How to sell a game

mollymoo · 13 Feb 2010 at 12:35

Basically ive bought MW2 and want to sell it, if I uninstall it from my pc which shows it as uninstalled on my steam account is that enough to make it re-sellable or do I need to do anything more. Seems like a daft question but I've never had to deal with steam before. Any pointers would be appreciated.

cplhardnut · 13 Feb 2010 at 12:38

Once the game is attached to your steam account i dont think you can sell the game cd as the cd key has been bound to your steam account.

Darg · 13 Feb 2010 at 12:40

You could try gifting it to someone elses steam account but that's it I think. The CD key is essentially useless now.

That's one of the reasons game shops don't sell on second hand PC games anymore.

ic1male · 13 Feb 2010 at 12:46

This game is impossible to sell on. It's tied to a Steam account. You can't transfer that licence to anyone else at all. It's yours to keep forever, whether you like it or not.

mollymoo · 13 Feb 2010 at 12:54

Bah I'll keep it then, just seen quite a few people selling it on the bay though and wondered how they were doing it, seems more trouble than it's worth.

Thanks anyway.

ordinaryjoe · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:25

If you don't have any other games on the steam account, is there anything to stop you from just selling the account?

ic1male · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:27

ordinaryjoe said:
If you don't have any other games on the steam account, is there anything to stop you from just selling the account?

You'd be breaching the Steam subscriber agreement then resulting in it possibly getting closed.

tibbsey · 13 Feb 2010 at 13:39

ic1male said:
You'd be breaching the Steam subscriber agreement then resulting in it possibly getting closed.

Sell the game and include a *FREE!!* Steam account.

Akempster · 18 Feb 2010 at 12:29

Game stores Ltd

Hi, i currently work for Game stores Ltd. I can say that you cannot sell on the majority of PC games due to the authentication key which is overwritten when the game is installed. Some games will allow for reinstillation to the same computer up to three times but that is dependant on each game.

to sum up you cannot sell on a PC game anymore as the authentication code gets deleted off of the disk making it unusable after first installation.

Also, as a side note, the place where you get your games is unlikely to take your PC games back once unsealed unless the game has a fault.

hope this helps.

rsatd · 18 Feb 2010 at 12:32

Darg said:
That's one of the reasons game shops don't sell on second hand PC games anymore.

Did not know that, was wondering where the second hand section gone to

anything I don't mind · 18 Feb 2010 at 12:42

you can sell it with the steam login details and then the person can change the email address and password on the steam account.

alternatively what you can do is get the cdkey out the registry and sell that.

Ill take the cd key and steam account if you are not using it cause i want to play mw2 mp

actually i have the game just no cdkey so if you want to give me the cdkey and uninstall it from steam. then i can give you something in return.

iviv · 18 Feb 2010 at 12:56

groen said:
alternatively what you can do is get the cdkey out the registry and sell that.

Ill take the cd key and steam account if you are not using it cause i want to play mw2 mp

actually i have the game just no cdkey so if you want to give me the cdkey and uninstall it from steam. then i can give you something in return.

Did you read any of this thread?

The key is tied to the steam account. Nothing he does to his computer will change that. He sells that key, whoever recieves it will get a 'cd-key in use' error.

valve90210 · 18 Feb 2010 at 12:58

Akempster said:
to sum up you cannot sell on a PC game anymore as the authentication code gets deleted off of the disk making it unusable after first installation.

Can you explain this in more detail please, when you say gets deleted off the disk, what disk do you mean, the CD? If so, how on earth is that supposed to work?

Dave**** · 18 Feb 2010 at 13:00

Akempster said:
the authentication code gets deleted off of the disk making it unusable after first installation

WHAT?! How does something get deleted off a read only source?

Surely it gets deleted off a list of CDkeys that the developer/publisher has online somewhere so that key cannot be used again to activate.

Please explain with source to boot.

iviv · 18 Feb 2010 at 13:11

Missed Akempster's post, but that's total Bullocks.

Tefal · 18 Feb 2010 at 14:08

Akempster said:
Hi, i currently work for Game stores Ltd. I can say that you cannot sell on the majority of PC games due to the authentication key which is overwritten when the game is installed.

to sum up you cannot sell on a PC game anymore as the authentication code gets deleted off of the disk making it unusable after first installation.

BAHAHAHAHA.

No.

neil3k · 18 Feb 2010 at 14:10

Akempster said:
Hi, i currently work for Game stores Ltd. I can say that you cannot sell on the majority of PC games due to the authentication key which is overwritten when the game is installed. Some games will allow for reinstillation to the same computer up to three times but that is dependant on each game.

Typical game employees knowledge tbh

reflux · 18 Feb 2010 at 14:10

Hahah, lol @ the 'Game' employee - way to go confusing people. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Cuchulain · 18 Feb 2010 at 14:11

He works for Game, what more did you expect?

unknownsock · 18 Feb 2010 at 14:15

Well thats a lie, i always install my own games on other computers for test purposes when building rigs etc.

And i have probably installed all my games 5+ times.

I know securom has a limit of 5 installs on seperate computers for some games.
Although ive never encountered this yet.