You paid for the game, it is in your library, and you can play it. It feels owned. But digital games are almost always licensed rather than sold outright — and that distinction is not just wording.
License, not property
When you buy a digital game, you are generally buying a licence to play it under the store's terms — not a transferable piece of property like a disc on a shelf. The game's terms of service spell this out. In day-to-day use the difference is invisible: you install, you play, nothing feels different. The difference shows up at the edges.
Where the distinction matters
It matters when something changes. A licence is tied to an account and a platform, so a digital game generally cannot be resold or handed to someone else the way a physical copy can. If an account is lost or banned, the access to those games goes with it. And the licence depends on the platform continuing to operate.
What happens if a store closes
This is the question people ask most. If a digital storefront shuts down, what happens to the games bought there depends entirely on that platform's design and promises. Some platforms let already-downloaded games keep working offline; some tie access to servers that would go away. There is no universal guarantee — it is set by each platform's terms, which is exactly why the terms are worth reading before building a large library.
Why it is debated
Digital ownership is an active debate. Players and preservation advocates argue that "buying" should mean something durable, and point to delisted games and shutdown services as proof of the risk. Storefronts argue the licence model is what makes digital distribution and its conveniences possible. Both sides are describing the same trade-off from different ends.
The takeaway
A digital game is a licence to play, governed by the platform's terms — not property you own outright. It usually cannot be resold, it is tied to an account, and its long-term availability depends on the platform. None of that means digital games are a bad deal — it means it is worth knowing what "buy" actually means before you build a library on it.