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“if you can obtain a copy of a court order...we’ll do our best to make it happen" Unlike Steam, Good Old Games claims they are willing to transfer accounts to entitled parties after a user's death (x.com)
submitted 4 weeks ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[-] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago

A probate court validating a will isn't a court order is the thing.

For both companies, they agreed to provide you access to the titles in exchange for money. You can't generally will a service to someone else. It's why things like bank accounts get crazy weird with estates (weird for anyone other than a banker or lawyer). We've had a very long time to work out how we handle it. The money in the account is an asset owned by the estate. It's a "thing" that you can will. The account itself is owned by the estate, but it can't be willed because it's an agreement between the bank and the deceased.
When the estate is being handled, only the person managing it can access the bank account, and then they move the money to the accounts of the person who gets the money, even if it's at the same bank.

Games in your game library aren't assets like money is. They're non-transferable licenses. A physical disk is an asset.

We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'license') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This license is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this license in some situations, which are explained later on.

https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog

Their user agreement is particularly approachable, and includes nice explanations next to the sections.

This is whole thing is really a case of valve being very explicit about a significant drawback of digital assets to avoid confusion (their support has clearly had to address this situation before 😔). Gog is answering a press question being asked in response to the explicit reply from valve, so of course they're going to avoid saying "our policy is the same".

If it were routinely transferable via normal estate transfer, they wouldn't need to specify the need for a court order, or that the installers are drm free so they couldn't revoke access. If it went to an estate, the account would transfer automatically with the estate like every other tangible good.

this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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