Buying video games: do you really own what you buy?

Here is a truth that still surprises many gamers: whether you buy a game on disc or by download, you never become the owner of the work. The game, as a creative work, remains the property of its rightsholders. But it's important to precisely distinguish what each format actually gives you:

• In physical format, you become the owner of the physical medium: this copy is yours, and the exhaustion of the distribution right notably allows you to resell it or lend it.
• In digital format, you mainly acquire a contractual right of access or use, a license, whose transferability is not currently recognized for games under French case law.

In both cases, certain features may additionally depend on accounts, updates, or servers.

The nature of the license

In digital format, you mainly acquire a contractual right of use rather than a physical medium. This does not mean this right is worthless or freely revocable: its scope depends on the contract, but also on mandatory consumer protection rules. This right is defined by the End User License Agreement (EULA) and, on platforms, by the Terms of Service.

The contracts governing purchase and use

A game purchase can be governed by several legally linked contracts: the seller's terms of sale, the account or platform terms, the publisher's EULA, game-specific terms, and sometimes a subscription. None of these documents should be examined in isolation. You need to determine which one was presented before payment, which one governs the right of use, and which one the publisher claims to modify afterward. These regularly contain clauses allowing access to the game to be cut off, the rules to be changed after the fact, or prohibiting what the law itself permits (such as reselling the physical copy).

What this changes for you

Understanding what you actually buy is not a minor detail: it's what explains why a digital game can become unplayable (server shutdown), disappear from a catalog if its download is also withdrawn, or be impossible to resell. But this does not mean you have no rights: European law regulates these licenses and deems unbalanced clauses null and void.

To learn more: what is an EULA? · usus, abusus, fructus: what ownership actually means · law versus terms of service: which one wins?