This is the first time our editors have seen a notification like this (and we use Steam a lot), so it seems relatively new.
Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2426 into law, forcing digital marketplaces to make it clear to customers when they purchase a media-only license. This will not apply to permanent offline downloads, only digital copies of video games, music, movies, TV shows or e-books from an online storefront. Companies that don’t require it can face fines for false advertising if they don’t clearly explain the limitations of a particular digital purchase. The law followed situations like Ubisoft is deleted Crew From the player’s libraries after the game’s servers are shut down.
