Is It Possible To Transfer Games On Steam?

Darkwave · 3 Jun 2007 at 06:06

Hey guys,

I made a new Steam account as I am probably going to sell mine, too many games on it that I don't play anymore, but I just wanted to know if it's somehow possible to transfer a game between Steam accounts by de-listing it from the first one and re-entering the serial code in the second one.

If it is, how would I go about doing this?

Sincerely yours,
Ulfhedjinn.

PinkPig · 3 Jun 2007 at 08:04

Nope, you can't transfer games from one account to the other. It's also against Steam's terms and conditions to sell your account.

Darkwave · 3 Jun 2007 at 08:52

Good for them.

Looks like I'll be selling it.

Thanks for letting me know about the games being locked.

mosehn · 3 Jun 2007 at 09:16

what about steam backup , backup the games on the current account and then reloaded them to the new 1

Darkwave · 3 Jun 2007 at 09:18

mosehn said:
what about steam backup , backup the games on the current account and then reloaded them to the new 1

Would that work? It'd be nice if it does, but would it say my Half Life 2 key (for example) is tied to another account?

Borden · 3 Jun 2007 at 09:31

Ulfhedjinn said:
Would that work? It'd be nice if it does, but would it say my Half Life 2 key (for example) is tied to another account?

Yes it will. I think it will show the games in the games window but their status will be something like 'pre-loaded' and so you will be required to purchase it before you can play.

Darkwave · 3 Jun 2007 at 10:15

Thanks for the reply mark1. It looks like I'll be selling my original Steam account then and buying Half Life 2 for a second time, only in digital format instead of a DVD. Shouldn't have to go through all of this hassle to be honest.

As much as I love Steam and Valve in general, I feel pretty damn annoyed that they go to such lengths just to stop you selling on games you don't play anymore. I don't know about anyone else but I consider that a general consumer right that I should be able to exercise with anything I own.

Kezmo · 3 Jun 2007 at 11:44

Why are u selling an account just to open another 1 ?
Do old steam accounts sell for much ?

Darkwave · 3 Jun 2007 at 11:49

Kezmo said:
Why are u selling an account just to open another 1 ?
Do old steam accounts sell for much ?

Basically it's just full of games I don't play anymore, so I might as well sell it.

They don't sell for much, but I'd rather get some of my money back than have games I won't play again.

Surfer · 3 Jun 2007 at 11:56

so in a way buying games from steam isnt really buying its "leasing" them from valve?

Bizarre · 3 Jun 2007 at 13:16

To have a better chance of selling your steam account you'd have to give the buyer the email account to which steam is tied to (or at least that's what I did when I sold my steam account). Doing so will allow them to change both passwords so only they can access both accounts. Otherwise it would always be possible for you to login and change the password yourself, ie reclaim the account.

The best bet is to open a new googlemail account and then tie it to your steam account via the steam UI (file > settings > change contact email).

Ulfhedjinn said:
I feel pretty damn annoyed that they go to such lengths just to stop you selling on games you don't play anymore. I don't know about anyone else but I consider that a general consumer right that I should be able to exercise with anything I own.

I feel exactly the same way mate.

Ross1234 · 3 Jun 2007 at 14:04

sorry to sound stupid but what is steam?

Borden · 3 Jun 2007 at 14:34

It's a piece of software designed to make it easier to organise and launch your games. It's developed by Valve (who made half life 2) and automatically updates your games and allows you to buy more games through it. You have to create an account to use it and any games you buy or register are tied to that account.

Have a look around the website http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php

Darkwave · 3 Jun 2007 at 19:30

Surfer said:
so in a way buying games from steam isnt really buying its "leasing" them from valve?

Pretty much. I like Valve and I like Steam, but this one little issue bugs me, as I have the right/means/ability to sell on anything else that I own but not games I've bought on Steam (or other platforms like EA Link) without breaking the EULA by selling the account.

Bizarre said:
To have a better chance of selling your steam account you'd have to give the buyer the email account to which steam is tied to (or at least that's what I did when I sold my steam account). Doing so will allow them to change both passwords so only they can access both accounts. Otherwise it would always be possible for you to login and change the password yourself, ie reclaim the account.

Aye I would just change the password to 12345 and give them the email address, then they can change all the email addresses, passwords and secret questions themselves so that I can't get back in. Not that I'd try.

Would be nicer if there was simply an option in Steam to "repack" your CD key to re-activate on another account though as there's only Half life 2 I really want to keep.

Psyk · 3 Jun 2007 at 19:36

Ulfhedjinn said:
Pretty much. I like Valve and I like Steam, but this one little issue bugs me, as I have the right/means/ability to sell on anything else that I own but not games I've bought on Steam (or other platforms like EA Link) without breaking the EULA by selling the account.

Yeah that's one thing about Steam, you don't have many rights as a consumer. I think they can pretty much revoke your licence to play a game for almost any reason they like. That's what the Steam user agreement seems to say.

DampCat · 4 Jun 2007 at 08:45

I dont really see the issue to be honest. the only restriction that Steam poses is that you cannot give your game and CD key to someone else. I dont really think that's Valve trying to make more money than it is tryign to prevent copyright infringment. Which, let's be honest, it does. Steam is an excellent platform (although not without it's problems, nobody denies that) and as for "leasing" the games, how is that the case? Once you pay for the game you can re-download it as many times as you like. Effectively you own that game but instead of it being stored on a CD or DVD in your drawer, its stored on somebody elses bandwith, which is fine by me! Plus which Valve go out of their way to autmatically update yoru games for you, in the background so you dont notice. Has to be better than releasing a patch onto Fileplanet every 3 months which requires you to sign up for a whole bunch of spam then wait 20 minutes in a qeue so you can dowload the patch at 20k/sec :/

Darkwave · 4 Jun 2007 at 14:34

Yes DampCat, and I've said about three times now that I like Valve and Steam, but I just wish that I could sell-on old games that I don't play anymore like I can do with any of my games (barring EA Link games.)

div0 · 4 Jun 2007 at 15:05

I think the problem is that Steam tries to prevent multiple people playing the game after one person has bought it.

For example, in the past you used to be able to buy a game and then "lend" it to your friend(s), and they could copy it and play it and then give it back to you.

Steam tries to enforce 1 user per purchase.

For example, with steam you can log into your account on any machine in the world, and play your games. So what's to stop you telling your friends your Steam login info and then all sharing 1 account? Well, if you try that, then your account will almost certainly get banned, as Valve log all the IP's that the account is used on. If you use it on too many IP's in too short a period of time, then they assume that more than one person is using the account, and they ban that account.

At the moment if someone has their Steam account information "hacked" then it is possible (in theory) to prove your ownership of the game and Valve can reclaim your account for you. This very much relies on the fact that the owner of the STEAM account is the owner of the game (CD key). It is almost impossible to PROVE you own a Steam account, but if you can prove you own a particular game (photocopy of box with CD key) then you prove you own the Steam Account. But if games (CD keys) can be transferred, then there is no link between a CD key and a Steam Account and it becomes much harder to prove ownership of either. There is then less that Valve could do in the case of an Account being hacked. At best you could just prove that you HAD (at some point) owned a particular game, but how could you prove you hadn't sold it on and were now trying to "claim" it back?

Also any (VAC) banned Steam accounts, result in any associated CD keys also being banned (for other games). Which could be messy if Steam Accounts and CD keys aren't PERMANENTLY tied together.

I can see that the system is frustrating when you want to sell on an old game. But it does seem that (at least in theory) the current system allows a certain amount of protection to genuine owners, that they maybe wouldn't get if games could be moved between accounts.