Son wants to honor his late father’s Steam account, but the community warns: “Don’t tell Valve!”

0
2

A player wonders if he can use his late father’s Steam account. The community responds with overwhelming approval, but Valve would have a problem with that.

An emotional post on Reddit is currently causing quite a stir in the gaming community: A user asks whether it is morally acceptable to use his late father’s Steam account to honor his memory. The reactions are overwhelming, but they also highlight a harsh legal reality that many gamers are completely unaware of.

One last achievement for Dad

On June 15, 2025, a user named “ObjectiveSad5229” posted a personal and sensitive question on the r/Steam subreddit. His father, with whom he shared a passion for video games, passed away four years ago. Shortly before his death, he had recommended a game to his son.

Now the son is considering logging into his father’s Steam account to unlock all the achievements in that game for him. But he is struggling with himself: “I would love to do it, but at the same time, for some reason, it feels wrong to use his account.”

Morally wrong? Dead persons account
byu/ObjectiveSad5229 inSteam

The response to this question was huge and almost unanimously positive. With thousands of upvotes and hundreds of comments, the community encouraged the user in his plan. The prevailing opinion is clear:It’s a beautiful gesture of remembrance and his father would surely be proud.

One top comment sums up the sentiment of many: “He won’t use it anymore. It’s family. I can promise you he wouldn’t mind.” Another user, himself a father, adds: “As a father, I love the idea that my children will enjoy my games after I’m gone.”

Many commenters share similar personal stories and consider a game collection on Steam to be a modern family heirloom, comparable to a collection of books or movies.

One user recounts how he coped with the death of his father by completing a level in StarCraft 2 that his father had failed to complete for years: “If there is a heaven or some kind of life after death, I hope he got to see the cutscene.”

Valve’s strict terms of use

While the moral question was quickly resolved for the community, a sobering warning soon emerged:the legal side and Steam’s strict terms of use We asked a legal expert:

Numerous users urged the questioner not to contact Steam support or bring the matter to Valve’s attention. The reason lies in the Steam Subscriber Agreement, i.e. the terms and conditions that every user agrees to when creating an account.

This states that a Steam account and the associated game licenses are strictly personal and non-transferable. You do not purchase the games in the traditional sense, but rather acquire a license to use them. This license expires upon the death of the account holder. According to the current rules, there is no provision for the official inheritance of Steam accounts.

Several users report cases in which Steam accounts were blocked after it became known that the original owner had died and family members continued to use the account. “Do not contact support under any circumstances,” one user writes unequivocally. Another adds: “Steam will simply revoke the account completely as soon as they learn that the original owner has died.”

What the community advises

In light of this issue, users have developed a series of practical tips on how the son can honor his father’s memory without jeopardizing the account.

  • Use invisible mode:The most common tip is to log into the account and immediately set your online status to “invisible.” This way, you won’t scare any friends on your father’s friends list or raise suspicion that the account has been taken over.
  • Customize your profile:An alternative would be to carefully update your father’s profile description to inform friends about the situation and explain that a family member is continuing to use the account in good faith.
  • Steam Family Sharing:Some suggested using Steam’s family sharing feature. To do this, the son would have to log into his father’s account once and unlock his own account for the family library. This would allow him to play his father’s games on his own account. However, this has one major drawback: game progress and achievements would be saved to his own profile, not his father’s, which contradicts the user’s original wish.

While the moral question was quickly resolved for the Reddit community, the sobering legal side of the issue remains. But beyond Steam’s terms and conditions, we want to know what really matters to you: How do you view this from a moral standpoint? Would you be happy if your descendants inherited your game collection? Vote in our poll!