this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2026
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[–] UnmetPlayer@lemmy.world 17 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

If only there was a worthy heir to inherit my pornhub subscription

[–] AGM@lemmy.ca 5 points 16 hours ago

The curse of being so busy building a legacy worth passing on that you never took time to have someone to pass it on to?

[–] Abyssian@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

It's not too late to start a box.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

A good start. We need a lot more of this.

An important one is passing on digital goods after the death of the store.

Maybe I want to pass a game to somebody else without me needing to die first?

Hell, why not even pass a game from my account on PSN to my Steam account or vice versa?

With legislation, much of this becomes reality. None of it is technically impossible. it's just nobody wants to do it. Publishers don't really care where you buy a game, they still got paid. The stores want to be the arbiters of all.

[–] groet@feddit.org 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

There is a caveat though with digital goods. The provider is incurring a cost so they naturally want to be the ones getting paid. If you buy the game on PSN, then transfer and download on steam, valve is loosing money while Sony got money but provided no service. The publisher doesn't care, the provider of the goods does very much.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Valve already allows you to buy a game elsewhere and get a Steam code though, so there's precedent there for how much it likely costs them (i.e. not much).

There is a limit that you're not allowed to sell codes directly cheaper than on Steam (which is fair enough), but most of my Steam library is from Humble Bundles and the like.

It's certainly not costing any of them 30% to provide downloads.

You could of course have fair use limits on the movement of your games, so you're not transferring them about just because you can't be arsed to go upstairs to your PC or whatever.

And not just games. Music and video should also have better ownership rights.

[–] groet@feddit.org 2 points 15 hours ago

I would bet humble bundles pays a fee to provide steam keys.

Every single game download costs valve ~0¢ but all of them together costs them millions.

The current system is not fair and reasonable to consumers. Allowing free transfers wouldn't be fair to the stores.

I for sure know which version I prefer, but I'm just saying there is a reasonable, good faith argument against free/unlimited transfers

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So I mean for most accounts I'm aware of you could just give someone your login credentials and you can practically change ownership (name, contact info, etc.)from the account.

Is this a bigger deal in China as accounts are tied to some form of ID?

[–] frigge@lemmy.ml 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

valve is pretty famous for not allowing this in steam. I mean you “can” do this but i am pretty sure it goes against their TOS. AFAIK they are even pretty explicit that if you die your game licenses become invalid

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 2 points 18 hours ago

My kid can still play my tabletop Catan game after I die.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

It's almost like buying things means you own them.

[–] JokeDeity@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

I've legit thought about this a lot. I'd like someone to be able to take over my Steam account given I have over a thousand purchased games on there.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I like how every gamer has a Steam library full of games they'll never play, but thinks that someone else might want to play them some day. It's like the modern day equivalent of a grandparent's attic.

I mean, my brother and I use Steam Family Sharing to access each others’ games. It’s a really generous policy nowadays. And if one of us died, I can see how being able to pass those games on to the other would be nice.

[–] JokeDeity@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

You're not wrong, but at the same time, there's that chance. I like older games, I would have been grateful to get a library like mine, lol, maybe someone else will.

[–] ArmchairAce1944@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago

Exactly. It is personal property and must be treated as such.

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm planning to put my Steam account details in the same envelope as my will and bequeath it to my kids lol. Generational games library

[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just don't tell Valve about it.

https://ohepic.com/steam-inheritance-why-you-cant-transfer-your-game-library/

This is why I always check to see if a game is listed on GoG before buying on steam. Even if it costs 15% more, it still feels worth it.

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yep that's why I said planning to ;). There's no practical way they can tell I'm dead, assuming people don't try to change the credit card on file or address or anything like that. Worst case scenario it's not that big a deal anyway. Even if they only get to play for like 6 months that's still pretty good in my books.

Things are in a funny state huh? I wonder what the economic impact of so much digital value disappearing into the void will be... Normally you can pass on stuff like DVD collections and other assets, but increasingly we seem to own nothing and assets die with us.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The credit card company is going to cancel your card once it finds out. They have access to your Social Sec I'd and credit score. They'll know once your taxes are filed, if not sooner.

[–] busted_Anoose@aussie.zone 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

theyre not going to check shit.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 1 points 18 hours ago

You think credit card companies are in the business of leaving cards bringing to dead people open? People who can no longer be held liable to pay the debts that are accrued?

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah that makes sense. But would they send a letter to Valve or something?

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No, the credit card would get cancelled. Then if anyone wanted to buy anything else on the account, would have to put their own on it, which has their name.

I guess if no one did that, it might be overlooked. Maybe. Honestly, who knows with how much info mega companies have managed to collect on everyone and distribute to anyone willing to pay.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 22 hours ago

Tbf I've made a payment on my account with another person's card.

I was broke and friends wanted to play a game with me and since I was already hanging out with them in person, rather than gifting the game, my friend just generated a one-time use card in Revolut and I paid using that.

Account still there.

Name on the card is not conclusive proof of death by any means.

[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

You could get around the named card issue with gifting games to the account. Not sure which would stand out the most.

[–] nevyn@slrpnk.net -1 points 21 hours ago

Sounds more like you need a time machine, and a clue.

Make sure you erase your sim save files before death

[–] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 81 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is really interesting

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 day ago

You should be able to sell all your purchases.

[–] rafoix@lemmy.zip 33 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Every digital storefront will do an update that will “unfortunately” be incompatible with the legacy media every 10-20 years.

[–] scops@reddthat.com 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Steam could, but it would be an extremely dangerous decision. One of their biggest competitive advantages is they they break users out of the console generation gaps.

Why buying a Steam Deck with all my old games (to say nothing of emulators) was more appealing than a Switch 2.

[–] creamfresh@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Every store front, you sure? How will GOG or itch.io accomplish this if I downloaded the games into a private offline storage?

[–] rafoix@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

I really only meant the big corporate ones. The niche ones would continue being awesome.

[–] Smaile@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago

Kinda ballar ngl

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

Hopefully, I will someday be able to donate my library to a...library. While most of my catalog probably won't interest people, there is still a small chance of passing down my culture to future generations.