Is Steam an entity in its own right?

Aloreth

Aloreth

Aloreth

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I dont know why but I actively avoid buying games in hardform now, if at all poss I will just buy it from steam. I love how I can get my games wherever I am.....

One question though, what happens if steam goes bankrupt? Is steam an independant financial entity? Does it have the backing of Valve? Do Valve have an obligation to keep it up and running? Should I be worried?
 
I definitely don't think you should be worried. I'm sure with all the games showing up on Steam, Valve are making enough money to keep going.

If they ever did go bankrupt I'm sure someone would buy them out so everything would stay online. By the time it does happen though, you probably won't care or won't be running an OS with compatibility with the games.
 
I don't have a specific link, but I remember reading in an interview someone at Valve was asked the same question. They said that if they ever went bankrupt they'd make sure to release a final update so all your games on Steam would no longer require Steam to run...so essentially there's nothing to worry about. Valve have everything covered even though it's very unlikely they'd go bankrupt in the forseeable future.
 
I remember reading an article from one of valves employee's about steam and how it has a built in unlocking feature of some sort, most likely an update that would let people download an unlocked copies of their games.

You would probabley get an email or some contact if it ever happens explaining you have x amount of days to download your copies.
 
Tom* said:
I don't have a specific link, but I remember reading in an interview someone at Valve was asked the same question. They said that if they ever went bankrupt they'd make sure to release a final update so all your games on Steam would no longer require Steam to run...so essentially there's nothing to worry about. Valve have everything covered even though it's very unlikely they'd go bankrupt in the forseeable future.
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Lol not just me then :cool:
 
Steam is a huge asset to Valve, so even if the parent company goes bankrupt, there won't be a shortage of potential buyers for Steam.
 
Azagoth said:
Wait until EA buy Steam and start charging for updates! ;)
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I don't see this happening, considering EA now have their own game download system, which I personally wouldn't touch with a bargepole with the possible exception of pushing it off a cliff face onto a pile of jagged rocks.

I think if anything serious happens, Valve will close down or sell off their own development studios and remain as an online publisher. But I doubt it will come to that, at leat not for a very long time.
 
IF ... IF valve go belly up and steam goes down with it... and no one with sense buys it. IF that happens...

Then you can pirate the games with a clear conciounce.
 
Steam is run under Valve now as a separate publisher. Look at the developers on there selling games through Steam, since it is profiting for every sale both for the developers and as a publishing fee, then I doubt it will ever come close to being bankrupt, and it it does will certainly receive a lot of support from third-parties making money through Steam.
 
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