A user posted that his father was seriously ill, but his Steam account could not be inherited due to platform regulations.

Recently, foreign Reddit forum user Top-Flight5486 posted that his father suffered from cancer and was told by doctors that he only had a few months to live. In the past five years, his father has accumulated a large number of games through the Steam platform, and these games have become an important spiritual support in his life. The user pointed out that his father wanted to leave these important digital legacies to his family. However, according to Steam's relevant regulations, accounts and purchased games cannot be transferred, which means that after his father's death, these digital assets may disappear.

According to Steam’s terms of service, user accounts and purchased games cannot be transferred, so after the death of his father, all related digital content will not be inherited by his family. The poster expressed confusion about this and questioned why physical books, records and other property can be passed down, but digital assets are restricted. Many netizens suggested that he continue to use his father's account by inheriting the login information, but the user believed that this was not a real solution. He stressed the need for a regulated inheritance method because it would not be appropriate to keep something precious by breaking the rules.

Previously, some users tried to contact Valve to discuss the possibility of account inheritance, but the response they received was that accounts and games are not transferable. In fact, discussions surrounding Steam's digital legacy have been going on for years. For example, in 2024, some users also asked Valve about account inheritance and received the same "non-transferable" reply. Since the launch of the Steam platform in 2003, more than 20,000 games have been released through it. Now, how to deal with the digital asset management issues behind these purchase systems seems to be gradually becoming a real challenge.