Steam already gives you the option to backup game data. Start burning discs, or get an external hard drive if you want a physical copy.
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Those backups do not restore without a connection to the Steam servers.
Steam client verifies how much of the backed up data matches the data available for download before restoring the backed up data.
So, Steam client's backups are useless if the download servers go down. If those servers stay up, you can download from the servers anyway.
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Yep - that's why I have 4,561.89 GB of files downloaded.
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Lol they are in the worst shape, if anybody goes they are first in line.
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tell that to the people who bought hmv giftcards. they essentially prepaid for a purchase and that money and their items got claimed as assets to be sold and used to pay off creditors. the cards were declared void a week after the big push to "sell as many giftcards as you can for christmas" the customer is always last
also I think the preorder people got screwed too, not sure.
(edit- looked it up on google, adding this bit: I mean yeah, when they reopened they said they'll honor them(for a limited time) but thats only cause they reopened.)
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I have read in the past that Gabe & tech support have mentioned to people that they have some idea/method of allowing people access to most of their games if Valve ever disappears. Not sure how viable this will be with all the copyrights, but it might be possible if they remove drm and release some of the games they have control of for free/opensource to allow network access.
Valve is in a good position so this is unlikely to happen for a long time, but at the same inevitable in a few decades.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/18mzcn/i_asked_steam_support_what_happens_to_my_games_if/
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yes it is, you hold a license associate with a specific key of the game not the one you pirate. Also I like your profile picture, not many people I know watch that show =D
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Once Valve can not uphold their part of the contract (allow me to use the license i've "subscribed" to) nor offer a full refund, they can't keep the license for themselves... especially in the EU, where once you purchase a license you are (or at least you should be) entitled to keep or resell it as you want.
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What the licence/TOS stated and what is legal is quite different. If you are accused of pirating something, and you can produce proofs that you actually own a Steam license, it's highly improbable that the company will still sue you and even in that case chances that you're eventually found guilty are next to 0 (they still got your money).
Anyway, Steam is way too big to fail without consequences. I mean, it can still fail, but it will affect so many people that the license problem will be considered.
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What you want to be legal and what the law actually is are two very different things.
In every country in the world it would still be illegal. You might hope to get a reduced sentence under those circumstances, but there is loads of corporate pressure in the opposite direction. The courts have already upheld that breaking DRM, even when that is the only option to get the content you own but can no longer access because of server closers is illegal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management#Obsolescence
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I'd buy a massive HDD and download everything, because I assume we'd be warned first if such a thing was ever to happen, it wouldn't just shut down randomly
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imagine the massive download rate at that time...
the porn industry goes down for months and no hats are purchased during those time to ease the internet's traffic
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So the end of Steam would be the end of the internet :O
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Could be worse, could be the US government buying Bank of America which bought Disney that bought EA which bought Valve and PETA.
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EA would never be able to buy Steam since they might have to demolish either Steam or Origin to enthrone the other as the supreme king of digital game distributors.
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OriSteam makes its debut. Millions of heads explode. Typical Tuesday.
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Hah.. yea.. I remember them saying that on the old steam forums due to a lot of fear people started to have about that due to a company falling not long before that answer.
Though I think you are right.. and it is part of the reason why at some point I want to install all of the games I have. At the very least have them on dvd or something stored.. ya know? ( .. dang it.. Final Fantasy 10 popped in my head.. )
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I'm not sure that's the sort of resolution Gaben and his buddies were offering though :)
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I vaguely remember Valve saying something along these lines.
So, are we to believe that a significant amount of cash has been ring-fenced by Valve in order to pay for these banks of servers which whill be required in order to store and distribute all of the existing games on Steam to its multi-million strong userbase?
Any such funds would need to be held in an entirely separate company to protect the money from any bankruptcy proceedings or other claims, should the worst happen...
As you say, it all sounds pretty unconvincing.
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Either someone else would chip in and buy the company or they "sell out" and sell some of their shares with Microsoft or some other company, or go DRM-Free and have you play your library somehow, maybe by using another service.
All keys transferred to EA Origin. =D
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Some other company would buy them and continue working as it is.
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If valve went bankrupt someone must likely would buy steam off them.
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IF valve will go bankrupt .. not very likely but never say never, there will be probably be a company buying them up. probably microsoft or .. sighs .. disney... anywho Steam is very popular and will not "go under" soon. But in the freak chance it does go belly up: install all games on HD thats the safest bet.
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Seriously, what would happen? I know they still make a shitload of money annually but shit happens...
This is me paranoid after a food company that made the best ramen in my country just went bankrupt and there's almost zero chance of me eating their delicious food again ;_;
Some might say that Valve is like a giant in the Industry. Well giants do fall at times. Look at Sierra! Nobody thought it would go down like that :(
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