Picture this: a loved one has just passed away. They had accumulated hundreds of games on Steam — years of purchases, sometimes thousands of euros invested. You try to recover access to the account, or merge their library into yours. Valve's answer is unambiguous: not possible. Neither merging accounts nor transferring ownership is allowed. Not even after death.

This isn't an edge case. With Steam libraries potentially worth several thousand euros, the question of gaming succession has become a genuine digital legacy issue — and very few people think about the answer in advance.

What Steam's Terms of Service actually say

Steam's Terms of Service are explicit on this point. They expressly prohibit sharing, selling or transferring your account or your games to any third party. This rule applies without exception:

"You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorized by Valve."

In other words, even giving a family member access to your library is technically a violation of the Terms of Service. And this prohibition doesn't disappear when you die — if anything it applies even more strictly, since no one can "authorise" anything on your behalf.

Valve provides no succession procedure. Unlike some platforms — Google with its Inactive Account Manager or Apple with its Legacy Contact programme — Steam has no official mechanism for transferring an account to an heir. This is a problem found across online accounts generally — Steam is simply one of the most striking cases in terms of financial value.

The real reason: you never owned your games

Behind this policy lies a legal reality that few buyers appreciate at checkout: when you buy a game on Steam, you're not buying a game. You're buying a licence to use it.

This distinction matters enormously. A physical object — a book, a vinyl record, a retro game cartridge — belongs to you. You can lend it, resell it second-hand, bequeath it in your will. A digital licence, by contrast, is strictly personal. It is tied to your account by name, and can be revoked by the publisher or platform for a range of reasons.

From a legal standpoint, you cannot bequeath what you don't own. Steam games fall into the category of digital assets that look like property but are not, legally speaking. This rule applies in your lifetime — and even more so after your death.

Where does the law stand?

The situation is not favourable to heirs. Inheritance law allows the transmission of assets — not contractually non-transferable rights of use. And that is precisely what your Steam licences are: personal, non-transferable rights of use under the Terms of Service.

No court has to date compelled Steam to transfer an account to heirs. Attempts have been made in the United States without notable success. The broader direction of European law (notably via GDPR and evolving case law on digital assets) is moving slowly, but not quickly enough to resolve this problem in the near term.

For more on the general legal framework, see our article Digital Succession Law: Your Rights and Obligations.

What can you actually do?

The situation looks blocked — but there are a few options, each with their own limitations.

Enable Steam Family Sharing. The Family Sharing feature lets you share your library with up to five people. This is the official solution to put in place while you're alive, before any incident. It doesn't solve the post-mortem problem (sharing depends on your account remaining active), but it ensures your loved ones have access to your library for as long as the account isn't closed.

Prepare the transmission of your credentials. This is where preparation makes all the difference. Passing on your Steam login, password, and two-factor authentication backup codes to a trusted person is technically prohibited by the Terms of Service — but it's also the only realistic way to give them a chance of accessing your account after your death.

The practical risk: Valve can detect a login from an unfamiliar device or location and lock the account. That's why how you transmit this information matters as much as transmitting it at all. A sticky note, an unprotected file, or a plain-text message are fragile and insecure. You need to choose the right person — see our guide on how to choose the right recipient — and the right method.

Use EchoPass to plan this transmission. EchoPass is built exactly for this scenario. You compose an encrypted message containing your Steam credentials (login, password, 2FA recovery codes), designate your recipient, and EchoPass automatically sends it to them if you stop checking in. No one can read the message before it's triggered — not your loved one, not EchoPass. And you can update your credentials at any time if you change your password.

The difference between leaving an envelope in a drawer no one will find, and having a reliable system that acts at the right moment.

Accept the loss and plan for it. For future purchases, some players now deliberately choose physical editions (boxes, cartridges) precisely because they are transferable. It's an increasingly conscious choice in response to the digital licence model.

Steam: a symptom of a broader problem

Steam is not an isolated case. The same logic applies to virtually every digital content platform: PlayStation Store, Xbox/Microsoft Store, Nintendo eShop, Epic Games Store, but also films on Prime Video or Apple TV+, Kindle books, and digital subscriptions of all kinds. All of these rest on personal licences, not on transferable property.

The problem extends beyond gaming too: your social media accounts, cloud-stored photos, and Spotify playlists are all assets your loved ones could be suddenly cut off from. The cumulative value of all these licences can represent thousands of euros in a household.

That's why your digital asset inventory must clearly distinguish what is transferable (a bank login, an email account, a domain name) from what is not (your Steam games, films bought online) — so your loved ones understand the situation without a painful surprise.

Prepare what can be passed on — now

Your Steam library probably won't survive your death. But everything else can be prepared: your important passwords, access to your essential accounts, your documents, and your personal messages.

The right approach? Work through a digital succession checklist so nothing gets missed, and use a dedicated tool to secure the transmission. EchoPass lets you store your passwords and credentials in encrypted form, designate loved ones as recipients, and schedule automatic delivery if you stop responding to your check-ins — whether after an accident, incapacity, or death.

Including your Steam credentials, if you want to give your loved one a real chance of accessing your library.

Your games may not cross time. But your words can.