Steam checkout banner clarifies you don’t own the game you buy — GOG takes a jab at Steam, saying it gives users offline installers that cannot be taken away

Steam checkout page screenshot.

Steam updated its shopping cart page with a banner under the ‘Continue to Payment’ button that says you only get a license for the game you’re buying. According to a Reddit Thread that discussed this change, the company made this change apparently due to a new California law. AB 2426 states that a seller of digital goods cannot use “the terms buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good.” Furthermore, it says sellers must provide consumers with “a clear and conspicuous statement” when purchasing.

Since Steam only sells licenses to the games on its platform and not permanent ownership, it must implement this change to avoid legal trouble in California. Because of this, it added this small banner on the ‘Your Shopping Cart’ page, which says, “A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam.”